For years, the photo voltaic vitality sector has grappled with interseasonal vitality storage. The flexibility to harness the excess photo voltaic vitality of summer season months to be used in the course of the winter has remained an elusive purpose, with present options like batteries falling quick as a result of prohibitive prices and restricted lifespans. Hydrogen, in the meantime, regardless of its clean-burning properties, has been sidelined as a result of inefficiency and excessive prices.
Photoncycle — a startup rising from the depths of an accelerator in Oslo Science Park in Oslo, Norway — has been engaged on an answer. With a imaginative and prescient as vivid because the summer season solar, the startup claims its stable hydrogen-based know-how can retailer vitality extra effectively in an ammonia synthesis reactor. The declare is that this tech does the storage extra cost-effectively than any battery or liquid hydrogen resolution available on the market.
A schematic of how Photoncycle envisions its full system when put in at a home. Picture Credit: Photoncycle
“Lithium-ion batteries use pricey metals. Our materials is tremendous low-cost: To retailer 10,000 kilowatt-hours, it prices round $1,500, so it’s nearly nothing. As well as, our storage resolution is 20 instances the density of a lithium-ion battery, and also you don’t lose the present,” founder and CEO Bjørn Brandtzaeg explains in an interview with TechCrunch. “Meaning we’ve a system the place you may comprise vitality over time, enabling seasonal storage. It’s a very totally different factor than conventional batteries.”
Photoncycle employs water and electrical energy to supply hydrogen. That in itself isn’t unusual if you happen to’ve been following gasoline cell automobile know-how. Nonetheless, the corporate’s method incorporates an modern twist: a reversible high-temperature gasoline cell. This superior gasoline cell can produce hydrogen and generate electrical energy throughout the identical unit.
The core of Photoncycle’s innovation lies in its remedy of hydrogen. They course of the hydrogen after which make the most of its know-how to transform and retailer it in a stable type. The corporate claims this storage methodology isn’t solely protected, owing to the non-flammable and non-explosive nature of the stable state, but in addition extremely environment friendly. It allows hydrogen storage at densities roughly 50% higher than liquid hydrogen, presenting a major development in hydrogen storage options. These improvements type the cornerstone of Photoncycle’s system, facilitating protected and dense hydrogen storage, which the corporate says is a big step ahead in vitality know-how.
Present clear vitality options akin to rooftop solar energy are restricted by inconsistent provide because of the unpredictable nature of climate situations. A sturdy, reusable vitality storage resolution may bridge these timings, making certain a steady vitality provide when these renewable sources encounter unavoidable intermittent durations.
Nice in concept, however not with out its personal challenges.
“The Netherlands is the nation in Europe with the best density of rooftop photo voltaic. We’re seeing a large ramp now due to excessive vitality costs; everybody desires photo voltaic on the roof,” Brandtzaeg says. He provides, nevertheless, that this methodology can backfire for owners: “In July final 12 months, within the Netherlands, in the midst of the day, you needed to pay €500 a megawatt hour to export your electrical energy.”
Placing the vitality storage together with the home producing the ability successfully lets homes go off-grid. Photoncycle says it has examined and labored the principle elements of its resolution — the subsequent step is to combine it right into a system. If profitable, the corporate says it may severely problem Powerwall, Tesla’s lithium-ion battery resolution.
David Gerez, CTO at Photoncycle, and Ole Laugerud, who’s a Photoncycle chemist, in Photoncycle’s purpose-built lab, which has been operational for shut to 2 years. Picture Credit: Photoncycle
“This can be a comparatively advanced system — that’s why we’ve so many PhDs in several disciplines engaged on this. The explanation why Elon Musk mentioned that hydrogen is silly, is that whenever you convert electrical energy to hydrogen and again, you might be shedding fairly a little bit of vitality,” Brandtzaeg says. He believes his firm can flip this bug right into a function. “In a residential setting the place 70% of vitality wants are heating, there is a chance to make use of that extra warmth to offer scorching water. We’ll goal markets the place persons are utilizing pure fuel for heating in the meanwhile after which substitute the fuel boiler in the home utilizing the present water-based infrastructure.”
Brandtzaeg’s confidence relating to the idea’s operational framework is compelling. He gestured towards a small mock-up of their operations plant inside their labs, scaled right down to the scale of a automobile battery. Brandtzaeg believes this scaling ought to be problem-free, citing it as the first motive they felt assured shifting ahead with the venture.
With regards to energy supply, it takes a short time for the hydrogen to generate electrical energy, so whereas it’s spooling up, the corporate depends on an middleman, extra typical, battery for load balancing. The agency actually has traders’ consideration: Photoncycle simply raised $5.3 million (€5 million) to construct its first few energy storage gadgets in Denmark, which Photoncycle has chosen as its take a look at market.
“We may have raised 10 instances as a lot as we did, given the curiosity. However after this increase, I’m nonetheless a majority proprietor,” Brandtzaeg says. “I wished to maintain management over the enterprise so long as doable and never increase extra capital than we have to deliver this service to market.”
