ABB’s Automation and Control Systems to Strengthen Technical Platform for Salt-Based Energy Storage Company
July 15, 2021
ABB has signed a cooperation agreement with Sweden-based energy storage company SaltX Technology to enable the development of a stable and scalable control system for EnerStore, a large storage development for the commercialization of nanocoated salt technology innovations.
SaltX’s unique technology allows salt to store power with a high energy density in a bulk material, which means it could scale to hundreds of megawatt (MW) hours, becoming a circular and sustainable energy storage solution for suppliers and customers across industries such as pulp and paper, metals and manufacturing. The innovative nanocoating, developed by SaltX over 15 years, makes it possible for systems to have a long lifetime, enabling customers to energize the storage when the electricity price is low and use the stored energy when prices are high, fulfilling their mission to help society shift to sustainable energy.
The current energy storage market is on the rise and in 2018 Bloomberg forecasted a USD 620 billion investment opportunity. Bloomberg also concluded that in 2030 the majority of energy storage will be in utility-scale.
ABB’s scope of supply for the initial pilot includes automation and control systems, motors and drives systems, process instrumentation and smart electrification, with potential to scale up the solution for industry customers. ABB’s established experience in scalable control systems will help ensure that the technical platform at EnerStore is optimized for the anticipated high demand in the future.
“This collaboration with ABB to enhance our EnerStore with first-class process and control systems, as well as benefit from ABB’s track record and expertise in process optimization, adds tremendous value and credibility to this exciting pilot project,” said Carl-Johan Linér, CEO of SaltX Technology.
“Our motors, drive systems and automation solutions will complement the unique features of SaltX’s technology, most notably that it enables long-duration heat energy storage with limited heat energy loss over time,” said Björn Jonsson, Hub Manager, Process Industries, ABB. “This groundbreaking partnership fits perfectly with our commitment to shift to sustainable, renewable energy and embed circularity in everything we do to enable a low carbon society.”
The design of the pilot plan has begun in collaboration with SaltX with the goal of installing the first joint system in the Luleå pilot.
ABB Ability System 800xA, is ranked by the ARC advisory group as the world’s #1 distributed control system (DCS) platform over the last 21 years.
