Molten salt heat battery offers hope: 'Industry is struggling, but we have a solution'

Electrification on a full power grid: it's not that easy. For that huge industry challenge, startup Saltes offers a solution. With their heat battery based on molten salt, renewable energy can be stored as heat and used at a later time. 'This way, companies can save and become more sustainable.'

It is perhaps the biggest task since the start of the industrial revolution: decarbonizing the very industries that have brought us so much economic progress. The production of building materials, base metals (including steel), paper and food, as well as the chemical industry, among others, play an important role in meeting the European Union's climate goals. While the burning of coal and oil has declined significantly in recent decades, the industry's gas consumption is still relatively high.

This is mainly due to the constant demand for energy. Solar and wind energy can make an important contribution, but are far from always available. 'And no food producer says: I'll just bake my potatoes when the sun is shining,' says Thomas Stroes, co-founder of Saltes. He knows: the key to matching the supply and demand of renewable energy lies in its storage.

Let him be friends with Bram Bens. Mechanical engineer Bens and technical business administrator Stroes met at Eindhoven University of Technology. Bens has long been concerned with heat storage in molten salt. He was involved in projects using the technology in Portugal and South Africa, among other countries. Stroes adds his experience with energy startups. 'Together we have made this technology into a concrete product in recent years.'

Now is the time to bring that product to market, the two believe. Partly because the pilots have proven that the technology works, but also because of the urgency. 'The industry is struggling and we have a solution.'