Euronews Green went behind the scenes at Berlin’s tech-hub located in disused airport Tegel to learn more.
ADVERTISEMENTWith companies starting to realise that climate change isn’t going away, more are working together to bring green solutions to the table
One such solution comes from Heat Storage Berlin, a German company that’s on a mission to store surplus renewable energy as heat. “This allows us to supply entire industries such as breweries or the paper industry with steam, using sustainable energies,” founder and CEO Ulrich Prochaska tells Euronews Green.
He created the technology to address the problem of global warming. “We've already reached 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming,” says Ulrich. “With climate change, we absolutely need to stop the burning of oil and gas.”
How do the heat storage devices work?
The devices leverage electricity that isn't immediately required when generated and store it as high-temperature heat. When needed, this energy can be accessed as steam or hot water, reducing the strain on the energy grid by smoothing out generation peaks.
In comparison to a heat pump, which can produce four kilowatt-hours of heat from every kilowatt-hour of electricity, this system is designed to require only four hours of electricity per day, making it more cost-effective.
The prototype device, located in the former cargo hall at Tegel, only needs four hours of electricity per day to provide companies with continuous heat for 24 hours.
Ulrich is working on making bigger heat storages for industries that are dependent on high temperatures including breweries, paper mills, food production and textiles.
“Our high-temperature storage is a very simple product. We have no chemical processes, no special waste. We use very simple materials that also don't break. So, a storage [device] can easily serve for 40 years and longer,” says Ulrich.
From climate-friendly pizza to beer
Currently, the technology is being used to power a climate-neutral pizza oven at Tegel.
The pizza Euronews Green tasted there was very delicious. But how about something to wash it down?
Berlin brewery BRLO is planning to expand and has set its sights on a new brewery that will use second-hand, unused energy in collaboration with Heat Storage Berlin.
BRLO co-founder and chief product officer Michael Lembke says the plan will be to "utilise the unused energy from our neighbours, likely needing to raise it to a higher temperature level, so that we can reach above 120 degrees Celsius, enabling us to use this heat for brewing, including boiling our beer wort.”
BRLO and Heat Storage Berlin work alongside more than 200 staff members from technology startups at GUT Am Flughafen 1. The collaboration centre based in the former TXL airport brings together innovators in renewable energies, the circular economy, mobility and sustainable construction, .
“Since 2022, we are pioneering this development and 17 startups have formed a group to work together on solutions for the city of the future,” Marc Bernath, managing director of GUT Am Flughafen 1 tells Euronews Green.
The 500-hectare space is one of Europe's largest urban development projects.
