2023-12-12 09:00:00
Optimizing the use of your photovoltaic production is becoming one of the major challenges for any owner, even more so with the scheduled end of compensation for the “counter that runs backwards” for the installation of new panels following December 31, 2023. The ideal is to be able to use the electricity produced as much as possible, so as to inject as little current as possible into the network. One way is storage in a domestic battery. It might be a solar battery, but this solution is still expensive and takes a long time to pay off.
Better efficiency of heat pumps
There are also cheaper thermal batteries on the market, which do not directly store electricity from the panels, but energy. It is on this path that a young Walloon company has bet, with the collaboration of the UCLouvain Engineering Institute. The Destore battery, which is reaching the end of the development stage and should enter production at the end of 2025, is intended to store the production of heat pumps, a heating method expected to become more widespread, because it frees itself from fossil fuels. . “This is a huge challenge for the next seven years,” explains Matthew Wojcik, communications manager for Destore, who points out that heating accounts for 60% of a home’s energy expenditure. The heat pump market is experiencing a huge boom, with a 140% jump in installations in Belgium.”
The battery works on the principle of phase change. ©Destore
The Destore battery can store the equivalent of 6 to 8 hours of thermal consumption, recovering part of the heat produced by the pump. In addition, the electronic box which is coupled to it will make it possible to program the starts of the heat pump at the most appropriate times, depending in particular on the production of the photovoltaic panels which supply it with renewable electricity. Storage is done using a material that melts under the effect of heat, which allows it to collect thermal energy from the air, and solidifies when the ambient air cools, restoring the stored thermal energy. . “It’s a bit like a candle,” illustrates Matthew Wojcik, explaining that the system, free of rare metals, is particularly effective for storing low-temperature heating, but not only that. It is also for domestic hot water. Household self-consumption of electricity would be increased by 21%.
Produced in Wallonia
This type of technology is already marketed and has proven itself, but Destore is banking heavily on the argument of the environment and local production in its project supported by the Region. “We are going to go for it to be as eco-designed and sustainable as possible,” says Matthew Wojcik. For example, he says, “to create the electronic box, we worked by recycling old smartphones”. The idea is to partner with adapted work companies (ETA) in the region for production. “We have already identified our assembly line, but we will still have to test it.” One of the other advantages of the Destore battery will be its price, currently set at €4,500, or “half as expensive” as a good solar battery, the prices of which are often around €10,000.
But to leave the development phase and begin field testing, the company needs funding. It is therefore launching a crowdfunding operation, aiming to build and install, starting next January, 25 prototypes with individuals who have shown interest in the project. “So far we have been working in the laboratory, and we want to expose the solution to a realistic external environment. We need to test the controller and recover data, within the limits of legality, of course.”
“Our product must help people to become aware, to store energy at times when there is the greatest waste,” concludes Matthew Wojcik. The virtue will be twofold. By “smoothing” consumption peaks, the installation of such a battery will also relieve the electricity network, which will be just as interesting for the consumer in the perspective where the cost of electricity in Wallonia is likely to evolve. , as in Flanders, towards prices which will be higher at times of highest consumption.
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