An aerial view of the project in Tuscany, Italy. Image: Business Wire.
Utility and power generation company Enel Group and Brenmiller Energy have inaugurated a thermal energy storage system in Italy using the latter’s proprietary bGen technology.
Israel-based Brenmiller’s energy storage unit has been deployed at a power plant in Santa Barbara, Tuscany, and will help the plant to use renewable energy, by enabling reduced start-up times and greater speed in load variations.
The system charges by heating rocks using steam from the facility, and discharges by releasing the accumulated heat to heat pressurised water and generate steam for electricity. It can store up to 24MWh of heat energy at 550°C for five hours.
“Our TES (thermal energy storage) system at Enel’s Santa Barbara power plant in Tuscany is the first-ever system of its kind to provide…