The TH Mittelhessen is developing a high-temperature storage system for electricity from renewable sources. The project leader is Prof. Dr. Stefan Lechner from the Center for Energy Technology and Energy Management (former THM ). The Federal Ministry of Education and Research is funding the project with 1.58 million euros. The university is building a demonstration system on the site of its cooperation partner, Stadtwerke Gießen . The topping-out ceremony could now be celebrated in Mietgesterner Weg.
Wind and solar energy also accumulate when you don't need them. And on a windless night, neither photovoltaic nor wind turbines generate electricity. If the energy transition is to succeed, storage is needed to balance out the heavily fluctuating electricity feed-in and to stabilize the power grid.
Lechner sees high-temperature storage as a cost-effective and flexible alternative to other storage technologies such as battery or pumped storage power plants. Electrical heating elements will generate heat of up to 1100 degrees in the Gießen facility. This is stored in ceramic elements. If necessary, it is converted into electricity and heating energy using a gas turbine. With this process, up to 80 percent of the output energy can be used.
The heat accumulator has a total weight of 47 tons. It is made of firebrick masonry with vertical and horizontal openings, electric heating elements and vermiculite insulation, a mineral with very low thermal conductivity. Installation work is currently underway. Commissioning and inauguration are planned for the first quarter of 2019. The storage will have a capacity of more than 1.5 megawatt hours. Lechner sees an advantage over conventional technologies in the fact that the system – unlike a pumped storage power plant, for example – can be set up practically anywhere. In addition, one does not have to use hazardous substances or limited raw materials.
In his welcoming speech at the topping-out ceremony, THM Vice President and etem spokesman Prof. Olaf Berger called the project “a symbol of what universities of applied sciences are capable of achieving in practical research.” A characteristic of this research is the collaboration with companies Region.
Matthias Funk emphasized the excellent cooperation between THM and his company. “We don’t do any laboratory tests here. This is a web test. The fact that we get projects like this off the ground with scientific support makes us strong," says the technical director of the municipal utility.
Patrick Burghardt, State Secretary in the Hessian Ministry of Science, expressed his satisfaction in a welcoming speech that the THM is raising both state and federal funds. Like the previous speakers, he praised the cooperation between university and business. "It is important that the universities, which shape the cityscape, work together with local companies."