Business areas

Thermal Energy Storage

CADE designs and integrates thermal energy storage systems based on solids, molten salts and liquids to supply process heat and make use of variable renewable generation.

storage technologies

countries with thermal energy storage projects: Spain, Greece and Cyprus

first solid-media storage system in industrial operation

2018

CADE designs and integrates thermal energy storage systems in solids, molten salts and liquids that store heat when energy is available and deliver it when the process needs it, with proprietary technology in industrial operation since 2018.

Industries that use steam, hot air or thermal oil and want to replace fossil fuels; photovoltaic and wind developers that need to use energy that is currently curtailed; concentrated solar power plants extending their operating hours; and operators that require flexibility in the face of grid variability.

Clients

Industries with process heatRenewable developersSolar thermal plantsEnergy operatorsResearch centres

Sectors

Agri-foodProcess industryChemicalsPulp and paperCeramics and materialsEnergy

Storage solutions

We decouple heat or electricity production from its consumption for two purposes: decarbonising process heat and making use of variable renewable generation.

Industrial heat

Renewables integration

Technologies

Storage technologies

We work with four technologies and choose the storage medium according to the working temperature, the process fluid and the charge and discharge profile.

Solid-media storage

Concrete and mineral aggregates as the storage medium, charged from heat transfer fluids or directly from electricity. Technology developed by CADE, in industrial operation since 2018.

Concrete
Mineral aggregates
Thermal or electrical charging
Discharge at up to 600 °C
…

Molten salt storage

Molten salt systems in concentrated solar power plants and in industrial processes, building on CADE’s experience in the design, integrity and operation of CSP plants.

Molten salts
CSP plants
Process heat
…

Liquid-media storage

Pressurized water and thermal oil as the storage medium for medium- and low-temperature applications.

Pressurized water
Thermal oil
Medium and low temperature
…

Smart storage

Predictive control and monitoring that match charge and discharge cycles to process demand and to the availability of the source.

Machine learning
IoT
Energy management systems (EMS)
Digital twins
…

Life cycle

From integration study to operation

We size each system according to the process demand profile and the charging source, work in every phase and feed the data from systems in operation into the design of the next ones.

Feasibility

Analysis of thermal demand profiles and of the charging source, selection of the storage technology, sizing in power and capacity, and techno-economic study (CAPEX-OPEX).

Engineering

Basic and detailed engineering of the storage module, of the charging and discharging systems and of their integration with the process. Thermal modeling and simulation of cyclic behavior.

Construction

Modular fabrication, supervision of erection and instrumentation, and protocols for commissioning and for charge and discharge testing.

Operation

IoT monitoring, predictive control using machine learning and a digital twin to match charge and discharge cycles to process demand and to the availability of the source.