21 september 2018
ECOVAT storing energy from and for buildings

Report on KIVI visit to ECOVAT: HQ in Veghel and production in Oss.

Our host is Aris de Groot, founder and managing director of Ecovat. He starts his introduction on Ecovat  with the statement  ”After the natural gas comes Ecovat!”  He stresses that in future the advantages of renewable energies from windmills, solar panels, bio power stations and the like  can only be harvested to the full extent if flexible storage of energy is possible at economically attractive prices and lasting for various seasons. With the storage systems known today this is only possible for short periods and not economically acceptable.

The new company Ecovat is promoting an innovative solution for heating and/or cooling of a residential area with a reasonable number of houses. The system contains an impressive and highly insolated water-cask of up to 30 meters high and a diameter ranging from 30 up to 48 meters. The cask is built up with rings of elements having a height of 3 meters and sides under an angle of 12 degrees to make in the ring a proper fit of the elements possible. The use of a four-pipe system enables the supply or storage of water for heating as well as for cooling of a number of houses equipped with e.g. solar panels. A very innovative controlling system ensures proper operation and service to the connected houses.

After some years of evaluation and testing Ecovat  is now realising some projects for new residential areas.  For details of the system reference is made to the website www.ecovat.eu
A copy of the presentation is to download.

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After the introduction on Ecovat and the presentation of the new flexibel storage system of energy a visit was made to the production location in Oss.  The entrance of the location was clearly dominated by rows of construction parts for building the water-cask to be realised next year in the town of Arnhem. At the start of the production the elements for forming the wall of the cask were made in a horizontal mould. Today the elements are produced in an impressive vertical equipment specially designed for Ecovat.
The system will be built in Arnhem during the next months. It was agreed to visit also that building site somewhere next year to see in reality the system and components in a real environment.

For questions

Question can be send to the organiser of the visit by e-mail webbeheer-el@kivi.nl.

Questions and answers are following (in Dutch) published:

1. Duur? Wat is duur??

Duur is een relatief begrip. Een pen van 1 euro die niet schrijft is duur. Het gaat simpel weg over de Capex, Opex en efficiëntie verhouding van iedere technologie.

Bij een project van 1000 woningen is de waarde van de woningen samen, zegt 300.000 euro/woning totaal 300 miljoen euro.

Met een complete 100% duurzame Ecovat systeem configuratie erbij praat je over een totale investering van circa 315/320 miljoen euro. Op dit soort bedragen is dat een overzichtelijk en beheersbaar prijs niveau. Immers je praat over circa 5% van de totale investering. Het gaat erom dat je alle kosten meeneemt in de beoordeling. Het is altijd jammer dat mensen een oordeel vellen zonder inhoudelijke verdieping.

a. Bijlage 2 Lund Renewable heating strategies Smart Energy System Approach

b. Bijlage 3 Berenschot berekening vermeden systeemkosten

c. Bijlage 4 Business case validering Ecovat door DNVGL

2. Kosten kleinste ecovat: kost EUR 5.593 k. Het warmtenet en overige benodigdheden (zoals grote warmtepompen,  afleverset e.d.) zie bijlage 4 pag. 7 waarbij een berekening is gemaakt voor een nieuwbouw project en een berekening voor een renovatie project.  

3. Er wordt enkel SDE+ subsidie aangevraagd op de warmtecollectoren. Mogelijk komt er in de toekomst SDE op (seizoens-)opslag.