“This marks our first foray into the dynamic UK renewable energy market,” said Pascal Mauberger, CEO of McPhy Energy. The french company specialized in solid hydrogen storage technology has just announced that Nottingham University has chosen the company’s solution for mid-term storage of renewable energy in a residential micro-grid. And that, as part of its “Creative Energy Homes” (CEH) project.

Nottingham University’s CEH represent a unique research facility. The homes built under the project incorporate a range of low carbon technologies including renewable micro generation from solar, wind and ground source heat pumps. The houses have operated individually using only the renewable energy generated at that property. However, a practical, multi-home storage solution for surplus energy is needed to cover peak periods, especially after sundown and during periods of little or no wind.

To respond to this challenge, this new phase of the CEH project is building a micro-grid that will provide an energy management system across several houses. The program will investigate the optimum performance for storing surplus energy as solid hydrogen in McPhy Energy’s MCP-N-4, a magnesium hydride (MgH2)-based storage tank, within the micro-grid. The hydrogen will then be used to feed the fuel cells on an as-needed basis.

Related content: energy storage, fuel cells, solid hydrogen