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Clean Energy
Malta Inc ., Alfa Laval , Siemens Energy , and DLR secure extensive grant to drive Germany ’ s clean energy transition
Storing intermittent renewable energy for later use will be crucial to unlock the energy transition .
Malta Inc ., a world leader in long duration energy storage ( LDES ), announced that its German subsidiary was awarded a grant to support a
€ 9-million effort to accelerate the German energy transition .
By Alfa Laval
Malta Hochtemperatur Wärmepumpen Stromspeicher GmbH , Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt ( DLR ), Alfa Laval , and Siemens Energy were awarded funding by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection ( BMWK ) to support Germany ’ s efforts to achieve Paris Agreement climate targets and to be climate-neutral by 2045 . Germany needs to electrify its heating sector and to ensure that expanded renewable power generation is available on-demand and around-the-clock . The grant will fund a technoeconomic analysis of the potential for Malta ’ s LDES technology to help decarbonize both electricity and heat generation in Germany . It will also support the expansion of DLR ’ s world-leading test facility for thermal energy storage in molten salts ( TESIS ) to validate an innovative , Alfa Laval-built heat exchanger .
On course for decarbonization “ We are honored to partner with the German government and its leading national laboratory , the DLR , to explore how Malta ’ s technology can accelerate the transition off natural gas ,” said Ramya Swaminathan , CEO of Malta . “ This important work will identify how best to meet Germany ’ s decarbonization goals , create jobs in German turbomachinery manufacturing , and deliver a just transition by creating clean energy construction and operations jobs for the nation ’ s current energy workforce .” Sigmund Brielmaier , Head of LDES at Siemens Energy , states : “ Besides being the turbomachinery supplier for Malta ’ s technology , we are keen to contribute with our expertise to this project that enables the energy transition . LDES is a key to decarbonize the energy system and this project offers a great opportunity to explore new ways of decarbonized combined heat and power applications .” Alasdair Maciver , Head of Energy Storage Solutions at Alfa Laval comments : “ Energy storage is pivotal when driving the shift towards renewable energy sources . We are very pleased that our pioneering and highly efficient heat exchanger technology , tailored for Malta ’ s energy storage process , will be running in actual operational settings . It is a milestone in the pathway towards competitive , long-term energy storage and the transformation of the European energy market into a more sustainable future .”
Clean power plant Malta ’ s innovative pumped-thermal energy storage ( PTES ) plant is a like-for-like replacement for fossil-fueled power plants . It generates 100-MW of clean power and 70-MW of clean heat , but it uses an industrial grade heat pump to replace the carbon emissions and volatile price of fossil fuels with zero-emissions , lowest-cost-available renewable energy . The heat pump converts the electricity to thermal energy , which can be stored for hours to days . When needed , a heat engine reconverts the thermal energy into clean power and heat , returning more than 90 % of the original energy to the grid with little-to-no degradation over its 30 + year lifespan . As an LDES asset , Malta ’ s technology allows utilities to reliably deploy vastly more wind and solar power without the risks of unavailability or wasting surplus generation . As a clean power plant , it delivers the same grid resilience and reliability services that fossil-fueled plants do but wind and solar do not . With among the best-available round-trip efficiencies , lowest system degradation , and longest plant life , Malta ’ s clean power and heat plant allows customers to make up lost ground on decarbonization goals . In close collaboration with DLR ’ s Institute of Engineering Thermodynamics , led by Prof . Dr . André Thess , the partners will collaborate on analyses of :
• Use cases for long-duration energy storage in the electricity grid , including grid services , and heat grids ;
• Suitable market mechanisms for long duration storage systems ;
• Identification of sites for potential deployment ; and
• Validation of an innovative Alfa Laval heat exchanger at DLR ’ s TESIS , the world-leading facility for hightemperature , molten-salt , thermal storage technology .
16 Heat Exchanger World February 2024 www . heat-exchanger-world . com