Masdar Institute of Science & Technology and EnergyNest AS initiated a comprehensive joint research project in 2013 for the building and testing a 2 x 500 kWhth EnergyNest-type Thermal Energy Storage (TES) pilot.
The pilot comprises of two different heat exchangers to be evaluated and researched in depth.
Construction of the TES was successfully executed within a 6-month period being completed by May 2015. Commissioning followed by rigorous research and testing of the TES system jointly by Masdar and EnergyNest personnel will be conducted during the fall 2015 and onwards. Performance analytics and operational data will be made available to industry and academia through scientific articles and published reports.
The Masdar pilot project constitutes a ‘first-of-its-kind’ TES system showcasing this new modular solid-state Thermal Energy Storage technology. Masdar Institute’s Solar Platform (MISP) provides a full-fledged research platform for testing functionality and validating advantages of the EnergyNest system. More fundamentally, the project will effectively demonstrate the operational and economic feasibility of concrete-based energy storage vis-à-vis other TES systems currently in the market.
EnergyNest and Masdar Institute aim to prove that incorporating this new technology into commercial solar thermal projects allow project developers to derive significant benefits and savings, not just in terms of comparative cost of installation (CAPEX), but also in reduced expenses over time (OPEX). Masdar Institute recognized early the potential of EnergyNest’s innovative technology to add value to renewable energy segments such as concentrated solar power (CSP) plants, and the need for improving and offering more flexible and cost-effective storage solutions that can be provided more broadly to the global energy industry.
