Revolutionary energy storage cycle with carbon free aluminium

Solutions developed

Technologies for storing renewable energy over months or seasons remain limited and costly. The REVEAL project addresses this by developing an innovative Power-to-Aluminium (Power-to-Al) system that converts aluminium oxide into aluminium metal as a renewable fuel. This solution offers a high energy density of over 15 MWh/m³, with conversion costs under 7 ct/kWh, enabling efficient, loss-free, and low-impact energy storage. The aluminium fuel can be transported easily and used for heat, electricity, or hydrogen production in scalable units from a few kW to MWs—even off-grid. REVEAL’s breakthrough approach supports flexible, seasonal energy supply and is a key step toward a climate-neutral Europe.

Main results

Cost-efficient, eco-friendly technologies that store renewable energies for longer are key to Europe's transition to a climate-neutral society. However, technologies that store renewables for months or even entire seasons are not used extensively because they are limited and expensive. The EU-funded REVEAL project will develop a technical solution by converting aluminium oxide into aluminium metal in an environment-friendly manner. It will produce a renewable metal fuel, which can be stored easily, based on aluminium as well as developing solutions for providing electricity and heat for buildings and industry from this fuel. The innovation will cost much less and have a lower environmental impact than existing solutions. It will meet energy demands during seasons when local renewable production is insufficient.