The best of two systems: Development of a new hybrid energy storage system

The transition to CO₂-neutral electricity generation poses a major challenge for Europe's energy grids. Ground-breaking developments in the material and design sector of energy storage systems are required to compensate for generation and load peaks in renewable energy sources. Addressing this challenge and reducing dependence on fossil fuels requires flexible storage systems tailored to a wide range of applications.

High storage capacity and high performance

The HyFlow project aims to develop a powerful model for a hybrid energy storage system (HESS) that can meet high energy and power requirements. The project thus contributes to ensuring the effectiveness and security of supply for energy grids in the future.

To this end, researchers target the combination of two different systems – high-performance vanadium redox flow batteries and supercapacitors. "A redox flow battery has a large storage capacity, but can only be charged and discharged slowly. The supercapacitor, on the other hand, has short charging times with low energy density. The hybridisation is intended to create an energy storage system that combines the advantages of both systems: high storage capacity and high performance", says Prof. Karl-Heinz Pettinger, Scientific Director of the Technology Centre for Energy at Landshut University of Applied Sciences, who coordinates the project. Altogether, eleven partners from Germany, Italy, Spain, the Czech Republic, Austria, Portugal and Russia are involved in HyFlow.

Powerful, sustainable and cost-effective

In the future, the newly developed storage system will be able to flexibly offset the power and energy requirements in critical grid conditions, e. g. at high load or generation peaks, over seconds or whole days. In these demanding applications, hybridization leads to more efficient storage systems with longer service life and high adaptability – potentially even at a lower cost. To ensure that it is as environmentally friendly and sustainable as possible, the new hybrid system does not use critical resources. Researchers are developing strategies to recycle vanadium for redox flow batteries.

Increasing Europe's competitiveness in the battery sector

The use of optimised components for hybrid systems guarantees security of supply for energy grid systems – with increased current density, efficiency and service life. In addition, an innovative management system provides a high level of control and adaptability through computer analytics and control algorithms. The HyFlow project thus supports Europe's competitiveness in the battery sector for stationary storage applications.