In July 2022, a research consortium with nine partners from seven different European countries started to develop a new and possibly revolutionary concept for storing renewable energies over longer periods such as months or even years. The new concept is based on aluminium as an energy carrier and differs substantially from ordinary ways of storing energy such as batteries or Power-to-Gas.

Renewable electricity and heat can be produced cheaply today, based on solar, hydro or wind resources, and short-term storage solutions for evening out mismatches between production and demand are available at low cost. However, technologies for storing renewables for longer periods of months or seasons are scarce or costly and thus not widely used yet.

The present struggle to reduce dependency on oil and gas imports, especially in winter when people need to heat their buildings and solar energy resources are limited, underlines the urgent need for energy storage solutions that can bridge longer periods at an affordable cost.

Read more here.

You can find more about the project here.