Spanish multinational bank BBVA has signed a deal to establish a revenue structure for a new thermal energy storage (TES) technology demonstration project.
The bank has signed an agreement with Malta Iberia, the regional subsidiary of US TES startup Malta Inc., to support the demonstration of Malta’s so-called ‘pumped heat storage’ technology in Puertollano, Spain.
Announced on Monday (16 June), the agreement establishes a revenue structure for the 14MW long-duration energy storage (LDES) project. It will be based on a technology that Malta Inc. claims can enable cost-effective energy storage for applications requiring anything from 8-hour to 200-hour (or about eight-day) durations.
The technology converts electricity into heat and stores the energy in molten salt. Simultaneously, electricity is converted into cooling, which is then stored in VATs of a liquid similar to antifreeze.
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As the system discharges, a heat engine which runs off the temperature difference between the two outputs generates energy.
Malta has designed the system for the cogeneration of heat and electricity, claiming it can produce steam heat at up to 180 bar and 550°C, and power which is up to 55% to 60% synchronous generation. Its combined heat and power has an overall round-trip efficiency (RTE) of 85-95%, Malta claims.
In a 2024 interview on the company’s corporate blog, Malta Iberia managing director Michael Geyer said the tech combines processes from existing technologies, such as molten salt storage from concentrating solar power (CSP), with turbomachinery from natural gas plants, steam turbines and liquified natural gas heat exchangers.
Malta’s investors and backers include Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures, industrial materials company Alfa Laval and Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, with Moskovitz participating in a US$50 million Series B funding round in 2021. The company signed a turbomachinery deal with Siemens Energy later that year.
Its tech was incubated at the Google-run technology accelerator programme, X, before its spin out to create Malta Inc.
The latest agreement with BBVA further cements a partnership with the investment bank that led to the two parties signing a 2024 memorandum of understanding (MoU) to collaborate by pairing the startup’s tech with BBVA’s financing experience.
BBVA said at the time the relationship was aimed at creating a power purchase agreement (PPA) model that could be applied to Malta Inc., projects.
“This agreement with Malta Iberia is exactly the kind of partnership we need—where finance contributes to accelerate the deployment of strategic clean technologies like long-duration storage that are essential to decarbonising industry, stabilising grids and building a stronger, greener Europe,” Roberto Albaladejo, BBVA global head of strategy, industry and cross-border business at the bank’s corporate investment banking and sustainability division said.
According to a 2023 report from the trade association Long Duration Energy Storage Council (LDES Council)—of which Malta Inc., is a member and Breakthrough Energy Ventures one of the founder groups—a combination of long-duration electrical and thermal energy storage could reduce emissions from industrial processes by almost two-thirds.
