L'imprenditorialità al servizio dell'emergenza climatica

Shifted Energy Storage

Soggetto a valutazione : Dopo essere stati pre-selezionati per assicurarsi che soddisfino uno dei 20 problematiche presentate da Team for the Planet e che abbiano il grado di maturità previsto, le innovazioni sono presentate per la valutazione.

As countries rapidly expand solar and wind power, an increasing amount of clean electricity is wasted because it is produced when demand is low. At other times, when the sun is not shining or the wind is weak, fossil-fuel power plants are still needed to keep the grid running. Solving this mismatch between renewable electricity production and demand is one of the greatest challenges of the energy transition. Our innovation is a long-duration energy storage system that can store renewable electricity for several days and deliver it back to the grid whenever it is needed. The system uses electricity that would otherwise be curtailed to compress air and store it safely inside underground salt caverns, which are natural geological formations that have already been used around the world for decades to store natural gas and hydrogen. When electricity demand increases, the compressed air is released to drive turbines and generate clean electricity. The key innovation lies in the compression and expansion process. Conventional compressed-air energy storage systems lose a significant amount of energy because air heats up during compression and cools during expansion. Our patented technology uses liquid-piston compressors and expanders combined with a direct-contact heat exchange process to keep the air close to a constant temperature. This near-isothermal process dramatically improves efficiency while reducing mechanical complexity and cost. Unlike lithium-ion batteries, our solution does not rely on critical minerals, has an expected lifetime of minimum thirty years, and becomes increasingly cost-effective for storing electricity over many hours or even several days. This makes it particularly well suited to balancing power systems with a high share of renewable energy. By making renewable electricity available whenever it is needed, our technology reduces renewable energy curtailment, limits the need for fossil-fuel backup power plants, strengthens energy security, and accelerates the transition toward a reliable, affordable, and carbon-neutral electricity system. Long-duration energy storage is widely recognized as one of the missing building blocks of a net-zero energy system. Our innovation provides a scalable, sustainable, and economically viable solution that can help power grids around the world operate with much higher shares of renewable electricity while significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Data di presentazione 24 luglio 2026 Luogo di sviluppo 83 allée du Mont Aiguille, CLAIX, Francia

Il progetto in dettaglio

NB: questo modulo deve essere compilato completamente dalle persone che propongono l'innovazione.

Qual è il problema risolto?

The rapid growth of solar and wind power is transforming electricity systems worldwide, but their variable nature creates a fundamental challenge: electricity is often produced when demand is low and unavailable when demand is high. As a result, increasing amounts of renewable electricity are curtailed (wasted), while fossil-fuel power plants must still be kept available to ensure a reliable electricity supply. This dependence on gas- and coal-fired generation limits greenhouse gas emission reductions, increases electricity costs, and slows the transition to a carbon-neutral energy system. Existing battery technologies are well suited to storing electricity for a few hours but become prohibitively expensive for multi-day storage and rely on critical minerals with significant environmental and geopolitical impacts. To achieve net-zero emissions, electricity systems need affordable, large-scale, long-duration energy storage capable of storing surplus renewable electricity for several days and delivering it whenever it is needed. Solving this challenge is essential to maximize the use of renewable energy, reduce reliance on fossil fuels, and build a resilient, low-carbon electricity grid.

Come si risolve?

Our innovation is a long-duration energy storage system based on near-isothermal compressed air energy storage (CAES). When renewable electricity production exceeds demand, the surplus electricity powers compressors that store compressed air in underground salt caverns—safe, naturally occurring geological formations that have been used for decades for large-scale gas storage. When electricity demand increases, the compressed air is released to drive turbines and generate electricity, providing clean power whenever it is needed. The core innovation is our patented near-isothermal compression and expansion technology. Conventional CAES systems lose a significant amount of energy because air heats up during compression and cools during expansion. Our system combines liquid-piston compressors and expanders with a direct-contact heat exchange process that continuously transfers heat between air and a liquid, keeping the air close to a constant temperature throughout the cycle. This significantly improves energy efficiency while reducing system complexity and cost. By combining this high-efficiency thermodynamic process with the very low cost of underground salt caverns for energy storage, our technology enables affordable, multi-day electricity storage at utility scale. It provides a sustainable alternative to fossil-fuel power plants for balancing renewable electricity, without relying on critical minerals or emitting greenhouse gases during operation.

In che modo questa soluzione è diversa?

Our solution combines three advantages that are rarely achieved together: low cost, high efficiency, and long-duration storage. The first key differentiator is our patented near-isothermal compression and expansion technology, which significantly reduces the energy losses that limit conventional compressed air energy storage systems. By maintaining the air close to a constant temperature throughout the cycle, we improve efficiency while simplifying the system architecture. Second, we use underground salt caverns as the energy storage medium. These naturally occurring geological formations provide one of the lowest-cost options for storing very large amounts of energy, enabling electricity to be stored for several days at a fraction of the cost of batteries. Third, unlike lithium-ion batteries, our technology does not rely on critical minerals, offers an operational lifetime of several decades with minimal performance degradation, and requires only a small surface footprint because the energy is stored underground in salt caverns. As storage duration increases, our cost advantage becomes even greater, making the technology particularly attractive for balancing electricity grids with high shares of wind and solar power. Together, these advantages enable us to store surplus renewable electricity for several days and deliver it back to the grid at a cost competitive with gas-fired power, without the associated CO₂ emissions. This positions our technology as a practical solution for accelerating the transition to a reliable, affordable, and net-zero electricity system.