Hyme Energy will deploy a 20-hour hydroxide molten salt-based thermal energy storage system in Rønne, Denmark, for 2024 while Azelio has just completed the installation of a unit in Dubai, UAE.
Hyme has partnered with utility Bornholms Energi & Forsyning (BEOF) to deploy the demonstrator unit at a combined heat and power plant in the town on Bornholm, described as an ‘energy island’.
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The 1MW/20MWh system is based proprietary corrosion control technology and will be the first in the world to deploy molten hydroxide salts. It will provide heat, power and also ancillary services for the local grid.
The deployment is part of a wider project demonstrating the combination of storage technologies deployed in a retrofit of a traditional power plant, though Hyme’s press release did not reveal the others.
‘2nd Life in Power Plants’ seeks to show that the technologies can cost-efficiently replace fossil fuels in ensuring a reliable supply as a back-up to intermittent renewables. Such storage will be particularly needed on islands like Bornholm, Hyme said.
The project has been supported “generously” by the EU’s Horizon Europe programme, the bloc’s €95 billion (US$99 billion) scheme for research and innovation, it added.
The company’s storage plant can store 200 MWh-10 GWh of energy capacity or more at a full-output duration of four to 24 hours.
Ask Løvschall-Jensen, the CEO of Hyme Energy, commented: “We start small, but will together (with BEOF) show all that the technology can do. In the longer run, Hyme aims to perform full retrofits of combined heat and power plants with GWhs of storage.”
Thermal energy storage unit completed in Dubai, UAE
Concurrent with Hyme’s announcement was the news that solar solutions firm ALEC Energy has completed the installation of a TES.POD system, the thermal long duration energy storage technology from Sweden-based firm Azelio.
The unit has been deployed in an off-grid microgrid setup at a visitor centre in the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Complex (MBR) in Dubai which features a concentrated solar power (CSP) called Noor Energy 1.
It was announced in late 2020, representing Azelio’s first commercial order, and Energy-Storage.news revealed at the time that it would have a 12kW output and 13 hours, or roughly 169kWh, of energy storage.
An adjacent lithium-ion battery energy storage system will manage the overall stability of the visitor centre’s microgrid while Azelio’s unit will provide energy shifting for baseload power.
Azelio CEO Jonas Wallmander said: “The hybrid system supplying power to Noor Energy 1 Visitor Center project is a milestone installation demonstrating how our long-duration energy storage system can form a vital part of a micro-grid for around-the-clock clean power, while serving as a reference project for our solution in the MENA region.”
The company’s technology works by storing energy as heat, up to 600 degrees Celsius, in phase change material made of aluminium. The heat energy is then converted to electricity using a Stirling engine at an efficiency of up to 90%, the company claims.
Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the eighth annual Energy Storage Summit EU in London, 22-23 February 2023. This year it is moving to a larger venue, bringing together Europe’s leading investors, policymakers, developers, utilities, energy buyers and service providers all in one place. Visit the official site for more info.
