iX Challenge: Long Term Residential Energy Storage

Challenge

MVM are working hard on their goals around facilitating the decarbonisation of buildings (the largest share of global CO2 emissions), and helping renewable capacity integration into the electricity grid.

In Hungary, both residential electricity usage and production are increasing and are projected to increase even faster within the next decade as decarbonization efforts intensify. However, the production and use of electricity have a temporal mismatch, which places a significant burden on distribution systems.

Current Li-ion battery-based solutions do not offer long-term storage, nor large enough capacities to allow energy management on a seasonal scale for individual residential units/apartment complexes or micro/nano-grids. MVM seek an innovative storage solution which will allow for effective seasonal energy management, easing the burden on distribution systems and improving efficiency.

Bottlenecks with current solutions are seasonality (storage duration may not be long enough to bridge seasonal shortfalls) and the high cost of existing technology. Solutions should seek to address these issues.

Rewards & Benefits

Successful applicants will be given the opportunity to pitch to MVM. Applicants selected by MVM can expect to work closely together with MVM to advance the TRL of the solution and may have opportunities for pilot testing at MVM facilities.

It is expected that the selected applicants and MVM will pursue European innovation funding, such as Horizon Europe.

The package may also include:

• Support from KTN
• Technical support
• Invitation to attend or present at KTN events
• A potential business collaboration
• Investor introductions (if investment is required)
• Support if any Innovate or similar competitions are relevant.

Functional Requirements

The solutions are to be deployed in medium to larger residential apartment complexes and potentially school-type buildings but not industrial sites. This means the footprint requirement is important. i.e. an industrial-scale solution is not relevant.

Location-wise, the technology would be employed as a product and/or service of MVM Group, therefore within Hungary and the Central Eastern European region where MVM is currently conducting sales.

Timescales and milestones (volumes) are dependent on relevant EU funding schemes supporting residential energy efficiency investments, therefore cannot be defined yet.

Technical Requirements

Solutions submitted to this competition should:

• Be capable of storing 5000-10000 kWh
• Have minimal self-discharge/leakage over a time period of multiple months
• Have a relatively high (>35-40%) roundtrip efficiency
• Safely operate in a residential environment
• Solutions may also include holistic optimisation of the unit’s operation and connection to the grid, including considerations such as how to implement photovoltaic energy sources or additional battery storage.

Storing on a multiple-month scale with minimal discharge and converting chemical reserves back to power means that hydrogen-based solutions are clearly relevant, but solutions are not restricted to hydrogen applications.

Eligibility

Innovations submitted to this competition are preferred at TRL 5 or above. Partial solutions will still be considered.

Entrants to this competition must be established businesses, academia, startups, SMEs or individual entrepreneurs, and be UK based or have the intention to set up a UK base.