Germany Prepares Giant Thermos

To cease the effect of its reliance on importing energy, Berlin has prepared a huge [thermos" to warm up this winter.

The thermos is actually a hot water tower, which stores not electricity, but heat. Vattenfall from Sweden, who built the tower, said the energy storage facility is 45 meters high and can hold 56 million liters of hot water. And according to Vattenfall, its huge insulated water tank will keep the water hot for up to 13 hours.

During operation, it can convert excess heat generated by renewable energy into thermal energy for storage and then release the energy as needed.

The €50 million facility, with a thermal capacity of 200 megawatts, possesses thermal energy that keeps large amounts of water at near-boiling temperatures without interruption, enough to cover most of Berlin's hot water needs in summer. Or in winter, about 10% of the total hot water demand.

The tower is said to store energy and then release it whenever necessary. It also has a wide selection of heat sources such as industrial waste water.

Berlin's top climate official said because of its location, Berlin is more dependent on exporting fossil fuels than the rest of Germany. International situation and the energy crisis both make it urgent to speed up the construction of such thermal storage system.

From Science and Technology Daily / http://www.stdaily.com/