FROM RHUBARB FIRST ORGANIC FLOW BATTERY FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY’ STORE

GreenenergystorageApplying quinone’s potentialities – a biocompatible molecule, produced by plants during photosynthesis and extractable from rhubarb or other plants – to storage’ sector. Is the pivot where the first organic flow battery for renewable energy’ store turns around, realized by Green Energy Storage, an Italian start up born in 2015 and skilled in efficiency and storage’ technological solutions area.

ACHIEVED HARVARD UNIVERSITY’S PATENT

The battery, yesterday shown in Milan, arises from partnership with Harvard University (Michael J. Aziz and Roy G. Gordon professors), with Rome’s Tor Vergata University (Silvia Licoccia Professor) and with Trento’s Fondazione Bruno Kessler. In particular, the American University bought the license in October 2015 from Green Energy Storage, beginning a path culminated with first technological solution’s debut in Milan, a foundation for power boost and additional fine tunes before real production and placing on the market that, depending on group’ targets, will happen within 2018 and it’ll extend globally. Solutions’ range will start with a 3 kW capacity to reach 10 kW and over.

“We aim for a totally alkaline battery, using quinone quarried from many sources, rhubarb is the most popular one, but this molecule can be extracted by many plants. At this time we’re working on research project to pull it out from wine’s residuals, but we can extract it from oil’s residuals too. Surely is a plentiful element and with significant energy performances”, underlined Green Energy Storage’ President Salvatore Pinto.

A essential concept for us, explained Pinto is “network: we created a model to quicken time and to get into the market with investments, we made an expertise’s network and a market network putting together market, science and knowledge and combining all these elements into one”.

What are, more in details, potentialities linked with choosing a molecule like quinone and the reasons for using it in the batteries’ sector? The input, as professor Michael J. Aziz explained in his speech, was born from looking for vanadium less expensive option’s will, most used metal, to accumulate energy in the flow batteries. In particular, we looked for new molecules able to work in bidirectional way in these kind of batteries. “We know quinone is continuously produced by photosynthesis, that was exactly what we want to apply to a battery’s operation. We manipulated the molecule making it soluble and bringing it at the right voltage, so we created the first quinone’ flow battery”, explained the professor.

The battery will be field tested thanks to two utilities’ partnership: Romande Energie from Switzerland and the Italian Sorgenia, through a long deadline itinerary with many test’ periods and data collection to develop technology. “We have a very important development plan that will take us to have a completely alkaline battery in four years, reaching the objective we have in mind, that is achieving a 200 dollars’ organic flow battery by 2020, sector’s crucial moment”, asserted Pinto, underlining how the project can count now on UE’ 2 millions investment and other 3 millions by Trento’s district.

STOCKPILES, BETWEEN NEW BUSINESS’ MODELS AND INTEGRATED OFFERING

Lots of emerged themes during the morning session’s debate about storage in our Country, an electric’ sector part, as explained the Energy Authority’ president Guido Bortoni, is evolving faster and faster: “For the last ten years – asserted Bortoni – we had a battery storage’ progression, so-calling latu sensu, essentially shifted in top gear and allows to make tangible storage’ application in electric too. This small scale’ storage is collecting approval both for electric energy storage’ demand for mobile app, electric vehicles, and for net’s demands, balance, local balance between made and  consumed”.

Usually, according to Sorgenia’s Business Development Manager Matteo Ceroti, sector’s storage is a “opportunities’ range” where we can find different “business’ models deserving attention“, a section seeing prosumer and all the innovation technologies tending to self-sufficiency, in a central position. Marco Ortu – BKV Italia Spa  Italy Country Manager – underlines, instead, the relevance for utilities of a integration’s typified business’ model, suggesting integrated portfolio’s adoption as one market approach’ key element.

From the normative point of view, according to energy manager and ex GME CEO Massimo Ricci, “permitting to system’s total management, that nowadays is basically centralized, and based on big dimension’s resources, to talk with this kind of devices too, finding a way this kind of devices can really interact even to stabilize the all system is a range we are working on and we have improving’ perspectives in the near future, compatibly with these technologies’ advancement”.

Here following the video with energy authority’s president Guido Bortoni speech’ abstract and the interviews to Michael J. Aziz (Harvard University Professor), Salvatore Pinto, Green Energy Storage’ President and Matteo Ceroti, Sorgenia’s Business Development Manager.

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Giornalista professionista e videomaker con esperienze in diverse agenzie di stampa e testate web. Laurea specialistica in Filosofia, master in giornalismo multimediale.