Renewable Thermal Energy Storage Companies Bringing the Heat to Industry

October 5, 2022 by Kate Michael
Renewable Thermal Energy Storage Companies Bringing the Heat to Industry

WASHINGTON — Just like the ground stays toasty even after the sun sets or your cup of hot chocolate can warm your cold hands, thermal energy — or energy that comes from the temperature of a heated substance — has productively been used for cooking, drying, heating, smoking, baking, cooling, and increasingly, manufacturing.

But industries with significant heating needs, like manufacturing and building processes with high and continuous energy needs, have used thermal energy largely produced by combusting fuels. 

These sectors’ extreme high heating (and cooling) needs, as well as requirements for large amounts of energy storage, have made emissions generated in these processes some of the hardest to avoid, with fossil-fuel combustion attributed to buildings alone accounting for almost 30% of total annual U.S. greenhouse gas emission, according to the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions. 

But with new tech innovations in thermal energy storage at large scale coming to the market, hard to decarbonize industrial sectors are going to be able to use renewable energy sources like wind and solar to use thermal energy for their manufacturing processes.

“When we look at thermal energy storage, we’re at the beginning of an era,” Gadi Sharir, U.S. managing director of Israeli Brenmiller Energy shared at an event convened by C2ES. “Everything is about to change. People understand it, but they don’t realize it yet.”

Put simply, thermal energy storage means heating or cooling a medium to use when needed later. Like the ground soaks up the heat from the sun, a charge from a variety of renewable electricity sources can be a zero-carbon replacement for industrial boilers and furnaces.

Firms like Brenmiller, Rondo Energy, and Antora have created storage methods predicted to be critical enablers for large-scale deployment of renewable energy in the building and industrial sectors.

Brenmiller Energy’s own “patented heat battery” is based on natural crushed rocks, which Sharir explained is “charged with electricity or high-grade heat and discharged as steam and hot water” for manufacturing purposes. 

Rondo Energy has developed its thermal battery comprised of a unique configuration of “super-heated brick” that vice president of Project Finance Caroline Jo claims “efficiently holds energy for days” and that can create temperatures… up to 1,500 degrees Celsius (27,032 degrees Fahrenheit).

And Antora heats blocks of carbon to very high temperatures in its own thermal storage units until, as vice president of Project Development Jordan Kearns explains, they are “glowing with infrared radiation… the same way your toaster starts to glow when it’s getting very hot.”

“It’s really trying to depend on old technology repurposed in a new way,” Jo said, using renewable energy to “deliver continuous superheated air for use as process heat steam or electric power at over 98% total efficiency.” 

Indeed, since industrial processes can’t be powered with intermittent sources of energy, these thermal energy storage businesses are working on trying to build the missing link between renewables as low-cost energy sources that have the reliability and stamina to power building and manufacturing.

“The scale of the opportunity is immense. We have clarity for how we are going to decarbonize the electric grid.  [Previously,] industrial heat had not had the same level of clarification. That’s the future that we’re pushing for.”

“We’re on the brink of a zero-carbon heat revolution,” Jo added. “There are some customers we’re working with where we already beat the cost of natural gas… We are better, cleaner and cheaper.”

Kate can be reached at [email protected]

A+
a-
  • renewable energy
  • Thermal Energy
  • In The News

    Health

    Voting

    Renewable Energy

    March 27, 2024
    by TWN Staff
    Rep. Cleaver New Co-Chair of House Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Caucus

    WASHINGTON — Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II, D-Mo., is the new Democratic co-chair of the House Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency... Read More

    WASHINGTON — Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II, D-Mo., is the new Democratic co-chair of the House Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Caucus. He was invited to serve as co-chair by Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, the co-chairs of the Senate Renewable Energy and Energy... Read More

    March 26, 2024
    by Dan McCue
    Biden Administration Approves Seventh Offshore Wind Project

    WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Tuesday approved the construction of the Sunrise Wind offshore wind farm, a project off... Read More

    WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Tuesday approved the construction of the Sunrise Wind offshore wind farm, a project off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, that proponents say will eventually power 320,000 homes. The project is the seventh commercial-scale wind farm to be approved under... Read More

    March 26, 2024
    by Dan McCue
    Sen. Blumenthal Lauds Expansion of Tax Credit for Offshore Wind Projects

    NEW LONDON, Conn. — Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., visited State Pier in New London, Connecticut, on Monday to tout and... Read More

    NEW LONDON, Conn. — Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., visited State Pier in New London, Connecticut, on Monday to tout and celebrate the Biden administration’s decision to expand eligibility of federal tax credits for offshore wind projects. “This tax credit has been a long time in coming,”... Read More

    China to Challenge Biden's Electric Vehicle Plans at the WTO

    BEIJING (AP) — China filed a World Trade Organization complaint against the U.S. on Tuesday over what it says are... Read More

    BEIJING (AP) — China filed a World Trade Organization complaint against the U.S. on Tuesday over what it says are discriminatory requirements for electric vehicles subsidies. Starting this year, U.S. car buyers are not eligible for tax credits of $3,750 to $7,500 if critical minerals or other battery... Read More

    Here Are the Big Hurdles to the Global Push to Build Up Renewable Energy

    The world's governments have agreed they want to triple renewable energy by 2030, a goal laid out at the U.N.... Read More

    The world's governments have agreed they want to triple renewable energy by 2030, a goal laid out at the U.N. climate summit in December. But right now, the post-pandemic global economy is throwing up obstacles that will need to be overcome if the goal is going... Read More

    March 25, 2024
    by Dan McCue
    Energy Department Awards $6B to Decarbonization Projects

    WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Energy on Monday awarded $6 billion to 33 projects across more than 20 states... Read More

    WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Energy on Monday awarded $6 billion to 33 projects across more than 20 states to decarbonize energy-intensive industries while creating jobs and revitalizing the communities in which they are located. Funded by the bipartisan infrastructure law and Inflation Reduction Act,... Read More

    News From The Well
    scroll top