Thin Film Reversible Solid Oxide Cells for Ultracompact Electrical Energy Storage

In the last decades, advanced thin film technology has enabled a wide range of technological breakthroughs that have transformed entire sectors such as electronics and lighting by the implementation of outstanding nanoscale phenomena in reliable products that involve ultralow contents of critical raw materials (CRMs).

EPISTORE aims to revolutionize the energy storage sector by developing pocket-sized kW-range stacks based on thin film reversible Solid Oxide Cells (TF-rSOCs) that will be able to efficiently store renewable electricity for applications where the use of batteries is inefficient due to size constraints or long term storage requirements, e.g. off-shore power generation or transportation.

Nanoscale breakthroughs and never explored materials will be combined in revolutionary TF-rSOCs giving rise to radically new ultracompact and fast response Power-to-Gas and Power-to-Power storage solutions with superior performance (hydrogen production of 10kg/l per hour and specific power of 2.5kW/kg) and negligible use of CRMs (50mg/kW).

In order to enable this science-to-technology step forward, our nano-enabled TF-rSOCs will be integrated in scalable silicon technology to show their viability as a potentially low-cost new paradigm of large-scale energy storage.

The EPISTORE project addresses this challenging objective by building an interdisciplinary research consortium that includes consolidated and emergent leading researchers in modelling, micro- and nano-technologies, materials science and energy together with high-tech pioneer SMEs that cover the whole value chain and possess unique capabilities to develop kW-range modular stacks for real applications.

Moreover, the structure and communication strategy have been designed to make EPISTORE a lighthouse project for boosting this novel storage paradigm and building an innovation ecosystem founded on advanced thin films applied to energy technology.