Open Cycle ‚AustroStorage‘

New ideas require innovative solution formats, therefore the NEFI – Innovation Network started the format of ‚Open Cycle‘ (OC). The format aims to find suitable industrial use cases and demonstrate their system integration. They will be intensively discussed and refined in expert panels in cooperation with industry partners before they continue their successful run in a “project cycle” at one of our partner companies.

In this article we focus on the Open Cycle ‚AustroStorage‘: Considering the important role of energy storage systems as key technologies in industrial applications to optimally exploit the potential of renewable energies, the Open Cycle ‚AustroStorage‘ aims at defining a set of complementary technologies that include heat/steam and compressed air storage as well as electrical storage.

The focus of this program is to find suitable industrial use-cases to develop Under the motto “Thinking bigger”, discussions have already been held between the NEFI partners and external stakeholders, where industrial applications were in the foreground.

The first NEFI innovations talk

On November 3, 2020 the first NEFI innovations talk „Energy storage in the Industry“ was taking place in the framework of this Open Cycle.

The following invited speakers were participating in the NEFI Talk:

• Dr. Gerhard Dell, Energy Commissioner of Upper Austria
• Prof. Thomas Kienberger, Montanuniversität Leoben
• Prof. Michael Sterner, Oberbayrische Technische Hochschule (OTH) Regensburg

The event provided 70 participants with an overview of the energy storage systems that will play an important role in industrial applications in the future and informed them about the current state of research and development of innovative large-scale storage solutions. In addition, it was shown which storage systems, such as electricity storage and heat/cooling storage, can already be used effectively and sector-specifically today. The main goal was to allow the networking of stakeholders, identify research questions and initiate cooperation.
Finally, the concretisation of the Open Cycle was determined as the next step; the necessary documentation and summaries have already been prepared as a basis by the Energiesparverband.

The Open Cycle ‚AustroStorage‘ is organised by the OÖ Energiesparverband (ESV) in cooperation with the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) and the Head of the Chair of Energy Network Technology (EVT) of Montanuniversität Leoben (MUL) as part of the NEFI Innovation network.

Become a member of the NEFI-Community: NEFI is open for new project partners who want to get involved in this comprehensive and challenging topic to find new solutions for the industrial energy transition. If you are interested in joining us, please get in contact at: office@nefi.at