The Need For Storing Excess, Unused Clean Energy

In the applications that they are employed in, solar and wind usually produce more energy that the system can typically use on a given day. Take homes for instance. Most homes with solar panels typically produce more electricity than the home uses in any given day. What becomes of the unused power? It is fed back to the grid. But what if there was a more efficient storage system for excess power produced from solar or wind energy? This is what Hyme Energy, a Danish-based startup is attempting to do. They are developing a novel technology that uses molten salt to store unused clean energy.

The company uses excess heat produced from clean energy to heat up hydroxide salts and convert them into a molten state. The molten salt is then stored. When the stored energy is needed during periods of high energy demand, the energy stored in the molten salt is converted back to thermal energy which is then used to generate electricity. Hymes Energy hopes to scale the technology over the next few years.