Crushed Hot Rocks To Provide Net-Zero Industrial Heat For Europe

An Israeli company that stores renewable energy by heating crushed rocks is scaling sales across Europe through a new venture. 

Brenmiller Energy obtains electricity during the day through rooftop solar panels, which it uses to boil water to make steam. That steam in turn heats crushed rocks to extremely high temperatures that can hold the heat for several days.

When there’s demand for electricity but the sun isn’t shining, the heat can be used again to boil water. Steam from that water produces clean electricity through the use of a generator.

Under a new joint venture with European renewable energy developers Green Enesys and Viridi, Brenmiller will deliver its products through a new Energy-as-a-Service (EaaS) model starting in Spain, Germany and France.

EaaS offers customers access to energy and management services without any associated upfront costs. The customer only pays for ongoing services, avoiding infrastructure and equipment charges.

Spain, Germany, and France represent a combined 45 percent of the European Union’s manufacturing production. All three are home to a number of multinational clean energy utilities.

“Spain was a natural choice for us,” said Avi Brenmiller, CEO of Brenmiller Energy. 

“Brenmiller’s management team played a key role in helping start up Spain’s solar industry 20 years ago when it became the second country in the world, after Israel, to mandate the installation of solar hot water systems,” he said.

“We’ve continued to push the limits on renewable thermal generation since then and are now seizing on our established footprint to accelerate the delivery of high-temperature electric heat to Europe’s industrial manufacturing sector.”