PRESS RELEASE
November 11th, 2022
Hyme Energy pioneers new storage technology in first-of-a-kind retrofit of existing combined heat and power plant
Hyme Energy is happy to announce that our product will be deployed in 2024 in Rønne, the main city of the Danish energy island, Bornholm. This will be the first deployment of Hyme Energy’s technology as part of the operations of a combined heat and power plant.
As fossil-based power plants are being decommissioned and phased out, the need for back-up power by renewable energy solutions will become crucial if we want to avoid grid instabilities and blackouts or very high prices of electricity at times of low renewable production.
Hyme Energy has a vision to contribute to the green transition of the utility and industrial sector through the provision of large-scale energy storage solutions based on hydroxide molten salts. Proving the technology of Hyme in operational settings is key to being able to unlock this vision and to enable the green transition of combined heat and power plants as well as of industrial sites.
Now, Hyme has joined forces with Bornholms Energi & Forsyning (BEOF) to deploy a demonstrator plant to prove our technology in an operational setting. The plant will have a storage capacity of up to 20 MWh and will output around 1 MW and will provide heat, power and also ancillary services for the grid. The plant will prove that Hyme Energy’s technology can be deployed seamlessly in operation – either at combined heat and power plants or at industrial sites to provide heat and power on demand. The project is supported generously by the EU through the Horizon Europe program.
Ask Løvschall-Jensen, the CEO of Hyme Energy, says: “We’re proud to be able to partner with Bornholms Energi & Forsyning to show the promise of our technology. We start small, but will together show all that the technology can do. In the longer run, Hyme aims to perform full retrofits of combined heat and power plants with GWhs of storage.”
“At BEOF, we’re fully focused on making net zero operations of our heat and power plant possible as early as possible. We fully believe that new storage technologies will play a key role in rethinking our current combined heat and power plant. We are hugely interested to learn more about Hyme’s technology and assist them in bridging the gap to the market,” says Claus Andersen, the CEO of Bornholms Energi & Forsyning.
After the completion of the plant, Hyme will be ready for commercial deployment of plants of up to 1 GWh or more.
Retrofitting power plants with storage technology
Instead of shutting down outdated fossil-fueled plants and scrapping assets worth billions, we can repurpose these heat and power plants to house a state-of-the-art energy storage reusing e.g. the existing turbines and transformer units. This approach would make the transition of the energy sector less costly, save resources, and – importantly – let traditional power and combined heat and power plants continue to play the important role of stabilizing the grid.
Hyme’s technology will be deployed as part of a larger project, “2nd Life in Power Plants” which aims to show that several storage technologies can be deployed together in a retrofit of traditional power and combined heat and power plants to phase out fossil fuels quickly and cost-efficiently to take their place in ensuring security of supply as a back-up to intermittent renewables.
Traditional combined heat and power plants can be repurposed with thermal storage and continue to play their important role of stabilizing the grid. This is a way to keep valuable assets in operation, save resources and reduce the cost of the energy transition.
Hyme as part of the world’s first energy island
Hyme Energy is particularly happy to be able to deploy our technology on Bornholm. Bornholm is expected to become an epicenter in the Danish energy sector as an energy island. Energy storage will be needed at large scale on energy islands to compensate for intermittent renewable production.
Claus Andersen continues: “Bornholm as an energy island is going to play a key role in enabling new value chains and concepts in the energy sector – and we hope that our work with Hyme can contribute to bringing a piece of the green transition puzzle into play commercially.”
Ask Løvschall-Jensen adds: ”Building a plant together with BEOF on Bornholm will help us to show that Hyme’s technology and product can play a crucial role in the Danish energy islands and in establishing new ecosystems and value chains within the energy sector.”
About Hyme’s technology
Hyme storage plants are erected on-site and delivered to the customer by Hyme and partners as a turn-key product ready to produce combined heat and power or industrial heat, as needed.
The storage plants will store from 200 MWhs up to 10 GWh or more with very little footprint. This storage capacity will enable 4-24 hours of full load operation.
Hyme’s storage plants are based on proprietary corrosion control technology and will be the first in the world to deploy molten hydroxide salts, a game-changer for molten salt energy storage.
For more information, please contact:
Karine Blandel, Senior Business Developer, +45 51 52 21 90
media@hyme.energy