The project, to be undertaken at Masdar’s ‘Beam Down’ Concentrated Solar Power (CSP), will seek to study the feasibility and benefits of a novel TES system developed.
Dow, through an affiliate of The Dow Chemical Company, has announced its collaboration with Norwegian firm NEST (New Energy Storage Technology) AS on a Thermal Energy Storage (TES) pilot project in Abu Dhabi, in association with Masdar Institute of Science and Technology. The project, to be undertaken at Masdar’s ‘Beam Down’ Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) installation in Masdar City, will seek to study the feasibility and benefits of a novel TES system developed by NEST. Dow’s contribution to this project will be to supply 2.6 metric tons of DOWTHERMTM A, the industry-leading heat transfer fluid as well as provide associated technical support throughout the project.
Masdar’s Beam-down facility, a 100 kW concentrated solar power (CSP) pilot plant, is specifically designed to allow researchers to look into alternatives of employing solar energy in a more accessible way. Through these efforts, Dow, NEST and Masdar Institute aim to develop flexible, scalable and ultimately cost-effective solutions for the global CSP market.
Commenting on the relationship, Jon E. Bergan, Market & Strategic Analysis Manager at NEST said, “Bringing Dow on board to provide the heat transfer fluid and technical expertise on this critical pilot project made perfect sense for us. Backed by Dow’s world-class technology and vast industry knowledge, we are confident that our efforts will lead to significant strides in advancing thermal energy storage research.”
“Dow is a company that harnesses the power of chemistry and passionately innovates to address the world’s most challenging problems. We are therefore excited for this opportunity to bring our CSP expertise in collaboration with an innovation specialist such as NEST to help develop next-generation CSP solutions.” said Carolina Barrios, Strategic Marketing Manager for Industrial Solutions. “Also, given that this research will be carried out in the UAE, we are keen to study the potential of the new TES system to address the unique renewable energy needs of this region.”
DOWTHERMTM A Fluid, which has been employed in industrial heat transfer systems for more than 80 years, is a preferred product for a wide range of indirect heat transfer applications. Worldwide, 40 CSP plants filled with DOWTHERM™ A provide enough electrical generation capacity to meet the needs of more than one million homes at a savings of approximately 4.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year. In the Middle East and Africa as well, Dow has been the supplier of choice for a number of large-scale CSP projects; notably, the Noor 1 160MW CSP Plant in Morocco and the Bokpoort 50MW CSP Plant in South Africa, both of which are currently under construction and due to go live later this year.
CSP uses parabolic mirrors to reflect and magnify heat from the sun onto a closed circulating loop containing DOWTHERM™ A Heat Transfer Fluid. The fluid collects the heat energy and transports it to a power station where it is used to produce steam, which drives turbines to generate electricity.
Solar power technology like CSP offers many advantages in regions that require reliable new sources of energy. The technology helps diversify energy supply, is capable of producing power during periods of peak demand, and reduces dependence on fossil fuels. When used instead of fossil fuel generation plants, CSP facilities offer improved air quality and can help many nations to address off-set goals for carbon emission produced by existing fossil fuel power plants. Unlike photovoltaic solar power and wind energy technologies, CSP plants can operate in conjunction with cost-effective thermal storage technology to deliver energy on-demand, making CSP a highly flexible source of renewable energy.
NEST was founded in 2011 to develop and commercialize an invention for a cost-effective, smart, modular, scalable Thermal Energy Storage (TES) system. The company has been awarded the patents for its technological innovation, and has further patents pending. In collaboration with partner companies NEST aims to provide complete EPC and turn-key thermal energy storage solutions to clients around the world. The company intends to realize effective and competitive technology for large-scale energy storage and offer energy storage systems on a broad front internationally to facilitate the ongoing market shift towards renewable energy sources and a more sustainable energy future.
