German utility EWE has revealed intentions to build an energy storage system in an old salt mine. Dubbed brine4power, the system might ultimately become the largest battery on the planet. The underground salt caverns were used as natural gas storage facilities previously, and have a size of 3.5 million cubic feet, giving the potential battery a capacity of up to 700MWh at an output of 120MW.
The ambitious plan would work with redox flow technology. With vast amounts of saltwater in the caves, energy would be stored as liquid electrolytes. EWE is confident the ambitious project will work out. “We need to carry out some more tests and clarify several issues before we can use the storage principle indicated by the University of Jena in underground caverns. However, I expect that we will have an operating cavern battery by about the end of 2023,” says Ralf Riekenberg, head of the brine4power project.
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