New European project for the development of ultracompact electrical energy storage technologies
Horizon 2020 grants more than 4 million euros of Budget to an international project with more than 10 institutions involved.
The project EPISTORE has just received a grant agreement under the program Horizon 2020 in which 12 institutions from over 6 countries will collaborate. IMB-CNM is involved through the MESSI Group with a main contribution, and the Institut de Recerca de l’Energia de Catalunya acts as coordinator.
"Thin Film Reversible Solid Oxide Cells for Ultracompact Electrical Energy Storage" aims to revolutionise the energy storage sector through the development of state-of-the-art thin film technology. The goal is to develop Solid Oxide Cells able to store renewable electricity for applications where the use of batteries is inefficient. It tackles the viability of new technologies, which tend to be expensive, and the paradigm of creating large-scale storage.
The surplus of renewable energy is useful "to produce hydrogen from the hydrolysis of water" and it is a "sustainable way to store energy for later use," explains Luis Fonseca, PI of the IMB-CNM contribution to the project. "However, there is no translation of this technology to devices of small dimensions that can be adapted to portable applications," adds.
"The technological flexibility of our Clean Room allows us to face the challenge of making the necessary advanced materials compatible with silicon technologies that enable us to make miniaturised devices in a scalable way," concludes Fonseca about the possibilities of producing the materials.
EPISTORE will bring a new storage paradigm in the ecosystem, in which advanced thin films will become a new and sustainable reality.