Swedish power producer Vattenfal in partnership with SaltXtechnology has started operations of a new 10 MWh salt-based power storage pilot plant. The pilot project is attached to Vattenfall's 160 MW Reuter CHP coal-fired facility in Spandau, Berlin. It will use a SaltX system that is based on nano-coated salt technology which enables this “salt battery” to be charged several thousand times and allowing the energy to be stored for months without losses. The pilot project will run until summer 2019. Vattenfall seeks to completely phase out coal in the Berlin region by 2030. The coal-fired Reuter C unit will be shutdown and will be replaced by a 120 MWh electric heat-only boiler (HOB) and a 120 MWh gas HOB by 2020.
Vattenfall owns and operates three coal-fired power plants in the Berlin area: the Reuter CHP plant along with the 140 MWe Moabit combined heat and power (CHP) and the 564 MWe Reuter West CHP plant. Vattenfall stopped its lignite-fired 185 MW Klingenberg CHP plant in May 2017. All coal-fired power plants in the Berlin area are slated to be shut down by 2030 as the Berlin government decided to ban hard coal-fired power generation in the city territory by this date to reduce CO2 emissions.
Interested in Power Plants?
Enerdata has developed a market research service to screen, monitor and analyse the development of power generation assets.
Power Plant Tracker offers an interactive database and a powerful search engine covering power plants worldwide – including both installed and planned capacities for renewables and fossil fuels.