Elestor emphasizes the need to meet long-term electricity storage demands to achieve energy security in a world where supply is geopolitically unstable.
To balance the world’s emerging renewable energy systems, large-scale, long-term, scalable, affordable batteries will be required.
The role of such solar energy storage systems is to achieve in many ways, as they departed simultaneously to improve air quality and thus to generate public health, combat climate change, comprehensive economic growth and provide energy resilience and security.
Adapt to changes in geopolitical landscapes
Elestor began searching for solutions in 2014, aiming straight to the exact point where science meets economics. About a decade later, I added geopolitical reality to the equation to prevent energy from being weaponized in a geopolitical, unstable world.
This shift in focus was motivated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The demand side was swiftly shaken by growing awareness that clean, robust, independent energy systems are important not only as tools to combat climate change, but also in terms of energy security.
Suddenly there was even greater urgency than before the invasion. We have witnessed the emergence of a new hunger for energy autonomy and the growth that is needed now, as the ability to build fast, affordable, independent, resilient clean energy systems anywhere in the world.
Luckily we were already exploring a new iron-covered solution. As a result, we developed an Elestor hydrogen iron flow battery.
Real World Benefits
We have long known that energy systems based on renewable energy such as solar and wind power require extensive storage. Electricity generated on sunny and windy days must be stored until needed when the sun does not shine and there is no wind.
Such storage should be available anywhere. Therefore, hydrogen iron technology provides the most optimal solution. Iron, or rather iron sulfate, can be found anywhere, in landlocked countries far from the ocean.
Hydrogen Iron Flow Batteries have several real-world advantages.
Chemicals will not become rare. Therefore, chemicals are by no means expensive. These two are connected. Iron sulfate allows you to store electricity at a cost of 50 euros/mwh. Iron is not a more reactive electrolyte than some alternatives, but this cost can be achieved despite the need for about five times more cells to achieve the same power, while a larger tank of electrolyte has become necessary.
As a result, hydrogen iron flow batteries are very competitive when compared to alternative power storage systems that can cost six to ten times more.
Furthermore, iron is safe, transportable, easy to transport, and eliminates the need for expensive, contaminated plastics to contain materials, as in some other flow battery solutions.
Iron is a relatively benign material with no steam risk, so it can be stored in a simpler and cheaper tank than other electrolytes. As a result, the tank needs a smaller safety belt around it. This means that a large tank does not cause any problems.
Certainly, these tanks can even be buried underground, and atmospheric pressure allows hydrogen tanks to be placed on them, so the entire system does not require more land than alternative solutions.
While lower costs and greater safety are compelling arguments at the local and national level, the greatest impact of solar and wind energy systems incorporating hydrogen-iron flow batteries is their potential as energy democratizing forces.
Access to energy is a key driver of economic growth and poverty reduction. A clean energy system is essential as it seeks to decarbonize the economy to combat climate change and air pollution. Energy security is an absolute requirement for all countries that seek to coexist in peace and harmony, and the key to this is to rely on imports of fossil fuels from hostile countries.
Elestor is ready to provide real-world solutions to all these social challenges. The impact of implementing them will make the world a better place.
This article will also be featured in the 24th edition of Quarterly Publishing.
Source link
