Project Ambition

HYBRIDplus aims to pioneer the next generation of concentrated solar plant (CSP) with an advanced innovative high-density and high-temperature thermal energy storage (TES) system capable of providing a high degree of dispatchability at low cost and with much lower environmental burden than the state of the art. This thermal storage is based in the Phase Change Material (PCM) technology, with a cascade configuration that can reproduce the effect of a thermocline and integrates recycled metal wool in its nucleus that provide hybridization possibilities by acting as an electric heater, transforming non-dispatchable renewable electricity such as photovoltaic (PV) into thermal stored energy ready to be dispatched when needed.

HYBRIDplus proposes a novel PV+CSP plant with an electrified PCM thermal energy storage system in cascade configuration coupled with a high temperature supercritical CO₂ power cycle. This new plant is called to form the backbone of the coming energy system thanks to a higher efficiency and lower LCoE than state-of-the-art technology. The enabling hybrid TES developed in the project provides full dispatchability due to its embedded electric heaters, which allow higher shares of variable output renewables in the energy system and increases environmental friendliness (lower CO₂ emissions, minimum water consumption, enhancement life cycle impact).