Distributed Storage

Developed by scientists in the Netherlands, the heat battery prototype consists of a storage module based on potassium carbonate and an electricity-driven mechanical system that maintains continuous charging or discharging powers. Through a series of simulations, the research group found that the device can significantly reduce a dwelling’s electricity consumption for heating.

NTPC has invited an expression of interest to supply, design, install, and commission a mechanical energy storage system at its Talcher Thermal Power station in Odisha. The project is intended for demonstration purposes.

Indian scientists have suggested building pumped-hydro storage systems connected to solar plants using mines as the lower reservoir and nearby rivers as the upper reservoir. They claim that the proposed combination may reach a levelized cost of energy of $0.2693/kWh.

Minera Exar has started to extract lithium from the Salar Cauchari-Olaroz mine in Argentina, with part of its energy supply coming from the 100 MW Zonda solar farm, which is owned by oil producer YPF Luz.

Biwatt Power, a Chinese manufacturer, has developed new residential sodium-ion batteries with an efficiency rate of 97% and a projected lifespan of more than 3,000 cycles.

Octopus Energy has agreed to invest $89 million to scale up Kensa Group, a ground-source heat pump business, while KfW IPEX-Bank has agreed to provide $129.6 million of financing to German heat pump manufacturer Valliant.

The French Environment and Energy Management Agency (Ademe) has launched a tender for large-solar thermal installations and heat pumps for the production of hot water. Developers can submit their proposals until Oct. 15.

Researchers in Korea have designed applied machine learning techniques to enable users to have more control of the timing of heating and cooling in air-source heat pumps. The system is based on backpropagation, which is an algorithm designed to test for errors working back from output nodes to input nodes.

Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) will lead a “smart buildings” pilot project that has the potential to create a new ecosystem of technologies and solutions to support flexible demand for energy.

Green Mountain Power has used portable power to keep a commercial customer operational during six hours of scheduled maintenance. It says it now plans to bring resilience to five communities.