RheEnergise has completed the main mechanical works at its long-duration energy storage demonstrator project in Cornwood, near Plymouth, Devon.
The project is part of the company’s research and development programme and is intended to support the commercial rollout of its pumped hydro storage technology. Onsite work began last year and has been mainly funded through the UK Government’s Longer Duration Energy Demonstration programme run by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).
The mechanical systems now installed include the turbine, pump, generators, piping, valves, power conversion system, mixing system, fluid management system, flow control systems and hydraulics. Civil engineering works, including the powerhouse, reservoirs and underground pipelines, were completed earlier this year.
The work was carried out by D.A Macdonald Ltd, Friendship Engineering and Drew & Co., in collaboration with RheEnergise’s in-house engineering team led by Chief Technology Officer and company co-founder Dr Tamás Bertényi.
Dr Bertényi said: “Completion of the main mechanical works is a major milestone in the Cornwood project and allows us to move into the fluid testing and the energy storage phases of work. We have carried out considerable R&D work to get us to this stage but Cornwood is very much a live and crucial test-bed for our work; it is already providing us with valuable data and learnings as we move towards the first commercial deployment of our LDES technology.”
“It’s not without challenges, but we are aiming for our first commercial projects to be built and commissioned within the next two to three years.”
RheEnergise plans to begin operations at Cornwood this autumn. The company has agreements to deploy its technology in the UK, South America, Australia and mainland Europe. In July, it secured a £2.15m (€2.5m) grant from the European Innovation Council Accelerator to support further R&D and is currently running a funding campaign in the US and Canada.
