Industrial firebrick thermal storage could receive $75m US federal funds

The US Department of Energy (DoE) is negotiating an award of up to $75 million to install firebrick heat storage systems at two sites owned by alcoholic beverage producer Diageo North America.

The systems would be provided by Rondo Energy and powered at least partly by renewable electricity, a Diageo spokesperson said.

Firebricks can be heated to high temperatures using electricity. The stored heat can be used to produce heated air or steam for industrial processes or to generate electricity for use on-site.

Rondo Energy said its “heat batteries” would produce heat and power at Diageo sites in Shelbyville, Kentucky, and Plainfield, Illinois, and would begin operation by 2026 and 2028, respectively. The thermal storage systems would replace methane gas-fired heat.

A Diageo spokesperson said power for the project will include local solar resources and renewable electricity from the grid backed by renewable energy certificates.

The DoE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations announced the beginning of award negotiations in March 2024, saying the projects would provide “a highly replicable blueprint” for how manufacturing facilities can integrate thermal batteries with intermittent renewable energy supply to achieve direct decarbonization. At that time, the DoE said the projects would be powered by onsite renewables.

Federal body the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will support Diageo in its technoeconomic and life-cycle analyses, Diageo said, and will validate carbon reductions at both projects.

The DoE said Diageo is committed to sharing air and water quality monitoring results with the public to inform communities about reductions in air pollutants once the projects are operating.

Rondo Energy offers two sizes of heat battery, according to its system specification sheet. The larger system has an energy storage capacity of 300 MWh, a peak charge rate of 70 MWac, a maximum discharge rate of 20 MW-thermal, and minimal loss of heat over a one-day storage period. The smaller system is about a third the size of the larger product.

Rondo Energy describes its first project, a 2 MWh system delivering industrial heat at Calgren Renewable Fuels in California, as the first electric thermal energy storage system in commercial operation and the “world’s highest temperature, highest efficiency” commercial energy storage system.

The DoE previously provided $4 million for a heated sand energy storage pilot project at an NREL facility.

From pv magazine USA.