Name of the case
GreenBox ICT technology

Description
Hybrid Space Oy is a spinoff from Planora Oy. It was founded in March 2023 to develop and commercialize GreenBox ICT technology. The implementation of GreenBox technology uses the functionality of two of Planora’s patents. (Europatent EP3866437, granted 16.8.2023 and Europatent EP4167111A1, pending, endorsed of acceptance 17.1.2024).

Planora Oy was founded in 1987. Today, Planora is an energy-solution company with extensive knowledge, expertise and experience in municipal engineering design as well as industry and automation design. The company has specialized in optimizing district heating networks. The networks contain and increasing amount of varying data from different network sources and IoT points. Planora Oy developed its own data and documents utilization software, which is able to integrate in the new way information from various sources to manage the whole system and to improve also the system’s data security. This – 35year development resulted the breakthrough called as GreenBox ICT technology, which is the quantum leap in the development of ICT technology.

The patented GreenBox ICT technology manages the challenges caused by the increasing data flows from diverse data sources and IoT connections as well as changing requirements for data management of different companies and countries. It provides a solution for safe data transfer and easy integration between different systems.

Hybrid Space Oy will globally commercialize this technology. To do that the company needs partners.

What is the impact of your case?
GreenBox ICT technology has impacts to most sectors utilizing ICT.

It meets three main requirements for all ICT applications.
1.Supports EU data strategy from year 2020, where each data owner must be able to manage their own data,
(https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:52020DC0066)
2. Complies with existing and future ICT and Data regulations.
3. Is compatible with all existing and future ICT systems and applications.

In addition to those GreenBox technology
1. Saves significantly in ICT equipment costs, up to 40–70%.
2. Significantly reduces ICT energy consumption, up to 50%. Therefore, also reduces ICT’s carbon emissions.
3. Significantly reduces the need for ICT personnel.
4. Enables data integration/optimization of functions and management with information.
5. Is the most secure ICT technology available, because security is built into the system (in existing systems, security is outsourced).

GreenBox supports,
• European Data Strategy by aiding creating a data-driven society, giving users rights, tools and skills to stay in full control of their data.
• European Data Act by improving safeguards against unlawful data transfers.
• European Cloud strategy by improving data protection and providing energy efficient solutions.

How is your case innovative?
Hybrid Space Oy has developed and patented breakthrough ICT technology to manage the challenges caused by the increasing data flows from diverse data sources and IoT connections as well as to manage changing requirements for data management of different companies and countries. It provides a solution for safe data transfer and easy integration between different ICT systems.

The core innovation of GreenBox technology is the creation, management and transfer of Data Objects. Essentially, Data Objects contain defined data in an undefined format. This is a new and revolutionary way to create program-independent, encrypted data that contains all information about the data including user rights, ownership, data models, processing formats and version control. This information together ensures data transfer and protection without third-party services.
Existing ICT is based on just data elements from the data base of an application. To transfer and to integrate those data elements needs a lot of third-party services to tell all meta information related to data elements. When Data Object are utilized, no third-party services are needed.
The content of a Data Object is stored in S-expression format. GreenBox uses Blockchain to update and manage the Data Objects, but without the heavy mining operations required for cryptocurrencies. This allows the presentation of data free of predefined formats or standards.
A Data Object contains all data from applications, IoT points or databases. When the application in the master system requests information from the Data Object, the Green Box application forms a data packet of the data desired by that application in the format desired by that application. Green Box will then send the data to the application that queried the package. This makes Data Objects independent of applications and software.
The Data Objects are stored in Data Seas. Those can be located either in the company’s own computers or servers. The Data Sea is isolated by GreenBoxes. Date Sea is not directly connected to the internet and only sends and receives packages via the GreenBox.
Below some special features of GreenBox Technology.

GreenBox software
• GreenBox is a software that creates and transfers Data Objects,
• Each GreenBox software application is individual and cannot be altered or duplicated,
• Each GreenBox creates its own encryption keys in the device it is installed on,
• Each GreenBox randomizes communication routes,
• Each GreenBox is using only asynchronous communication,
• GreenBox is utilizing Stealth Technology when transferring data between GreenBoxes,
• Each GreenBox program detects and adapts to changing characteristics of available communication channels,
• GreenBox program detects and exploits all available network paths,
• GreenBox program is adaptable to any network infrastructure.

Data Objects
• Data Object is a program-independent object, so it has no programming language restrictions,
• It contains all needed information to utilise that for different purposes, so basically it includes all processing formats,
• It contains information about the owner and who can use the information, as well as the format in which the information will be used,
• The data object also includes version control, so traditional version control is not required,
• Because Data Objects are presented in S-Expression format, the object can receive, and store and update information of an Data Objects utilizing block chain technology. Based on that, it can have lifetime data of objects.

Data Sea
• GreenBox creates the Data Sea to save and to update Data Objects,
• Data Sea is connected to the Internet only via GreenBox,
• Data Sea sends and receives data packets via the Green Box,
• The Data Sea is not made up of traditional SQL and NoSql databases, so there is no need to index data, that slows down operations,
• Data Sea is so called S-expression database,
• The database is free and can be installed by the Green Box at the user’s choice,
• The Data Sea is based on a decentralized operating model.

Name of the case
Nutrient Catchers

Description
Nutrients are both vital to us and a problem: vital because our agricultural system relies on fertilizers and a problem because excess nutrients in the natural environment cause a wide array of problems and nutrient rich wastewaters are expensive to treat. Nutrient recovery from wastewaters has become a critical issue for European food security, especially after the Russian attack since most of the fertilizers are imported to the European Union. In addition, the nutrient cycles, particularly nitrogen, are major contributors to the global greenhouse gas emissions through fossil-based Haber-Bosch process.

Recovering nutrients is a way to provide agriculture with a local stream of fertilizers. Historically manure and most digestate flows have been suitable for agricultural use. However, new European Green Deal regulation aims to control the pollutant emissions in Europe on a new level. In practice this means that there is an upper limit on how much nutrients are allowed to be used in agriculture. In manure-rich areas in Central Europe, this means that organic waste flows are becoming an economic problem since they need to be treated. Municipal wastewater treatment plants are an option, although often they are expensive and limited by treatment capacity.

NPHarvest nutrient recovery technology has been developed to provide a profitable pathway to recover nutrients from different waste streams as clean and safe products. The development started in 2017 in Aalto University and the technology has been tested with a field scale pilot in several different industrial and municipal environments (biogas plant, municipal reject water, landfill leachate, black water & urine). NPHarvest has became a university spin off start-up on September 2023. We are ready to start production of our first relatively large scale (20 m3/day, effluent) unit in few months.

We have already been contacted for a solution to many biogas operators in Finland and abroad to solve especially the nitrogen loads in digestate. NPHarvest plans to be the leading technology for this by 2034.

What is the impact of your case?
Currently there is two options for biogas field treat liquid digestate. First is the unsustainable and soon to be “strictly regulated” disposal to surrounding lands. This method is almost free (excluding storage and transportation costs) but also problematic to the environment. Especially as the plant sizes increase it would be impossible to get rid of all the liquid digestate from a biogas plant.

The other option so far has been to treat the digestate either on site or by sending it to a wastewater treatment plant. Both methods are big costs to the operators and only works if there are subsidies or punishment (so called stick). With former situation no technology existed to treat liquid digestate while making profit. All the available technologies required either high heat, high pressure, and high amount of chemical or any combination of these.

NPHarvest is created to tackle this problem. To offer the so called carrot to the biogas plants, wastewater treatment plants and farmers. We offer a solution that they can use to generate profit, tackle their problem and at the same time provide recycled fertilizers and decrease N2O emissions (GHG emissions).

How is your case innovative?
NPHarvest uses a specially designed membrane technology which does not require high heat or pressure. This combined with the longevity of our membrane material (as it is passive system almost no deformation occurs) We can recover up to 90% of the Nitrogen and Phosphorus from the digestates with using the least amount of energy and chemicals.

Our technology uses energy up to 20% of competitors (according to pre-Ukraine war data.) therefore has the lowest OPEX in the world. It produces pure hydrogen salts that are ready to adopt the upcoming recycled fertilizers regulation from EU, therefore it could carry CE marking and ready to be used by fertilizer industry.

If the current trends of environmental regulations continue and needs adoption in all of the Europe (such as the nitrates directive), almost every biogas plant will need a solution and we are ready to tap into this without a need from government subsidies or extra burden to the clients.

In summary, NPHarvest offers the only solution to nutrients problems of biogas and wastewater treatment plant effluents while providing a sustainable, recycled fertilizer material without creating extra costs to the operation of the biogas plants.

Name of the case
TitanB: Sustainable materials for faster charging, longer lifetime and safe batteries

Description
We make the world’s most boring materials into the worlds most boring batteries, it’s exciting!
Today’s batteries, developed for the needs of consumer electronics and personal vehicles, aren’t good enough for demanding industries requiring high uptimes and with the toughest safety demands. This has lead to us designing battery systems that are hugely overdimensioned, where 90 % of the battery capacity is never used, with complex safety systems, which drives the cost and complexity of using batteries, and that last too short, meaning we are driving up the demand for minerals and materials uneccessarily. This is why we have developed TitanB, a nanotechnology enabled, proprietary anode technology leveraging an existing supply chain to deliver better batteries! Our product is tailor made for battery produciton, enabling the wonders of nanotechnology to enter the real world by carefully designing our product bottom up. By leveraging the exsiting supply chain for titania, we not only have the potential to rapidly scale our production, but we provide a solution that can be both produced and refined on any continent. By using already exisiting mines, the negative impact of our supply chain is minimised. By using our battery materials, we can make lithium batteries that charge in 6 minutes, lasts several 10s of thousands of cycles and operate safely, even when pierced by a bullet! Or in other words 10x faster charging, 10x the number of cycles and 10x the safety of current batteries!

What is the impact of your case?
Imagine a battery that can be used 10s of thousands of times, be charged in 6 minutes and still operate despite having a gaping bullet hole: How could we not electrify new areas faster! The energy transition is moving too slow outside of the EV sector and lack of good enough batteries is the key culprit. But what is a good enough battery? Sure, we can dream of energy densities matching liquid fuels, charging times that rival that of filling up a gas tank and price points that turn the ROI period into days, but the reality is that we don’t have to wait. By using our TitanB technology, we can reduce the cell cost of retrofitting a battery by more than 55%, by working with class societies and safety organisations, we are proving that the increased safety means that less stringent safety rules can be applied reducing the retrofitting cost by more than 80% and reduce the time for such projects from weeks or months to days. In one example, one battery the size of what is in your EV, can let the user remove a 2.5 tons and 6.1 cubic meter diesel generator and increase fuel efficiency by 20-30% and reduce emissions by up to 42%. In addition to the environmental impact, this allows the operation to run more silent, with less people and less maintenance, improving botht the working environment and reducing the running and maintenance cost dramtically!

How is your case innovative?
We have developed what we believe to be the world’s first titania based anode material that combines innovative nanotechnological process technology with a product that is compatible with traditional battery production lines. We have successfully proven that we can scale the basic processes to above 100 kg/shift rates and are tirelessly working with partners to make the best cell chemistry there is.
Select category
• Sustainability
• Storing and switching of energy
• Future of energy

Name of the case
Frequency control and battery protection with kinetic energy

Description
About Teraloop:
Teraloop solves the daily power management needs of the energy transition with its patented, modular kinetic electrical energy storage system. Established in the Aalto University innovation ecosystem in 2014, our vision is a fully renewable energy system. Towards that vision, our B2B product protects power quality and reduces energy bills for industry, could help to reduce energy consumption for railways and cranes and provide crucial inertia to the grid. Our system’s unique selling points are its low total cost of ownership and class-leading sustainability. We accomplish this with class-leading power density, efficiency and durability, in a state-of-the-art design. The products are positioned as complementary to batteries and other energy assets, improving the energy system’s efficiency, response time and lifetime.

The situation:
Ancillary markets in Europe are increasingly open to energy storage to maintain the nominal grid frequency; the prevalent technology in this application is LFP-li-ion battery. It is estimated that the current size of the European rapid response ancillary markets, including symmetric and asymmetric, has reached over 7GW. This need is rapidly increasing in size; for example Italy is currently implementing a Fast Response regulated service.. Participation in fast response ancillary markets is characterized by multiple short peaks of power (microcycles) and high energy throughput.

The challenge:
Participation in these markets leads to accelerated degradation of the battery cells, as a result of the frequency of asset activations. As mitigation strategies, European battery operators are now resorting to solutions such as AC or DC oversizing and augmentation, as well as DC shuffling to ensure the lifetime of the asset is sufficient to service the project duration. In other words, a large part of the mitigation strategy is to commission over-sized battery packs than are nominally required to fulfill the technical requirements of the TSOs, to ensure operation for the full project life. This leads to increased costs to the operator, as well as waste and carbon emissions. Further, a significant proportion of commissioned batteries are sourced from outside the EU, leading to the dependency of Europe’s energy transition on foreign sources such as China.

The case and solution:
Colocating flywheel power to LFP li-ion batteries, to act as buffer for the short peaks of power, enables significant increase of the lifetime of the battery asset. This leads to a decrease in the needed additional energy capacity commissioned to address the ancillary markets. Flywheels have a long life time, do not degrade with use, and have class leading efficiency, making them an ideal solution for the ancillary markets.

The market analyzed was the Finnish FCR-n, as its symmetric nature makes flywheels highly preferable. When addressing the FCR-n market, only a marginal proportion of grid deviations are longer than three minutes, the bulk of activations have a duration of a few seconds only, alternating quickly between charge and discharge events. Hence, although the market qualification requires longer activation to qualify, the profile of activations is highly compatible with flywheels, which can respond to a majority of those transient deviations.

The identified ratio of flywheel power vs. battery power is 25%. With such a setup, the flywheel is able to capture more than 40% of the energy throughput normally handled by the battery. This significantly increases the lifetime of the battery. Other ratios are possible, according to the preferences of the battery operator.

Teraloop has validated this assertion on a technical basis with Italian institute Ricerca sul Sistema Energetico, which has rigorous models of the battery degradation in function of the power load curve aligned with experimental results. According to the Institute, an LFP li-ion 1C battery participating 24/7 to FCR-n would lose 20% of its capacity over 3.7 years. This can be mitigated with flywheel power.

We have further validated the economic viability of this assertion with Italian consulting agency MBS. MBS has established that the colocation of flywheels increases the internal rate of return for the asset operator, while decreasing the overall cost of addressing the market if all batteries are colocated with flywheels.

We have finally validated the added sustainability of this assertion in a published peer reviewed paper “Life cycle assessment of electrochemical and mechanical energy storage systems” by Meri Lundahl, Heikki Lappalainen, Marja Rinne and Mari Lundström. Their analysis showed “that a significant environmental benefit (up to a 96% decrease in cradle-to-gate global warming potential, from 1.65 ± 0.12 to 0.059 ± 0.004 kg CO2-eq./kWh) can be obtained by the colocation of battery and flywheel storage systems, owing to the ability of the flywheel component to preserve battery lifetime by delivering the frequent charge events required in the FCR application.”

All of those validations took place in 2023.

What is the impact of your case?
For the asset operator: reduction of DC battery CAPEX
The reduction in DC oversizing and augmentation reduces the CAPEX investment needs of the battery operator. This leads to an increase in competitiveness of the solution, and an increase in the internal rate of return as validated by MBS.

For society:
1. Reduction of waste
The reduction in DC oversizing and augmentation leads to a direct reduction of battery waste from colocation with Teraloop flywheels. As an example, some operators currently consider DC oversizing of up to 50% of the required amount of battery cells, this can be strongly mitigated through hybridization of assets.

Further, 94% of the materials required for Teraloop’s technology are currently recoverable with existing commercial processes, this can be increased >99% with emerging recyclable epoxy resins. Comparably, according to the World Economic Forum, only about 5% of lithium-ion batteries are currently recycled. N.B. The EU is aiming to increase the proportion of recycled lithium to 70% by 2030, for which infrastructure is currently being put in place.

2. Reduction of carbon emissions
The colocation of batteries and flywheels, and reduction of battery needs, has a strong impact on cradle to gate emissions when manufacturing assets. In the words of the peer reviewed paper: “a significant environmental benefit (up to a 96% decrease in cradle-to-gate global warming potential, from 1.65 ± 0.12 to 0.059 ± 0.004 kg CO2-eq./kWh) can be obtained by the co-location of battery and flywheel storage systems, owing to the ability of the flywheel component to preserve battery lifetime by delivering the frequent charge events required in the FCR application.”

3. Reduction of ancillary market costs
While flywheel CAPEX is higher than LFP li-ion batteries, the technology’s durability, its lack of degradation with use, and its high efficiency leads to a significantly lower levelized cost of storage. Teraloop’s levelized cost of storage ranges between 0.01-0.04 €/kWh when addressing ancillary markets. As a comparison, the US DOE estimates the levelized cost of storage for LFP at 100 MW and 10 hours of duration at 0.143 $/kWh per cycle by 2030; the US DOE has further identified pathways to reach as low as 0.05 $/kW dependent on a multitude of pending innovations.

4. European energy independence
99% of the raw materials required for Teraloop’s technology, predominantly carbon and steel, can be sourced from Europe. Favoring locally sourced technology mitigates the dependency on foreign interests such as China, where Goldman Sachs estimates 65% of battery components and 71% of battery cells are produced.

How is your case innovative?
Electrical energy is converted to kinetic energy by accelerating a Carbon Fibre composite rotor to a high speed, using electric motor technology. Once the nominal rotational speed of the rotor is reached, the kinetic energy storage is fully charged.
When energy is discharged, the electric motor is operated as a generator and the rotor speed decreases as the kinetic energy is converted back to electrical energy.

The basic principle of kinetic energy of a rotating body can be expressed as Ek=½Iω^2.
In this formula, Ek represents the kinetic energy stored in the rotor, I represents the rotor moment of inertia and ω expresses the rotor angular velocity.

The angular velocity of the rotor has a square term, meaning that doubling the mass doubles the energy, but doubling the speed quadruples the energy. Teraloop’s design approach differs from traditional flywheels because it introduces an innovative hubless rotor geometry which allows to maximize the benefit from the ⍵^2.

The typical limiting factor for conventional flywheels is radial stress. As the ratio of outer- diameter/inner-diameter approaches equal to 1, the radial stress tends towards zero.

When radial stress is very low, this allows full utilization of the material tensile stress properties, and the majority of carbon fibers can be wound in the circumferential direction. This results in very high specific energy: depending on fiber in use it can be up to 100 Wh/kg.

Name of the case
SISO inverter filter

Description
Sinus in Sinus out filter = SISO
More and more requirements have increased for power quality. One important requirement is to eliminate the effects of common mode phenomena in both grid and motor applications. Danfoss’ patented SISO filter meets these requirements and offers a cost-effective and compact solution compared to traditional alternatives. SISO filters solve challenges associated with paralleling inverter units, long electric motor cables, and hybrid systems including battery storage. The transformer-less SISO solution is superior to the transformer solution regarding cost, size, and weight.
Our SISO solution does much more than only common mode sine filtering: SISO is a combined LCL and CM (Sine In) filter!
The SISO filter takes out all common mode voltages that normally occur in power converter-based systems in different applications, like Energy storage, DC-grids, and long motor cables.

What is the impact of your case?
One of the primary advantages of transformerless inverter systems is their compact size. By eliminating the transformer, these inverter systems are significantly smaller and lighter, making installation and maintenance more convenient. The reduced size also leads to cost savings in terms of materials, transportation, and overall system footprint.
For example, copper is everywhere. At home, for instance, meters of copper wires ensure that my lights work. That electricity is from the electrical distribution system which uses transformers to step down the voltage to fit into your home needs. Transformers mainly consist of copper. At the moment, copper is not a particularly rare commodity, but in 30 years, when, worldwide, copper mines are depleted, it will be. And this will have major consequences for many industries, our global economic ambitions, and the planned transition from fossil fuels to clean electricity. So we need to develop solutions that use less for example copper but as well other materials, are easier to transport, and also that way are more cost-efficient but still serve our targets to build greener tomorrow.

How is your case innovative?
A notable advantage is the increased energy efficiency achieved by transformerless inverter solutions. Without the energy losses associated with transformers, these inverters can deliver higher conversion efficiencies, thereby maximizing the amount of energy that is effectively converted into usable electricity. This improved efficiency translates into higher energy yields and greater cost-effectiveness over the lifetime of the system.
For example, future factory DC grids require that the DC voltage is common mode free. In today‘s world, most end devices are already powered by direct current (DC). Both charging stations and electric drives in industrial environments are operated with direct current generated from alternating current. For this reason, various companies working on the DC project are researching an integrated, DC-based smart grid. The idea is that the direct current generated by renewable energy sources directly supplies the loads in the grid, such as machines, motors, or conveyor belts, with electricity without conversion losses. Due to networking in the DC power grid, it is also possible to feed the braking energy of a system back into the grid as electrical power. Surpluses produced are collected in energy storage systems and fed back into the grid when necessary. This reduces the feed-in power by up to 80%. In addition, both the peak load and the load on the public grid can be reduced. So transformation from AC to DC is happening also in factories, because of energy, material, and transportation savings.
Danfoss SISO- filter enables common mode-free solutions already today where we have a unique position!

Name of the case
CO2-free power generation through heat recovery from low-temperature heat sources

Description
ENOGIA is developing a range of micro-turbomachines and ORC modules, as well as fuel cell compressors.

Our Innovativ Turbine technology recovers waste heat from a low-temperature source (from 75 to 200°C) and converts it into CO2-free electricity.
Our standard product range consists of 5 modules with electrical capacities ranging from 10 kW electric to 180 kW electric.

In fact, Enogia is the only company to offer ORC modules operating with an input temperature of 75° degrees, making it highly adaptable to all types of needs.

Our technology can be used in a wide range of applications:
– Industry: heat recovery from process waste heat
– CHP: heat recovery from engines cooling loop, exhaust, turbines cooling loop.
– Industrial furnaces or waste treatment plants,
– Cement works
– Marine
– Geothermal heat recovery

+More than 100 references in 27 countries with over 8,000 hours of operation per year.

What is the impact of your case?
Our ORCs produce CO2-free electricity from waste heat from 75°C.

We make it possible to recover waste heat from a huge number of site over the world by transforming it into electrical energy that can be sold, distributed on a grid or consumed directly on site.

This value given to the waste heat thus transformed ensures regular, stable and secure income and / or reduce the energy bills for the customer.

In the case of geothermal application in particular, the potential for heat and its transformation into electricity is almost infinite.

How is your case innovative?
Why is our product innovative? It …
– is the most compact system on the market
– is an affordable technology
– can convert low-temperature heat (75°C) intoelectricity
– is a dedicated turbine developed by our engineers at our headquarters in Marseille
– is a technology with low maintenance costs
– uses a single fluid for power generation and mechanical lubrication
– reduces cooling costs in many applications

Name of the case
Cheap, safe, scaleable and sustainable Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) to support large scale adoption of intermittent wind and solar energy

Description
BroadBit Batteries is developing revolutionary batteries using sodium-based chemistries to power the green economy. They are based on sodium chloride (NaCl) and other widely available, low cost and plentiful materials and environmentally friendly dry production processes and can be optimized for high energy (300 Wh/kg) for, e.g., EVs, high power (5 min. charge/discharge) for, e.g., grid power balancing or high efficiency (97% round trip efficiency) for, e.g. grid energy balancing. BroadBit’s first product is a Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) battery that leverages our low cost (<30$/kWh), low self, discharge (>1%/month), safety (non-flammability), long calendar life (50 years) and scalability (>>TWh capacity).

What is the impact of your case?
. As the volume of variable renewable energy (VRE) sources penetrating electricity grids increases globally, so does the need to manage the increasing uncertainty and variability in electricity supply. Grids will be relying on different solutions to manage this, which could include building of overcapacity and interconnections, but also Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) technologies. Moreover, as the penetration of variable renewable energy (VRE) sources increases in national electricity grids, so will the need to manage a greater fluctuating supply of energy over longer time frames.
This is where LDES technologies will be useful in dispatching energy over these longer time frames when energy supply from these intermittent sources is not occurring. The growing share of renewable resources necessitates not only higher grid storage capacity, but also pushes the average energy storage duration towards multi-week and seasonal regimes.
By 2050, Sumitomo estimates that about 190 GW of multi-day/multi-week/seasonal LDES capacity will be needed. This estimation is relatively independent of Li-ion technology improvements. Li-ion is mainly suitable for intra-day or inter-day storage use cases. The multi-day/multi-week/seasonal use cases require a battery technology that is cheaper than Li-ion, and is based on more common materials. IDTechEx forecasts that by 2044, LDES market will be valued at US$223B.

How is your case innovative?
Developing LDES technologies, include alternative batteries to Li-ion, mechanical energy storage (such as pumped-hydro, compressed air and liquid air), thermal energy storage and hydrogen energy storage. Lower capital costs of these technologies (on a $/kWh basis) will aim to be a key advantage compared to Li-ion, especially at a longer duration of storage. However, other factors such as round-trip efficiency, cycle-life / lifetime, and energy density, minimum economical system size per project and other considerations will influence the success and deployment volume of any one technology.
BroadBit Batteries’ LDES Sodium-Salt battery technology solves known problems with other LDES technologies. No other battery technology can compete on cost and key performance indicators. In particular, no Li-ion battery technology (including LFP) is deemed commercially viable for applications longer than 8 hr storage due to cost, safety and scalability considerations. LFP has the additional drawback that, due to its flat State-of-Charge (SOC) curve, it is very difficult to determine its SOC and so it impractical to integrate into LDES grid energy storage systems.
Instead, our main competitors are hydrogen storage with only 20% round trip efficiency and pumped hydro with only 65% round trip efficiency. BroadBit can compete with these technology based on improved modularity and flexibility and significantly higher round trip efficiency.

Name of the case
Renewable Integration through Advanced Software Solutions

Description
Endeema’s software platform improves how EU firms match their energy demand with the supply from intermittent renewable sources within electricity grids. By leveraging advanced algorithms, artificial intelligence, and real-time data analytics, Endeema optimizes energy consumption patterns, enhances renewable energy integration, and ensures grid stability. This solution addresses the critical challenges of transitioning to renewable energy sources, including variability, demand-supply mismatches, and the need for efficient energy storage and distribution.

What is the impact of your case?
Endeema’s platform has contributed to increasing the penetration of renewable energy within the EU’s energy mix, reducing carbon emissions, and promoting energy sustainability. Endeema has helped firms reduce their energy costs and environmental footprint by enabling more efficient use of renewable resources. The platform’s ability to predict and manage energy demand and supply has also contributed to enhancing grid stability and resilience, crucial for the transition towards a more sustainable energy future.

How is your case innovative?
Endeema distinguishes itself through its combination of analytics, user-friendly interface, and real-time adaptability to grid conditions. Unlike traditional energy management systems, Endeema’s platform is designed to handle the challenges of integrating intermittent renewable energies, providing innovative energy storage and demand forecasting solutions. This has set a new standard for energy management software, pushing the boundaries of what is possible in renewable energy integration and grid management.

Name of the case
Harsh-R&D-test: Next generation climatic test lab for harsh environment R&D testing of the future 15-20 MW offshore energy systems

Description
This R&D infrastructure project involves the realization of the next generation climatic test lab that would allow to support the European R&D needs to research and evaluate the performance, efficiency, robustness and reliability of multi-MW offshore energy systems in harsh climatic offshore environments. The new R&D infrastructure would allow realistic testing and evaluation of the future 15-20MW offshore wind drivetrain solutions, and full systems embedded in offshore hydrogen units, offshore storage technologies (LDES), floating solar plants and electrical equipment for offshore energy islands. Specific focus will be on the cold climate and arctic adaptations for (offshore) energy transition equipment.

Within this project both Sirris (the collective centre of the Belgian technology industry) and ZF Wind Power (a Belgian based and worldwide top 3 supplier of innovative offshore wind drivetrain solutions) will put effort in the realization of the next generation climatic test lab. Sirris will operate the facility as collective R&D centre and ensure the infrastructure is public available for all European companies and knowledge centres.

The envisioned new and unique R&D infrastructure in this project will be able to test and research the performance, efficiency, robustness and reliability parameters of the next generation offshore energy systems in harsh climatic conditions with a specific focus on cold start-up behaviour. The planned R&D infrastructure will allow companies and academics to increase the technology readiness level of prototype developments at real scale such as new 15-20MW offshore wind drivetrain solutions, battery energy storage systems and hydrogen generation or fuel cell systems, and offshore grid infrastructure envisioned for energy islands and HVDC grid infrastructure. We believe components and full systems of these developments will be implemented in the upcoming offshore wind farms, energy island developments, offshore hydrogen generation units and floating PV stations. Ensuring high performance, efficiency, robustness and reliability levels of these new energy systems is key to deliver affordable offshore energy with minimal O&M costs and high availability to secure energy supply in Belgium, but also in our partnering countries abroad.

What is the impact of your case?
Our testing infrastructure will contribute in maturing the existing and new technologies needed for the energy transition in countries with demanding climatic conditions, or countries where climate change leads to more extreme climatic conditions.

We believe this project and the envisioned research infrastructure (and future national and European R&D projects that will benefit from this infrastructure on the longer term) will support the optimization of the current offshore wind infrastructures (certainly those installed in harsh climates such as Finland), support the development of innovative technologies for harvesting renewable energy at sea, and support the development of technologies for the production and use of offshore hydrogen. By this we will anchor our European knowledge built-up and leading role in the offshore energy transition. Specifically countries that have extreme climatic conditions in winter (like Finland) or summertime will be able to de-risk full prototype systems or the involved components in realistic conditions before serial production.

How is your case innovative?
We believe our project is innovative as it will the largest and newest climatic testing infrastructure capable of testing 15MW plus systems with weights of more than 150 ton in -40°C conditions. This is a unique ability to test real prototypes at system level in realistic conditions. Instead of performing a lot of calculations and simulations we believe that the climatic testing infrastructure in this project will support the “fail fast” approach which can be seen as innovative validation approach which will lead to shorter development times. Another innovative link is the modular and mobile approach we envision to test (offshore) wind drivetrain systems with our partner ZF Wind Power. The climatic test facility’s infrastructure will be made mobile in order to do in-factory cold start validation testing. This has never been done before to our knowledge of the market.