Siemens Energy and EnergyNest collaborate on concrete thermal energy storage

EnergyNest thermal storage batteries use the company's patented technology to heat concrete using steel pipes. Image: EnergyNest

Siemens Energy and Norway-based thermal energy storage company EnergyNest have entered into a partnership aimed at sustainable decarbonization of the industrial sector.

EnergyNest makes what it calls "thermal storage batteries" that work by heating a specially formulated concrete (which the company has trademarked as Heatcrete) using a high-temperature heat transfer fluid (HTF) through steel tubes within the cells. The company claims this energy can be stored with minimal heat loss, and then when the battery releases energy, the cold HTF flows into the bottom of the cell and the heat flows out the top.

The thermal storage battery is modular and installed in 20-foot units. The modules are designed for easy transportation, and most of the pipes are prefabricated and tested before being sent to the project site. The materials used are abundant, recyclable, and non-hazardous, and the startup claims that the system is energy-efficient and compact, with high energy density and low heat loss, and can be easily expanded from MWh to GWh capacity.

Siemens has already collaborated with EnergyNest, including on a 1MWh project to demonstrate the technology in Abu Dhabi’s Masdar City, which began in 2015. Siemens Energy – a spin-off business unit of Siemens formerly known as Siemens Gas and Power – has signed a memorandum of understanding with EnergyNest.

EnergyNest has so far made two commercial deployments of its technology, including a 6-8MWh project at Senftenbacher’s Austrian plant, which began construction in January. A project in the Netherlands is also underway, where thermal batteries charged with renewable energy will replace natural gas.

According to reports: Another thermal energy storage startup, Lumenion, started a 2.4MWh trial in late 2018 in partnership with German utility Vattenfall. News at the time said the company’s system stores thermal energy in steel at up to 650 degrees Celsius, and the technology can absorb renewable energy and store it at a price of less than 0.02 euros per kilowatt-hour.

(Original source: Energy Storage News New Energy Network Comprehensive)