Cowa Thermal Solutions develops highly efficient heat storage system
Cowa Thermal Solutions, a start-up from the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, has launched a space-saving heat storage system for surplus energy from photovoltaic systems and heat pumps. Instead of water, it uses salt hydrates as the storage material, which are up to three times more efficient.
Cowa Thermal Solutions has developed a method that can increase the capacity of heat storage units for combined photovoltaic-heat pump systems many times over. The founders of the start-up from the canton of Lucerne already researched this technology for heating and hot water as part of their master’s thesis at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.
According to a statement from the university, they then worked for another four years to make their product, the cowa booster storage tank, ready for the market. During the past heating season, it was tested intensively in the field. The tests showed that the cowa technology doubled the autonomy of the heating system and halved the dependence on the electricity grid. The cowa Booster Speicher is now available in stores. The sales partner is the building technology company Meier Tobler. Initial talks for expansion into Germany and Europe are reportedly underway.
According to the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, it increases capacity without taking up more space. “The core of our technology is the storage material,” explains cowa founder and co-CEO Remo Waser. “It is based on cost-effective salt hydrates, whose storage density is up to three times higher than that of water. Our heat storage units are correspondingly more powerful.”
The salt hydrates are reportedly in capsules. The storage tank is filled about 40 per cent with heating water and 60 per cent with capsules containing the salt hydrates. “In this way, the cowa buffer storage tank can store two to three times more energy than a conventional water storage tank of the same size without capsules,” says CRO Jan Allemann.