For years, the photo voltaic vitality sector has grappled with interseasonal vitality storage. The power to harness the excess photo voltaic vitality of summer time months to be used through the winter has remained an elusive objective, with present options like batteries falling quick on account of prohibitive prices and restricted lifespans. Hydrogen, in the meantime, regardless of its clean-burning properties, has been sidelined on account of inefficiency and excessive prices.

Photoncycle — a startup rising from the depths of an accelerator in Oslo Science Park in Oslo, Norway — has been engaged on an answer. With a imaginative and prescient as brilliant because the summer time solar, the startup claims its strong hydrogen-based know-how can retailer vitality extra effectively in an ammonia synthesis reactor. The declare is that this tech does the storage extra cost-effectively than any battery or liquid hydrogen answer available on the market.

A schematic of how Photoncycle envisions its full system when put in at a home. Picture Credit: Photoncycle

“Lithium-ion batteries use expensive metals. Our materials is tremendous low cost: To retailer 10,000 kilowatt-hours, it prices round $1,500, so it’s nearly nothing. As well as, our storage answer is 20 instances the density of a lithium-ion battery, and also you don’t lose the present,” founder and CEO Bjørn Brandtzaeg explains in an interview with TechCrunch. “Which means we have now a system the place you may comprise vitality over time, enabling seasonal storage. It’s a very completely different factor than conventional batteries.” 

Photoncycle employs water and electrical energy to provide hydrogen. That in itself isn’t unusual in case you’ve been following gasoline cell car know-how. Nevertheless, the corporate’s method incorporates an revolutionary twist: a reversible high-temperature gasoline cell. This superior gasoline cell can produce hydrogen and generate electrical energy inside the similar unit. 

The core of Photoncycle’s innovation lies in its remedy of hydrogen. They course of the hydrogen after which make the most of its know-how to transform and retailer it in a strong kind. The corporate claims this storage technique will not be solely secure, owing to the non-flammable and non-explosive nature of the strong state, but additionally extremely environment friendly. It permits hydrogen storage at densities roughly 50% higher than liquid hydrogen, presenting a big development in hydrogen storage options. These improvements kind the cornerstone of Photoncycle’s system, facilitating secure and dense hydrogen storage, which the corporate says is a large step ahead in vitality know-how.

Present clear vitality options reminiscent of rooftop solar energy are restricted by inconsistent provide because of the unpredictable nature of climate situations. A sturdy, reusable vitality storage answer may bridge these timings, making certain a steady vitality provide when these renewable sources encounter unavoidable intermittent durations. 

Nice in concept, however not with out its personal challenges.

“The Netherlands is the nation in Europe with the best density of rooftop photo voltaic. We’re seeing a large ramp now due to excessive vitality costs; everybody needs photo voltaic on the roof,” Brandtzaeg says. He provides, nevertheless, that this technique can backfire for householders: “In July final yr, within the Netherlands, in the midst of the day, you needed to pay €500 a megawatt hour to export your electrical energy.”

Placing the vitality storage together with the home producing the ability successfully lets homes go off-grid. Photoncycle says it has examined and labored the primary parts of its answer — the subsequent step is to combine it right into a system. If profitable, the corporate says it may possibly critically problem Powerwall, Tesla’s lithium-ion battery answer.

David Gerez, CTO at Photoncycle, and Ole Laugerud, who’s a Photoncycle chemist, in Photoncycle’s purpose-built lab, which has been operational for shut to 2 years. Picture Credit: Photoncycle

“It is a comparatively complicated system — that’s why we have now so many PhDs in several disciplines engaged on this. The rationale why Elon Musk mentioned that hydrogen is silly, is that whenever you convert electrical energy to hydrogen and again, you might be dropping fairly a little bit of vitality,” Brandtzaeg says. He believes his firm can flip this bug right into a characteristic. “In a residential setting the place 70% of vitality wants are heating, there is a chance to make use of that extra warmth to supply sizzling water. We are going to goal markets the place persons are utilizing pure fuel for heating in the meanwhile after which exchange the fuel boiler in the home utilizing the prevailing water-based infrastructure.”

Brandtzaeg’s confidence relating to the idea’s operational framework is compelling. He gestured towards a small mock-up of their operations plant inside their labs, scaled all the way down to the scale of a automobile battery. Brandtzaeg believes this scaling must be problem-free, citing it as the first motive they felt assured transferring ahead with the venture. 

With regards to energy supply, it takes a short while for the hydrogen to generate electrical energy, so whereas it’s spooling up, the corporate depends on an middleman, extra typical, battery for load balancing. The agency definitely has buyers’ consideration: Photoncycle simply raised $5.3 million (€5 million) to construct its first few energy storage units in Denmark, which Photoncycle has chosen as its take a look at market. 

“We may have raised 10 instances as a lot as we did, given the curiosity. However after this increase, I’m nonetheless a majority proprietor,” Brandtzaeg says. “I wished to maintain management over the enterprise so long as doable and never increase extra capital than we have to carry this service to market.”