Page 11 - European Energy Innovation - spring 2018 publication

Spring 2018 European Energy Innovation 11

COMMUNICATION

secondary sides: It is possible to temporarily take a higher
output from the storage than was fed in on the primary
side. The internal heat transfer processes are of the utmost
importance for this.

The project is therefore supported from the beginning therefore also of interest in connection with the "Smart Grid",
by the department of energy/building/environmental in order to use the option of larger "virtual" storage units.
technology of the University of Applied Sciences in Münster Regeneratively generated power can be easily converted
under management of Professor Bernd Boiting, who built into heat via resistance heating – or more efficiently into heat
the corresponding test benches and developed empirical or cold as required via compression chillers.
approaches in order to permit performance examinations of
latent storages and development of calculation approaches. ACHIEVING MORE TOGETHER
The Figure below shows the hydraulic module that can be The innovation consultancy EurA AG has essentially
used to charge and discharge any storage elements in a contributed to successfully applying for subsidies. The
defined manner and to change framework conditions and company has seven offices in Europe and, among others,
flow directions, in order to develop a simple planning tool manages the "Energy Innovation Europe" network, bundling
for system planners and constructors in the end. other innovative companies in Europe in addition to ESDA in
order to establish sustainable international cooperation for
THE ADVANTAGES OF PCM the development of new technologies in the entire energy
Thermal storages based on PCM are comparatively space- area. The network is open to new members. l
saving and permit efficient charging and discharging.
Thermal energy can be saved and emitted on the
temperature level at which the upstream energy converters
work efficiently and connected systems are optimised.
At the same time, they can relieve the mains when they
reduce energy consumption in buildings and balance it out
over time. Energy converter runtimes can be delayed or
extended, which increases system efficiency and reduces
the size of the energy converters. Thermal storages are

Phase Change Materials Information:

Phase Change Materials – PCM www.pcm-ral.de – are materials that www.technologie.esda.de
can reveribly change their state of aggregation based on exteernal, www.axiotherm.de
usual thermal, energy input/discharge. When they change from solid www.energy-innovation-europe.eu
to liquid, they take up a great amount of thermal energy at a constast www.eura-ag.eu
temperature. they will discharge this "latent" stored energy again on
crystallisation at the same temperature level. This way, a lot of thermal This project has received funding from the European
energy can be stored in small spaces and at a consistent temperature. Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation
programme under grant agreement No 778788
PCM storages are therefore a more efficient technology than
conventional water storages. At the same time, their small working
temperature differences increase the efficiencies of thermal heating
and cooling processes.

www.europeanenergyinnovation.eu