Frequently Asked Questions

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1. How does it work?
   
   Our TES will heat up a heat transfer fluid (nitrogen rich air or CO2) and store it in specially designed chambers within a solid media made of ceramic materials. When the heat is ready to be used, the air will be blown out of the TES and into a heat exchanger that will provide heat to whatever application the heat is needed.
    

2. What’s the tech?
   
   The proprietary portion of our tech is the solid media material used, the shape of the solid media which allows for optimal charging/discharging, and the integration with CSP receivers.
    

3. When will the technology be ready to deploy?
   
   We are working on a scaled down version of our TES right now, we are a few years out from developing a utility scale system.
    

4. What will it cost?
   
   For a concentrated solar power application we are estimating around $100 million for a 100 MW plant that will store heat for an average of 10 hours per cycle. It is estimated that current TES systems cost that same amount for a 50 MW system. We believe our TES will lower the overall cost of concentrated solar power systems.
   
   For industrial waste heat storage applications, the TES cost will depend on the size of the process, the temperature of the process’ waste heat, how much heat they desire to store, how long they need to store the heat, etc.
    

5. What are the optimum applications?
   
   We are targeting two markets: concentrated solar power and industrial process heat.
   
   Concentrated solar power plants take reflective surfaces to heat a receiver to very hot temperatures. This heat is then stored in a TES and is used to heat steam which then spins a turbine to create electricity. The flexibility of being able to generate electricity whenever is very valuable as it provides a solution to renewable energy’s intermittency and can also provide electricity during peak demand times. This will be a clean alternative to natural gas and coal fired power plants
   
   Industrial processes will benefit greatly from TES technology. They currently have waste heat recovery systems that reintroduce waste heat into the process immediately as it is created, or release the heat into the environment if it is not needed. A TES will allow the process to store waste heat and use it as needed, which will reduce energy costs and fossil fuel consumption.