COP28 Facilitates Novel Concepts & Energy Storage Agreements

COP28 Facilitates Novel Concepts & Agreements on Energy Storage

COP28 has facilitated noteworthy energy storage agreements and brought alive interesting ideas. Here is a look…

Energy storage with salt & water 

Aquabattery, which promises long duration energy storage for solar, wind and other renewables generation, has developed a Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) flow battery technology which paves the path for energy to be stored with table salt and water.

LDES refers to energy storage that exceeds six hours of duration. Norway’s firm Statkraft and Aquabattery have joined hands at COP28 for the development of a pilot to test the technology in Delft, The Netherlands.

“Without the right mix of energy storage in the system, we risk slowing the pace of wind and solar rollout, and consequently the green transition,” said Statkraft CEO Christian Rynning-Tønnesen while adding, “Being a European climate tech innovator means creating not only a new alternative for Long Duration Energy Storage, but also a better alternative with regards to battery sustainability, safety and supply chain resilience. By using two of the world’s most abundant and cheap materials, table salt and water, Aquabattery is doing just that.”

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The flow battery system only needs table salt and water to make it possible to store renewable electricity for intra as well as multiday periods (8hours or up to multiple days or weeks). The flow battery charges with electricity from solar and wind converting the salt into two safe chemical solutions (electrolytes) that can be converted back to salt water when green power is needed again.

A first for Egypt

At COP28, Scatec has entered into an early-stage cooperation agreement with the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company for a 1 GW solar and 200 MWh battery storage initiative. What makes the project noteworthy is that this is the first wind-solar hybrid project for Egypt and also its largest.  The project brings together solar and battery storage technologies, to address problems such as intermittency, grid instability.

The subsequent steps entail securing land lease agreements and grid connections.