Long duration energy storage that’s scalable, modular & distributed

 

Sage Geosystems & AJ Lucas Services

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EarthstoreTM is a breakthrough in green long duration energy storage which is half the cost of batteries and pumped hydro. It can be applied almost anywhere and with a small environmental footprint. Its efficiency is further doubled when used in conjunction with geothermal rocks, and Australia is rich in geothermal resources. 

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To explain the technology, water is pumped 5 km underground with green electricity in non peak times when electricity is cheap. The pressurised water is released in high cost peaks or when the sun does not shine and the wind does not blow by driving a Pelton Turbine. Hence the name Earthstore TM. When the water is also heated geothermally, it is further processed in a patented CO2 heat exchanger/ turbine thereby processing the water twice – firstly in the Pelton Turbine and secondly, in the CO2 heat exchanger / turbine. It’s “pumped hydro” anywhere without pumped hydro’s high cost and high environmental impact.The attached graph shows how much cheaper is this technology. The Attached an academic paper on our Long Duration Energy Storage technology, “Energy Storage in Deep Hydraulic Fractures: Mathematical Model and Field Validation” further describes the process and evidence of its successful testing for various durations, including up to 15.5 hours discharge. It is technical but the key sections are simple to understand – the technology has been tested and it works. Below is a simple illustration of the process.

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There is some more information available on the Sage Geosystems website. https://www.sagegeosystems.com/geothermal-energy-storage-solutions/  

 

Opportunity

This technology is potentially transformative for implementing the scale and significance of the energy transition requirements. Here’s our view of the ‘levelised cost of storage’ comparison between technologies as it stands for the first of a kind (FOAK) and next of a kind (NOAK) efficiency: A reminder that the technology has been tested in Texas and will work on the transmission network in just about all of Australia. We are well equipped to construct such systems using readily available equipment. So much so that we believe we can have the first one finished before the end of 2024, subject to regulatory approvals.

 

Strategy

Our objective for us is to develop a portfolio of the most competitive, least risk, scalable and fastest-to-market long duration energy storage solutions where they’re needed the most.

 

Our preference is to be the asset owner / operator and not to take energy market risk – so we are looking to enter into tolling-type arrangements. The tariffs will be a function of the risk allocation.

 

Process

We are currently undertaking a process to choose the location of our first site. We want somewhere scalable given its modular nature.

 

The critical elements are:

• Transmission

• Water

• Geology

• LDS need

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We will construct the first project in the following phases:

1. Drill well demonstrating huff and puff cycles

2. Attach Pelton turbine and generator for selling electricity

3. Scale-up development of modular pods of optimal sizing (24, 48, 80 MW - TBA)

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