Swedish energy giant teams up with SaltX for 10MWh 'salt battery' pilot as part of its plans to renovate Berlin thermal coal facility
Vattenfall is to test new technology over the coming months which uses salt to store renewable energy as part of its plans to turn a thermal coal plant in Berlin into a low carbon energy hub, the Swedish energy giant revealed yesterday.
Teaming up with fellow Swedish firm SaltX Technology, the energy giant plans to run a test operation until the end of the summer which will look at how renewable wind and solar power could be stored using nano-coated salt.
The 10MWh pilot plant, located on the site of the Reuter C thermal coal facility in Spandau, uses patented technology developed by SaltX, which enables the 'salt battery' to be charged several thousand times and store energy for weeks or months without losses, the companies said.
During previous experiments, SaltX has proven its technology is able to store up to 10 times more energy for much longer periods than water, according to the company's CEO Harald Bauer.
"The energy sector is changing quickly, and we globally see an enormous need for energy storage," he said. "Germany is a country at the forefront of this development and we are proud to have Vattenfall as a partner. We are eager to launch our energy storage solution commercially as quickly as possible."
The pilot salt battery plant is part of a long-term rebuilding of the Reuter thermal coal power plant in Spandau, Berlin, where later this year Vattenfall also plans to begin operating Europe's largest power-to-heat plant which will use hot water to store electricity.
During 2020, Vattenfall then intends to shut down the Reuter C coal power plant as part of its strategy to completely phase out coal as a fuel throughout its Berlin heating operations by 2030.
In the meantime, the Swedish company plans to collect data on the salt battery pilot plant to assess the effectiveness and commercial potential of the technology, explained Markus Witt, the project's leader at Vattenfall Wärme Berlin AG.
"Some questions are how large amounts of salt can be used, how quickly the storage medium reacts and how the process can be controlled," he said.
Vattenfall has an ambition to be free of fossil fuels within a generation, and has divested its lignite coal operations as part of plans to become a carbon neutral energy company by 2050.