Ore Energy completes EU-funded multi-day energy storage pilot at EDF in France
100-hour iron-air battery tested within European StoRIES program
Ore Energy, the Netherlands-based developer of iron-air batteries for long-term energy storage (LDES), today announced the successful completion of a grid-connected technical pilot of its 100-hour iron-air energy storage system at EDF Lab les Renardières in Écuelles (France). The pilot was conducted as part of the Storage Research Infrastructure Eco-System (“StoRIES”) program.
According to Ore Energy, this is the first pilot in Europe where an iron-air LDES system has been evaluated in a realistic utility environment. The results show that the technology is capable of delivering energy storage over several days under field conditions. As part of the StoRIES-supported pilot, Ore Energy deployed its modular iron-air battery system to collect operational data under realistic grid conditions. The system was found to be able to store and discharge energy for approximately four days (100 hours).
Over several months, the system was tested under varying load profiles and seasonal conditions, with the goal of evaluating the system's charging and discharging behavior, responsiveness, and integration with common grid management methods. The technical data collected through this pilot contribute to the broader StoRIES goal of assessing long-term energy storage options suitable for multi-day balancing of renewable energy.
“This pilot allowed us to evaluate the performance of iron-air storage under European operational profiles and real grid conditions,” said Aytaç Yilmaz, co-founder and CEO of Ore Energy. “The data generated through StoRIES gives us valuable insights into how multi-day storage behaves in a utility environment. This helps us further refine the technology and better understand its potential role alongside other storage solutions.”
Ore Energy's systems are designed to maximize the storage and distribution of renewable energy to cost-effectively support grid reliability during extended periods without wind or solar.
The iron-air system uses only iron, air and water to drive a reversible oxidation process. During charging, excess renewable electricity converts iron oxide (rust) into metallic iron, storing energy in a stable solid form for up to four days. During discharge, the iron oxidizes again through exposure to oxygen and water, releasing electrical energy as it ‘rusts’ again.
Because iron-air systems use only safe and abundantly available raw materials - with no rare earths or critical minerals - they enable an all-European supply chain, from production to end-of-life. Ore Energy's large-scale system will use 40-foot modular containers, each capable of providing several megawatt hours of multi-day energy storage.
The EDF pilot follows the recent grid-connected installation of Ore Energy in Delft, where the feasibility of integrating iron-air systems into existing European distribution networks was demonstrated. This activity was supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program through the StoRIES Transnational Access (TNA) initiative. The goal of the program is to promote and validate emerging technologies for long-term energy storage in Europe. Participating research infrastructures and technology developers are required to make results available through appropriate communication channels to contribute to the European knowledge base in this field.
