An industrial research consortium has selected Sulzer Flow Equipment technology for a pilot plant intended to validate the commercial viability of storing renewable energy in molten hydroxide salts.
Situated in Esbjerg, Denmark, the Molten Salts Storage (MOSS) plant is being built for scalability to ultimately permit a storage capacity of one Gigawatt hour (GWh).
Using Hyme Energy’s energy storage technology and Sulzer’s custom VNY molten salt pump, MOSS will demonstrate whether molten hydroxide salt, commonly known as drain cleaner, can effectively store renewable energy and thereby overcome the challenge of an intermittent energy source.
Because renewable energy such as wind and solar is produced intermittently, development of efficient, reliable and affordable power storage is vital for a stable supply of sustainable energy. MOSS aims to address this key challenge of variable energy supply by testing an energy storage system using molten hydroxide salt. This salt is comparatively less expensive and more accessible than molten salts currently used for energy storage. The pilot plant is expected to be operational in 2024.