{"id":470939,"date":"2024-02-28T06:30:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-28T05:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovationorigins.com\/?p=470939"},"modified":"2024-02-28T06:30:00","modified_gmt":"2024-02-28T05:30:00","slug":"not-a-battery-not-a-boiler-but-nestore-promises-to-provide-cheap-energy-to-everyone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/not-a-battery-not-a-boiler-but-nestore-promises-to-provide-cheap-energy-to-everyone\/","title":{"rendered":"Not a battery, not a boiler. But NEStore promises to provide cheap energy to everyone"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rare earths, minerals, and lithium: we all came to familiarize ourselves with them. We know how important they are for making batteries but also how difficult sourcing them is. NEStore, an innovative solution that can store electricity in hot water for months, proves that energy storage can exist without rare minerals, too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why this is important: <\/h2>

Easy-to-install, cheap, and smart solutions can help households better manage their energy, especially to stash power for later use. Newton Energy Systems is working in that direction. <\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Delft-based Newton Energy Solutions (NES<\/a>) is behind this idea. As a spin-off of the Dutch Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), it results from a decade of testing and experimenting within the institute’s energy storage investigation group. \u201cThe end conclusion was: you can do anything technologically, but who will pay for it? Some technologies are expensive, others are too dangerous,\u201d says Pavol Bodis, CEO of the company. Water and steel can do the job storing electricity safely and at a lower cost. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like a conventional water boiler, NEStore converts electricity \u2013 from solar panels or the grid \u2013 into heat, storing it without heat losses in water for weeks. When discharged, the system delivers hot water. Providing everyone with cheap and green energy is the company\u2019s mission. Active for two years now, NES has installed fifteen of its devices for commercial customers. NES is taking steps to live up to its proposition. Their standard 20 kWh unit takes less than 2 hours to install and costs \u20ac5,000, excluding taxes.  Home use is the primary application envisioned by the TNO spinoff for NEStore, but any place where hot water is needed could enjoy its benefits. Hotels, hospitals, and sports centers could also be potential use cases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

This is an article from our magazine IO Next: Energy Storage<\/a>. In the puzzle of our new energy system, balancing supply and demand for energy is the greatest challenge. And that’s why we dedicate this magazine to that crucial puzzle piece.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Stashing power as brewing an espresso  <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Bodis draws a practical metaphor to explain the functioning of NEStore. \u201cIt\u2019s a flow-through heater, comparable to an espresso coffee machine. During the charging phase, water enters the system and gets warmed up, and when discharging, the user draws this hot water.\u201d From room temperature, the system warms the water up to 110 degrees Celsius, well over the threshold reached by conventional boilers. Besides, it has six to eight times the capacity of a regular boiler. A thinner insulation system plays its part, but, most importantly, the higher water temperature allows for stashing more energy within the same volume. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although shying away from defining NEStore as a battery \u2013 meaning an electrical one \u2013  the device still stores thermal energy for weeks. Whereas conventional boilers rapidly lose heat \u2014 up to 30 percent in 24 hours \u2013 Newton Energy System\u2019s tech can maintain it for weeks. This is possible thanks to the vacuum insulation system, which minimizes heat losses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While developing the prototype, producing the system with the best possible insulating material and the design became the first concern of NES. The team stubbornly insisted on its idea, despite the many talks with other industry actors suggesting that water would get quickly cold anyway. The result is a two-vessel design,  with a layer of glass foam between the steel foils and a vacuum valve that insulates the system. \u201cOur system loses about one Celsius degree per day, and it\u2019s a world of difference compared to conventional solutions,\u201d Bodis emphasizes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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On the left is the NEStore, and on the right, Bodis shows the insulation system of NEStore. – \u00a9 Newton Energy Systems<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Not a battery, not a boiler<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On its website homepage, NES explicitly says that the system is  \u201cnot a battery, not a boiler\u201d. Despite the explanation, the conundrum arises again, but Bodis knows how to solve it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNEStore is not a battery in the sense of an electrical battery. In fact, we store electricity and turn it into heat when charging it, but we don\u2019t turn heat into electricity when discharging. Unless you have temperatures over 250 degrees Celsius and want to turn it into steam, it is a nonsensical and dangerous concept for home use. In addition, NEStore is not a boiler. A boiler was invented to allow us to shower without drawing too much power from the grid. It doesn\u2019t have the purpose of storing energy for longer periods of time,\u201d he clarifies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flexibility <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To provide cheap and green energy, NEStore charges when the rooftop solar panels (if available) are harvesting sunlight or when the quota of green electricity on the grid is high \u2013 usually when wind farms produce more. The heat storage system connects to the internet and runs its own software. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, the system can adapt to usage patterns, recognizing the different parameters of a user profile. \u201cEvery household is different. The grandpa living alone might shower once every two days, and having a five percent state of charge is enough. A family with three teenagers might probably need a minimum of sixty percent. Boilers do what they need to, but they don\u2019t have flexibility; they don\u2019t have a brain, but NEStore does,\u201d Bodis remarks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Installing was also made easy. Two water connections \u2013 one for input and one for output \u2013 a socket and access to the internet network make setting up possible in less than three hours. \u201cBesides being a sustainable solution, our system doesn\u2019t have all the runaway problems electric batteries have,\u201d says NES\u2019 CEO.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>
<\/div><\/div>
Subscription-based home batteries on the rise<\/div>
Otovo, the Norwegian solar installation specialist, is introducing a subscription service for home batteries in the Netherlands, reducing households’ dependence on the grid.<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

Beyond home storage solutions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the 20 kWh system, the NEStore is also available in a 30 kWh version \u2013 costing \u20ac6,000, exclusive taxes. \u201cFor a lithium battery of the same capacity, the cost is around \u20ac25,000. That\u2019s a different order of magnitude, although we only built a small number of units,\u201d underlines Bodis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As soon as the NEStore received the European certification, requests came from all over the globe, \u201cexcept Antarctica\u201d. The focus now is fully on the Netherlands, with the intent to follow installations closely. By the end of this year, NES aims to install 500 commercial units, hitting the thousand mark in 2025. In scaling up its game, the company is now raising funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If bringing affordable, clean power to everyone is the main driver of NES, there is more that decentralized energy storage can do. Bodis: \u201cIn the Netherlands and other countries, society cannot take further steps because the energy grid is full. Municipalities cannot build new buildings, a problem that is very felt here. Addressing the grid problem can enable us to tackle the housing problem, phase out fossil fuels, and work on energy poverty.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rare earths, minerals, and lithium: we all came to familiarize ourselves with them. We know how important they are for making batteries but also how difficult sourcing them is. NEStore, an innovative solution that can store electricity in hot water for months, proves that energy storage can exist without rare minerals, too.  The Delft-based Newton […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2084,"featured_media":506615,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[4462,76438,83593,83595,66796,69558],"location":[6763],"article_type":[43139],"serie":[],"archives":[],"internal_archives":[],"reboot-archive":[82815],"class_list":["post-470939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sustainability-nl","tag-batterij","tag-battery-magazine","tag-home-batteries-2","tag-newton-energy-system","tag-thermal-battery","tag-tno-2","location-netherlands","article_type-features","reboot-archive-green"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":{"subtitle":"Newton Energy Systems developed a device that can store electricity in hot water for months, offering it at an accessible price. ","text_display_homepage":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"Mauro Mereu","author_link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/author\/mauro-mereu\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/OIG2.QcJuViLZHNBo2FTX.jpeg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Sustainability<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Sustainability<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["batterij<\/a>","battery magazine<\/a>","home batteries<\/a>","Newton Energy System<\/a>","thermal battery<\/a>","TNO<\/a>"],"unlinked":["batterij<\/span>","battery magazine<\/span>","home batteries<\/span>","Newton Energy System<\/span>","thermal battery<\/span>","TNO<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 2 years ago","modified":"Updated 2 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on February 28, 2024","modified":"Updated on February 28, 2024"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on February 28, 2024 6:30 am","modified":"Updated on February 28, 2024 6:30 am"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2084"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470939"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=470939"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=470939"},{"taxonomy":"serie","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/serie?post=470939"},{"taxonomy":"archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/archives?post=470939"},{"taxonomy":"internal_archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal_archives?post=470939"},{"taxonomy":"reboot-archive","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reboot-archive?post=470939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}