4 minute read
New Technology offers Fossil Free Energy
Planet-friendly Energy Storage Solution
By Lars Jacobsson. Photo: Texel Energy Storage
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The use of fossil fuels is the largest reason for the increasing global warming. And other alternatives are urgently needed to reverse the trend – now!
Solar and wind power are a good start, but storing the energy is key. A new battery that is up to 90 percent cheaper than, for example, lithium batteries is just around the corner. Swedish company TEXEL Energy Storage has the solution, and the technology behind it is derived from the development of the hydrogen bomb in the 1950s, and submarine manufacturer Kockums’ Stirling engine – now serving peace and a fossil free future.
TEXEL Energy Storage is an example of The Perfect World Foundation’s and its founders’ ambitions to find the necessary technical solutions, with the sole purpose to turn the world away from fossil fuels. Cheap and sustainable energy storage in combination with renewable energy, like solar and wind, is the last piece of this puzzle.
FORD MOTORS’ & KOCKUMS’ STIRLING ENGINE. In 2010, The Perfect World Foundation’s founders established TEXEL and the company acquired the world’s most developed Stirling engine, the V4-90 – an engine technology that highly efficiently converts thermal energy into electricity – and it became clear that the technology could be used in the design of a new cost-effective and sustainable energy storage solution. Originally the V4-90 engine was developed by Ford Motors in cooperation with Kockums a Swedish military submarine manufacture. Kockums has used the Stirling technology in submarines for years, and the new V4-90 engine was developed to be integrated in Ford Motors’ environmental friendly cars.
Two years later in 2012, the world’s leading company specifically working with thermal energy technology, Maricopa Solar Corp, in Phoenix, Arizona, was also acquired.
BY-PRODUCT OF WAR SERVING THE FUTURE. Savannah River National Laboratory, one of the US Department of Energy’s 17 national laboratories, was in 1948 commissioned by president Harry S Truman, to produce a hydrogen bomb. In the process of developing this bomb, they created a completely unique thermochemical battery technology that stores heat as a by-product. To store high heat of 600–900°C (1100–1600°F) to be delivered again a number of hours, days or years later is of course groundbreaking, but unfortunately doesn’t have a very large or wide field of use. By combining the unexplored thermal battery technology with TEXEL’s Stirling engine, it became possible to convert stored heat energy to electricity when needed – a huge step forward for sustainable energy, especially as this can be done at a price less than 10 percent of the price of Lithium batteries – a battery technology used by car manufacturers such as TESLA.
In February 2018, after nearly three years of negotiations over two US presidents’ administrations, TEXEL signed an exclusive global agreement with US Department of Energy and Savannah River National Laboratory, and now has exclusive access to this unique battery technology. The new TEXEL battery, with its unique thermochemical energy storage technology and the V4-90 Stirling Engine combined, is not only cheaper than other battery technologies, the TEXEL battery doesn’t consume the planet’s resources, is fully recyclable and doesn’t contain any rare earth minerals, like for instance Cobalt – a major component of most traditional batteries.
GAME CHANGING RECOGNITION. In September 2018, at a Silicon Valley energy storage summit, TEXEL was appointed “The success story beyond Lithium-ion batteries” by the US Department of Energy, X-Labs and Stanford University. This recognition confirmed that it was now understood that a laboratory, that had previously developed a hydrogen bomb, through collaboration with a company working with solutions to store thermal energy – unknowingly and by a coincident – had developed a whole new way of addressing the future’s need for a new battery technology. Quite brilliant!
A CLEAR ROAD AHEAD TEXEL is now in the phase of industrializing and commercializing the new battery technology, and is planning for Gigawatt volume production of batteries in both Europe and the US, within the next 5-6 years.
The largest quantity of CO2 emissions due to the use of fossil fuels origins from the production of electricity and heat energy. The TEXEL battery will progressively, in combination with solar and wind produced energy, replace fossil fuel generated energy with renewable energy distribution 24 hours, all year around. The TEXEL technology also offers future possibilities for the battery to be used in larger vehicles like buses, trucks, boats, ferries and airplanes.
“We'll start of by delivering solutions to the larger problems, such as electricity and heat distribution, and take on the smaller challenges like the aviation industry later,” says Lars Jacobsson, founder and CEO of TEXEL Energy Storage.
REVOLUTIONARY TECHNOLOGY. By combining the Stirling engine, developed by Ford Motors, with the thermochemical energy storage solution, developed by the US Department of Energy, the TEXEL battery is able to store energy extremely cheap for hundreds of years with no degradation problems and is fully recyclable, sustainable and circular.
NO BACKUP SYSTEM NEEDED. The TEXEL battery can be charged with any form of electricity, converted to thermal energy, but could also be charged with any form of heat source. In a microgrid, the battery could be charged with wind and solar energy, but during periods of no wind and/or sunshine the TEXEL system doesn’t require a backup system, as the battery could be charged with any heat source, for example gas. To maintain a fully renewable microgrid the gas could for example be locally produced Hydrogen gas.
TARGET MARKETS The TEXEL battery technology is targeting the large scale battery market with applications ranging from cars, buses, trucks, boats, ferries to households, commercial buildings, microgrids, island storage, communities and large grid energy storage.
