Norway’s Kyoto Group Signs Pact With A Leading RE Firm To Decarbonize Industrial Heat

The company has expertise in thermal energy storage with some of its patented technologies like “heat cubes.” Heatcube refers to a long-duration thermal energy storage solution. Mainly off-grid in nature, it stores heat and releases it as steam. It could be charged during off-peak hours and used whenever needed. The firm claimed that this could help the industries to decarbonize their process heat, cut costs and lead the way as a net zero supplier. 

“This is a game-changer for Kyoto. It fits perfectly into our strategy of collaborating with energy companies, and this company is a global leader in renewable energy with very ambitious targets and investment plans. The company has identified industrial heat as a key investment area and has a huge base of industrial customers who will benefit from combining wind and solar power with thermal energy storage,” says Camilla Nilsson, CEO of Kyoto Group.

Kyoto Group said that the global renewable company has planned to market Kyoto’s heat cube solution as a green industrial heat and will purchase heat cubes from Kyoto to provide heat as a service to customers. Kyoto will then offer services related to heat cubes under a service agreement. The heat stored in these heat cubes may be combined with electrical energy with guaranteed renewable origin from the company’s portfolio.

“We accelerate the electrification of our energy systems through investments in clean generation and energy storage, which is crucial as variable sources such as wind and solar constitute an increasing share of the energy mix. Moreover, for industrial customers that need stable process heat, Kyoto’s thermal energy storage solution is an attractive way to decarbonize,” says the Head of Industrial Decarbonization of the company.

As per the MoU, the benefits will likely reach the pulp and paper, food, and construction materials industries requiring heat for their operations. Kyoto’s Heatcube provides thermal energy storage and heat generation in one product. It supplies industrial customers with the technology needed to lower both their costs for producing process heat and their CO2 emissions through intermittent renewable energy sources instead of fossil fuels for heat production.

The Kyoto Heatcube can be configured with storage capacities from 16 MWh to over 96 MWh, with a discharge effect for each Heatcube of up to 5 MW. It is an innovative, low-cost, and modular storage solution for thermal energy that can use multiple renewable energy sources to heat molten salt to over 415 degrees Celsius. The high-temperature salt is then used to produce steam for industrial production processes.

Koyoto is a Norwegian company founded in 2016 to capture and manage the abundant energy from the sun and wind and apply it to reduce the carbon-dioxide footprint for industrial process heat.