Andau (A), May 30, 2022 – At a joint press conference in the presence of Governor Hans Peter Doskozil, Burgenland Energie and CMBlu Energy AG from Germany announced a long-term project cooperation agreement for new, environmentally friendly large-scale storage systems in the multi-megawatt range.
Together, the project partners signaled the go-ahead for a unique research and pilot project. “This new project is set to show what is technologically possible with organic solid-flow storage systems,” said Dr. Peter Geigle, founder and CEO of CMBlu Energy AG, at today’s project presentation. “Our organic solid-flow energy storage systems can solve a fundamental problem of renewable energies, namely the divergence between generation and demand. We want to achieve this in a cost-effective, environmentally friendly, and safe manner.”
“I am very proud that Burgenland can enter into such a pioneering cooperation with CMBlu. It allows us to continue to embrace our vanguard role in the expansion of renewable energy and take a big step closer to our goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2030,” said Governor Hans Peter Doskozil. “Only by doing so will it be possible to end our dependency on Russian oil and gas on the one hand and counter the massive inflation in the energy sector in the long term on the other.”
The state of Burgenland has set itself the goal of being energy self-sufficient and climate-neutral by 2030, focusing primarily on clean wind and solar energy. “In recent months, we have been grappling with the issue of storage. In order to make Burgenland energy self-sufficient with Burgenland’s very own gold – the wind and sun – we need a system capable of storing 100 megawatts with a capacity of 300 megawatt-hours. As with wind and sun, we want to achieve this goal with natural storage systems,” stresses Stephan Sharma, CEO of Burgenland Energie AG. He hopes that the project will also provide a range of insights into ways of eliminating fluctuations in the power grid, developing attractive business models in energy trading, and, in particular, returning the cost savings from energy generation to the population in the form of lower electricity bills.
“Wine has something in common with renewable energies. It is not always available, but people want to enjoy Burgenland wine all year round. In the case of wine, the storage problem has been solved in a natural way. This should also be possible with the wind and sun: Here, too, we want to make the wind and the sun available all year round,” says Sharma, who thanked both companies for the unique storage cooperation. “We are pleased to be a development and sales partner on the way to creating 100 percent renewable energy systems.”
Thanks to their ability to store organic materials, CMBlu’s new energy storage systems are inexpensive to manufacture, environmentally friendly, almost completely recyclable, neither flammable nor explosive, and do not contain rare or precarious raw materials. As a result, the company is not dependent on increasingly difficult international supply chains. The storage systems are easily scalable with an output reaching into the gigawatt range, thereby ensuring higher availability of renewable energies. “Many challenges associated with the energy transition – from higher electricity prices and dependence on lithium and international supply chains to supply bottlenecks – can be solved more easily by our innovative storage technology. In this regard, solid-flow can become a real game changer made in Europe,” explains Dr. Peter Geigle.
In terms of the European energy transition, the pilot and research project signifies a major step towards greater energy independence. The project is unique in Europe in its scale. It represents a breakthrough in the realization of non-lithium-based large-scale storage projects. The long-term cooperation is set to last until 2030.
Features unique to the local area are also being taken into consideration: The Scheiblhofer Winery soon expects to have a self-sufficient energy supply all year round with the help of its PV system featuring over 650 kilowatts of output and the pilot energy storage system already installed in the first project phase.
Ever since CMBlu Energy AG was founded in 2014, the company based in the Rhein-Main region has been developing organic solid-flow batteries. It is now one of the world’s largest developers of non-lithium-based energy storage systems in the multi-megawatt range. CMBlu employs over 150 people in the areas of research, development, and production. With the impending market launch of its battery systems, the company is clearly on course for growth.
Burgenland Energie is a green technology company. It is a leader in the field of wind and photovoltaic renewable energy sources. Burgenland Energie has been operating wind turbines since 1997 and has been the number-one wind energy provider in Austria for almost 20 years. Since 2022, the company has also been number one in the field of photovoltaics in Austria.
Burgenland Energie is pursuing the aim of helping its customers and partners to achieve energy independence using green technologies.
Andau, May 30, 2022
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