Can A ‘Secret Sauce’ Help Store Renewable Energy?
The title of this post, is the same as that as this article on the BBC.
This is the sub-heading.
The US-Israel war with Iran has led to higher electricity bills and put the issue of energy security back in the spotlight.
These two paragraphs add more detail to the story.
Now a pilot project inspired by a 100-year-old idea aims to store renewable energy.
Those behind the high density hydro demonstrator scheme near Plymouth say the technology can “turn small hills into giant batteries”, as part of the transition away from fossil fuels.
This is one of those stories, that could only emerge in the UK.
If you have the time, click on the link to the BBC article and read it in full.
I have a feeling, that the world will be hearing a lot about RheEnergise.
I asked Google AI, “How Much Energy Can A RheEnergise Battery Store”, and received this reply.
A RheEnergise system acts like pumped-storage hydro, using a dense fluid instead of water to store energy.
Planned commercial facilities are designed to store 2 to 16 hours of energy capacity, offering between 10 MW and 50 MW of power generation.
The exact energy storage figures for their deployments scale depending on the site requirements.
The breakdown of how these installations store and yield energy includes:
Commercial-Scale Capacity: A standard commercial site ranging from 10 MW to 50 MW will yield between 20 MWh and 800 MWh of total energy output (based on operating at full capacity for 2 to 16 hours).
The “Secret Sauce”: The system uses a proprietary fluid called R-19, which is 2.5 times denser than water.
This density allows the system to generate 2.5× more power and energy from the same physical footprint and vertical drop compared to traditional water-based facilities.
Real-World Pilot: The company operates a 500 kW demonstrator project at Cornwood near Plymouth, UK. This smaller test-bed, if run continually, generates energy equivalent to powering about 400 homes for an entire year.
Zero Seasonal Losses: Unlike chemical batteries (like lithium-ion) that degrade and lose charge over time, pumped hydro setups suffer virtually zero energy loss while the fluid sits idle.
Rheenergise & University Partners Secure £1M Grant From UK Government
The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from Reenergise.
This is the sub-heading.
The Department for Energy Security & Net Zero funded research project will identify and test minerals and discarded wastes for use in RheEnergise’s grid scale hydro energy storage system.
And these are the first three paragraphs.
In partnership with the University of Greenwich and the University of Exeter, RheEnergise, the UK company that is developing a new and advanced form of pumped hydro-energy storage, has secured a grant of £1 million funded through the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP) as part of the UK Government’s Energy Entrepreneurs Fund. The government grant will fund work to identify and test waste materials that could be used in the high-density fluid (HDF) that is integral to RheEnergise’s grid-scale High-Density Hydro® energy storage system. The HDF is an environmentally benign alternative to water.
RheEnergise’s long duration storage system is low-cost and energy efficient. The fluid used in the system is 2½ times denser than water (similar in viscosity to cream) and is therefore able to provide 2½ times the power and 2½ times the energy when compared to conventional low-density hydro-power systems that rely on water and operate in the Scottish Highlands, Wales and across Europe. It means that RheEnergise can deploy its long duration energy storage system beneath the surface of hills rather than mountains, so opening up massive commercial opportunities in the UK, Europe and further afield.
The research project, funded by the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero’s Energy Entrepreneurs Fund, wants to identify suitable minerals and waste streams which can be recycled into the high-density fluid which can be locally sourced and are lower-cost, rather than having to rely on minerals imported from overseas.
I feel the concept of High-Density Hydro is excellent and will work.
If this research leads to lower costs, that can only help the development and deployment of High-Density Hydro.
The Anonymous Widower 