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New Energy World™
New Energy World™ embraces the whole energy industry as it connects and converges to address the decarbonisation challenge. It covers progress being made across the industry, from the dynamics under way to reduce emissions in oil and gas, through improvements to the efficiency of energy conversion and use, to cutting-edge initiatives in renewable and low-carbon technologies.
Proof of concept for renewable energy storage
25/10/2023
News
The Molten Salts Storage (MOSS) project in Esbjerg, Denmark, is reportedly a ‘world first’, with the pilot plant aiming to validate the commercial viability of storing renewable energy in liquid hydroxide salts.
Sulzer, which is a member of the consortium developing the project, recently supplied a custom molten salt pump to the plant. According to the consortium, the MOSS technology has the potential to save 32,000 t/y of CO2 emissions for each 1 GWh of capacity.
Power generation from renewable sources is transient, with varying sunlight and wind speeds resulting in fluctuating supply. Shortfalls in renewable power output to the grid must often be met with thermal power plants, which is carbon intensive.
MOSS aims to solve this problem by storing renewable energy for up to two weeks in molten hydroxide salts at temperatures of 700°C, which can be used to create steam and drive a turbine. This ensures that during periods of high renewable power generation, excess energy can be stored and deployed when output from wind farms and solar plants falls or electricity demand spikes.
The VNY pump provided by Sulzer, which has been based on models used for third generation concentrated solar power (CSP) plants, will pump 700°C, highly corrosive alkaline molten salt from a hot storage tank to a heat exchanger that generates steam. The pilot plant will offer a charge/discharge capacity of 200 kW, but is designed for scalability, with the end goal to build a commercial plant with storage for 1 GWh of power.
