Aluminum Association Switzerland

Our technical coordinator Michel Haller from OST presented the REVEAL project at the Alu-Kongress 2024 organized by Aluminium Verband Schweiz at Empa Dübendorf on April 25th as one of the few invited speakers.

Some of the key messages brought across by Michel were:

• 50% of the annual end-energy demand in Switzerland is heat, in January, the share of heat is even 66%.

• With large penetration of PV electricity in Switzerland by 2050, the country will produce much more electricity than needed in summer, but less than needed in winter.

• Renewable Metal Fuels are among the very few options to seasonally store energy.

• With aluminium as an energy carrier, it can be expected that from 1 ton of Al, more than 2 MWh of electricity and 6 MWh of heat can be produced, if heat is replacing heat from heat pumps with a 3:1 ratio, the total electricity production or replacement in winter is 4 MWh per ton Al.

• A prerequisite for a carbon-neutral energy storage cycle based on aluminium as an energy carrier is renewable electricity to start with and an inert electrode process for the reduction of aluminium from Al2O3, releasing O2 instead of CO2, while producing elementary aluminium.

• Because of the very high energy density of aluminium as an energy carrier, cost and emissions of transport are not relevant, and thus it is of low importance whether the aluminium is produced in Switzerland (point of use) or in a country with year-around abundance of renewable electricity such as Iceland or Norway.