As part of her function as political spokeswoman on sustainability and UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, Ms. Bjerre visits companies and organisations that take active part in the green energy transition. In this respect, on Monday 2. December, Aalborg CSP welcomed Ms. Bjerre to their headquarters in Aalborg for a talk about sustainability and renewable energy technologies.

During the meeting, the parties discussed the Danish green energy transition as well as how to best continue the transition in order to reach current as well as future climate goals. Aalborg CSP shared their thoughts on the matter and presented a solution on how Denmark is able to utilize a larger majority of the energy produced by wind turbines.

Wind energy is one of the most widespread forms of renewable energy in Denmark and plays a significant role in the green transition. The Danish wind capacity has increased over the past years and will continue to do so in the future. However, when the wind blows, we produce more electricity than we are able to consume, whereas on days without wind we must import electricity to cover our needs. The question is, what happens, when there is no wind? Aalborg CSP suggests high-temperature thermal energy storage as the solution.

We are in need of solutions that allows us to store excess energy produced from all existing as well as future wind turbines. According to Aalborg CSP, the necessary technology already exists and has been used with great success abroad. The proposed technology includes storing excess energy in the form of molten salt. By using molten salt as storage medium, excess energy can be stored for both hours and days and returned in the form electricity – on days without wind – and district heating.

The technology is extremely flexible and can be integrated with a range of energy forms and likewise store energy from multiple different sources.

According to Aalborg CSP, the first step is to establish high-temperature thermal energy storages at existing coal-fired plants in Denmark, as the infrastructure can be reused, thereby minimizing the cost of preliminary expenses.

Aalborg CSP would like to thank Ms. Bjerre for a great visit and an interesting dialogue.