Imagine a giant battery that doesn't just store electricity, but turns it into hydrogen gas when there is too much power and turns that gas back into electricity when the grid is struggling. It works like a two-way street for energy, allowing power companies to store wind or solar energy as gas and switch between modes in under 30 minutes. This helps keep the electricity grid stable while creating a clean fuel source.
Renewable energy is intermittent, causing grid instability. Current storage solutions are either too expensive or cannot efficiently switch between producing and consuming energy at scale.
A 33/100kW reversible Solid Oxide Cell (rSOC) plant capable of switching between electrolysis and fuel cell modes to balance electricity and gas grids.
If you are a TSO dealing with unstable renewable energy spikes — this project developed a 33/100kW rSOC plant that provides grid balancing. It allows you to transition between power generation and consumption in <30 minutes to maintain grid stability.
If you are a gas grid operator dealing with the need to decarbonize fuel supplies — this project developed a system to inject H2 into the grid. It optimizes the route from Power to Gas to Power using H2 or NG as fuel.
If you are a hydrogen producer dealing with high equipment costs — this project developed a way to reduce CAPEX from 6000€/kW to 3500€/kW. This makes the deployment of renewable hydrogen more cost-competitive for industrial use.
The project aims to make the system more cost-competitive by reducing CAPEX from 6000€/kW to 3500€/kW.
The project is designing and building a 33/100kW scale rSOC power balancing plant, with the goal to scale this to multi-MW installations.
Based on available project data, specific licensing terms are not mentioned, but the consortium includes 10 industry partners and 6 SMEs who are developing the technology for commercial exploitation.
The system is designed to transition between modes in less than 30 minutes.
The project targets current densities of 1.5A/cm2 in both modes and degradation rates of 0.4%/kh for 1000h.
The consortium is heavily industry-weighted with 10 industrial partners (59% ratio), including 6 SMEs. This indicates a strong push toward commercialization, integrating the entire value chain from material science (POLITO, FORTH) to system integration (SP_CH, SP_IT) and grid operation (DESFA), ensuring the technology is developed with market requirements in mind.
Contact FUNDACIO INSTITUT DE RECERCA EN ENERGIA DE CATALUNYA for technical specifications on rSOC integration.
Contact us to find partners for scaling rSOC systems to multi-MW installations.
