Introduction
The Holy Grail of Energy Storage
RheEnergise is bringing innovation to pumped energy storage. We call our new solution High-Density Hydro ™.
HD Hydro ™ uses our proprietary HD Fluid R-19 ™, which has 2.5x the density of water. R-19 gives RheEnergise projects 2.5x the power and 2.5x the energy when compared to water.
Low-cost renewable energy is used to pump RheEnergise's HD Fluid R-19 up a small hill to a buried top storage tank. As energy prices rise the fluid is released and electricity is generated to provide power for homes, transport and industry.
Unlike traditional pumped hydro energy storage, HD Hydro operates on small hills rather than mountains meaning there are far more sites available for projects.
RheEnergise’s energy storage solution incorporates innovations, including new IP, across six sub-systems:
RheEnergise projects provide 10MW to 50MW power and 2 to 10 hours of storage capacity.
Projects can be installed on hills 2.5x lower than a project using water and still achieve the same power - for example, there are many more hills at 150m than at 375m.
2.5x smaller, by volume, meaning dramatically lower construction costs, faster build times, easier reinstatement and easier landscaping - projects can be entirely hidden.
The problem
Energy systems need to decarbonise to prevent climate change. There are many solutions to generate energy without using fossil-fuels, such as, wind and solar power, which now generates electricity at significantly lower costs than fossil-fuel generation.
However renewable sources of energy are intermittent. There is a mismatch between the variability of supply from renewables and consumer demand.
The solution
Energy storage is the solution. However not all energy storage systems are the same in terms of costs and environmental impact.
Energy storage has been around for over a century in the form of pumped-hydro (used to balance constant base-load generation from coal and nuclear with variable demand). However there is nowhere near enough energy storage for a zero-carbon energy system that includes transport, power and heat.
According to BloombergNEF forecasts about 100x more energy storage will be needed globally.
A smaller footprint and reduced costs means that RheEnergise projects provides a superior solution (on a levelised cost basis) other storage technologies, such as batteries.
Bloomberg New Energy Finance Forecast
RheEnergise’s
High-Density Hydro™ solution
Critical to all energy storage solutions are costs, environmental impacts and longevity.
Costs are compared using levelised costs. Analysis shows that RheEnergise’s HD Hydro will be >40% below a Lithium-Ion battery project, and >15% below gas peaking plants.
The environmental impact of batteries are principally measured in terms of the effects of their disposal at the end of their usable life, while gas (and diesel) projects create significant emissions during day-to-day operations. In contrast, HD Hydro projects have very few end of life liabilities and zero emissions in operation.
HD Hydro projects have a predicted life in excess of 60 years, making them a true infrastructure asset.
How RheEnergise pumped energy storage works
At times of low energy prices, the benign HD Fluid R-19 ™ is pumped up a small hill, using abundant low-cost renewable energy. As demand rises the HD Fluid is released from the top (buried) storage tanks and electricity is generated by using our custom designed HD Turbine ™ and supplied to the grid for consumers to use.
Round-trip efficiencies are ~83%, without the parasitic cooling loads associated with batteries.
Competition
RheEnergise solves the many disadvantages of other competing energy storage and grid flexibility solutions:
Land use and construction times are comparable to both gas-peaking plants and Lithium-Ion battery projects and significantly shorter than the decade long construction associated with traditional pumped hydro.
The CO2 emissions and pollution associated with both gas and diesel projects, and the end-of-life liabilities associated with batteries are eliminated.
The social and environmental issues associated with traditional pumped hydro, such as, flooding valleys is avoided entirely.
Opportunity
Aurora Energy Research forecast a £6bn UK requirement for 13GW of new flexible assets by 2030.
BloombergNEF predict an energy storage market worth >$620bn by 2050.
The UK's Climate Change Committee states that energy storage is the key enabler necessary to achieve a net-zero carbon energy system.
RheEnergise’s digital mapping analysis show that there are ~9,500 UK site opportunities, ~ 80,000 in Europe and ~160,000 in Africa. Unlike conventional pumped hydro storage, HD Hydro is scalable and can meet the global demand for growth.
The HD Fluid R-19 in a closed system means it can be installed anywhere, including in areas short of water such as desert climates.
