A utility company has unveiled a vast “thermos” that will store millions of gallons of hot water to help heat homes in Berlin this winter, even if Russian gas supplies dry up. The huge water tank uses excess electricity from solar and wind power plants.
A vast thermal tank to store hot water is pictured in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, June 30, 2022. Power provider Vattenfall unveiled a new facility in Berlin on Thursday that turns solar and wind energy into heat, which can be stored in a vast thermal tank and released into the German capital's grid as needed, smoothing out the fluctuating supply problem of renewables.
BERLIN — The rust-colored tower rising from an industrial site near the banks of Berlin’s Spree river looks nothing like the sleek flasks Germans use for coffee, yet its purpose is similar: to provide some warmth throughout the day, especially when it’s cold outside. With a height of 45 meters and holding up to 56 million liters of hot water, utility company Vattenfall says the tower will help heat Berlin homes this winter“It’s a huge thermos that helps us to store the heat when we don’t need it,” said Tanja Wielgoss, who heads the Sweden-based company’s heat unit in Germany. “And then we can release it when we need to use it.”
While district heating systems fueled by coal, gas or waste have been around for more than a century, most aren’t designed to store significant amounts of heat. By contrast, the new facility unveiled Thursday at Vattenfall’s Reuter power station will hold water brought to almost boiling temperature with excess electricity from solar and wind power plants across Germany.“Sometimes you have an abundance of electricity in the grids that you cannot use anymore, and then you need to turn off the wind turbines,” said Wielgoss. “Where we are standing we can take in this electricity.
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