Storing solar energy.
The University of Corsica-CNRS’s MYRTE and PAGLIA ORBA platforms are located in Vignola, near Ajaccio, at the Georges Peri Scientific Studies Center.
Sponsored by the CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research), the AREVA Energy storage space and the CEA (Atomic Energy Commission), the University of Corsica’s MYRTE platform research is dedicated to the production and the storage of solar energy. Its objective is to redistribute this energy within the electricity network during periods of strong daily use, and/or to mitigate the extreme power fluctuations inherent in energy that the photovoltaic power plant supplies.
The platform’s goal is to produce and store energy through a Hydrogen chain. This consists of an electrolysis apparatus, which, during hours of weak consumption, produces hydrogen and oxygen from water molecules.
This energy is then distributed via a fuel cell, that recombines the hydrogen and the oxygen into water, producing electricity; for example, in the evening during hours of important consumption, while the photovoltaic panels are inactive. This apparatus also produces heat that can be stored for various secondary uses.
Hooked up to the EDF (French Electricity System) network since 2012, the power plant produces the equivalent of the electrical consumption of 200 homes. This research developed a control-command system that optimally runs all the equipment, according to functional algorithms developed by our researchers.
By their size and their assimilation in the electricity network, the MYRTE and PAGLIA ORBA platforms, located on the University of Corsica-CNRS site, are one of the rare sites in the world, capable of studying the duo renewable energies and storage under real conditions.
