Closing the Winter Energy Gap with Aluminium

The future is renewable - not only because of climate change and the need to decarbonize, but also because #RenewableEnergies allow us to reduce fossil and nuclear fuel imports and corresponding dependency on other countries. For Switzerland, this means that we can reduce 200 TWh of non-renewable imports per year down to zero (mineral oils, natural gas and uranium). Instead, more than 90% of our demand will be covered by national renewable resources, mostly electricity from hydro and solar, in combination with pumped hydro, batteries and thermal storage for short-term load matching.

But what about the coldest days in winter? apricot 366 is bound to take care of the last few TWh of "winter peak load" that are the "pièce de résistance", as our French speaking colleagues would say. We use aluminium as a renewable energy carrier for long term transport and storage. Aluminium has an outstanding energy density of 15 MWh/m3 (bulk), which is higher than mineral oils. And aluminium is likely to be the lowest cost option for production of chemically stored energy and transport to the end-user. 

Check out the recent publication "Metals and hydrogen derivatives for long-distance energy supply–A techno-economic comparison" of Julia Schuler, from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0196890425006491