If you're a regular viewer of this channel then I imagine it hasn't escaped your attention that
our global energy markets appear to be entering a pretty disruptive period as the world transitions
from fossil fuels like coal and gas to renewable technologies like solar wind and batteries.
From the energy suppliers point of view there are huge challenges in meeting
constantly changing demand with ever more unpredictable and extreme weather patterns
and an ever increasing percentage of intermittent power sources on the electricity grids. From the
consumer's point of view that generally translates into ever increasing energy prices, or in extreme
cases like the 2021 winter storm in Texas or the gas supply crisis currently besetting Europe,
it can also threaten the actual supply of power itself. Those challenges are thankfully temporary
and fixable with a bit of foresight and strategic logistical planning, but arguably a much more
disruptive consequence of the transition is the long-term impact on families and communities whose
livelihoods currently depend on the fossil fuel industry. Despite the rapid rise of renewables,
two-thirds of the world's electricity still comes from fossil fuels today and most of that is in the
form of coal. And most of those coal-fired power plants will be retired over the next two decades
as thousands of gigawatts of capacity is moved across to low carbon sources. Much of which will
be in the form of intermittent wind and solar plus a truly mind-boggling amount of energy
storage capacity to keep the lights on when the wind isn't blowing and the sun isn't shining.
That means all that valuable existing fossil fuel infrastructure will most likely just sit there
decommissioned and redundant. What a shame we can't reuse those enormous facilities in some way
as part of the energy transition and maybe even get some gainful employment back into those areas
as a result. Well, maybe we can. In fact that's precisely what a European company called E2S
power is working on right now, and their technology could well be exactly what the
world needs to give otherwise stranded assets a second life as part of our renewable energy future
Hello and welcome to just have a think. I'm sure E2S power will be the first to admit that
their plans for converting disused power plants are not simply an altruistic attempt to combat
climate change and create a better world, although they'll certainly be contributing to that goal now
I think it's fair to say that they've spotted a potentially lucrative gap in the market that
they feel they can fill with their technology. According to their Director of Marketing and
Business Development, Dr Carlos Haertel, the extensive installed base of thermal power plants
offers an enormous market opportunity for those who develop conversion solutions. The sheer
scale of the required ramp up of storage capacity will necessitate all storage options on the table
to contribute to the challenge. No one technology or solution will be able to shoulder it alone.
So what's their plan then? Well the E2S system will essentially remove the boilers
from disused power plants. The boiler is where all the coal gets burned and all the CO2 emissions are
produced. They'll replace that element with their own purpose-built thermal energy storage system.
The potential benefit of their system is that it'll perform the same function as the old boilers
did. In other words it'll heat up water to produce high pressure steam to run over a turbine and
drive an electrical generator. That means that all the other infrastructure in the power plant can be
reused, which of course means it'll all need to be run and maintained just like the old power plant
was, and that means jobs for local workers. The main difference is that the plant will no longer
be a power generation facility. It'll simply store energy from renewable sources that can then be
dispatched when it's needed. There are of course lots of thermal energy storage solutions either in
development or already in use in various parts of the world and we've looked at one or two of them
on this channel. The USP of this system though, according to E2S power, is a novel thermal storage
material class called Miscibility Gap Alloys, or MGAs developed and already being manufactured by
their Australian partner company MGA Thermal. MGAs are a composite of graphite and aluminium
and in the E2S system they're assembled as sets of two solid thermal storage slabs or blocks
with the graphite providing a sort of outer matrix containing the aluminium inside. The
slab sets are arranged in a storage module about the size of a shipping container which for reasons
best known to E2S is called The Hamster. Through the off-peak hours the thermal battery is charged
with surplus electricity from renewables taken from the grid using existing step-up transformers.
That runs electrical heaters that are specifically designed to resist temperatures higher than a
thousand degrees Celsius. They heat the first set of storage blocks to about 700 degrees Celsius.
That's higher than the melting point of aluminium, which is about 660 degrees Celsius,
but way lower than the melting point of graphite which is around 3600 degrees Celsius.
So the aluminium melts, or to use the proper science speak it experiences a phase change
from solid to liquid. And if you watched my video about Arctic Sea ice last year you'll remember we
looked at the latent heat required to persuade a material to transform from its solid state at
melting temperature into its liquid state still at melting temperature. And it's a lot of energy
.That means in the melting process the aluminium absorbs all that latent heat
which according to E2S is the main reason why their system can achieve a relatively high
energy density. The graphite is well below its melting point so its job is to keep the block
solid and contain the melted aluminium. That's a key advantage of the system because from a
user point of view it means there's pretty much no manipulation or maintenance required.
Meanwhile the second set of storage blocks is heated to a slightly lower temperature of about
550 degrees, which is the inlet temperature required by the existing steam turbine.
As with all thermal energy storage systems, insulation is an absolutely key component. The
shipping container size modules in this setup are not only extremely well insulated but they're also
filled with nitrogen to protect against oxidation. That means they can hold onto their thermal energy
for several days until it's required. To discharge the system steam is initially generated in the
first set of blocks at close to 700 degrees Celsius before moving through to the second
set of blocks to be cooled down to the 550 degree temperature that the existing turbine equipment
can accept. E2S reckon the phase change heat storage in their MGA technology allows for very
high efficiency with very similar simplicity and robustness of other systems that use materials
like steel or concrete as storage element. And it uses a lot less valuable space than those
other storage media too. Steel would need three times the volume and concrete would need 20 times
the volume to produce the same temperature level and energy content as the MGA system.
Graphite and aluminium are also extremely abundant commonly used and non-toxic based materials.
A fact that should go some way towards addressing the criticism often raised about environmental
impacts, tight supply chains and recyclability of the materials in many energy storage devices
currently in use today. And because it's a modular drop-in system it can be tailored to fit perfectly
with whatever existing infrastructure each power plant currently has.
The same voltage and current levels as the existing generators can be used to feed the
electric heaters and the system can use the same high voltage switch gear existing steam turbines
and all the other plants like condensers cooling towers heat sinks generators and transformers.
E2S say they've validated their technology in a demonstration facility in Belgrade providing
valuable data on the storage properties material selections and steam generating capabilities of
the system. Precise figures aren't yet available but E2S confidently claim their thermal storage
system can generate similar levels of steam to those achieved by the original coal-powered
boilers they're replacing. They're already working with major power utilities in Europe on a 50
megawatt hour pilot that will be integrated into an existing operating plant in 2022. That should
pave the way for a commercial scale expansion the following year and if that all proved successful
then potentially there's scope for a global rollout over the coming decade as more and more
coal-fired power plants are retired around the world. Just like some of the other energy storage
solutions we've looked at in recent videos the E2S system is designed to work alongside lithium-ion
batteries rather than compete with them. The target application for a converted thermal plant
is balancing variations in load and supply over an entire 24-hour period or even over several
days. E2S aren't the only organization to have used a bit of lateral thinking to make good use
of otherwise stranded assets though. Siemens Gamesa has a system called electric thermal
energy storage or ETES which we'll take a look at in a future video, and several other energy
industry giants are all looking for innovative ways to make good use of existing infrastructure.
No doubt there are lots of other smart applications designed to make good sustainable use
of decommissioned infrastructure that I haven't mentioned here so if you've got your eye on one
or if you're actually working with one of these new technologies then why not jump down to the
comment section below and leave your thoughts there. That's it for this week though. As always
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you