Monday 25 June 2018

Energy storage firm wins €50k award with salt cavern technology

Energy storage developer Storelectric has won €50,000 (£43.800) and a contract with a large gas and power firm in Holland as part of an international competition.

It came ahead of 44 other companies from 13 countries in the 70th yearly challenge held by NAM, Holland's largest energy company, which is jointly owned by Shell and Exxon.

Storelectric's technology is Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES), which allows surplus wind and solar power to be stored efficiently over long durations in underground salt caverns.

Air is pumped into caverns and released when energy is needed - as it rushes out it passes through a turbine to generate usable power.

The firm will now work with NAM to build large-scale renewable energy storage in Holland and potentially under the North Sea.

The ability to store clean electricity is becoming crucial to maintaining the stability of the future energy system and balancing supply and demand throughout the seasons.

Gerald Schotman, NAM's Managing Director, said: "Given the challenges and ambitions that the Netherlands faces with the current energy transition, I am delighted that we have taken a concrete step towards accelerating it today.

"We are looking forward to further collaboration with Storelectric to shape this solution over the coming months."