13.04.2022 / Press Releases

European Energy Security Needs Energy Storage

On 13 April, Breakthrough Energy, the European Association for Storage of Energy - EASE, Solar Power Europe, and Wind Europe signed an open letter calling on the European Commission to recognise energy storage’s crucial role for the security of energy supply in Europe.

13.04.2022 / News

Welcome on Board SQM

The European Association for Storage of Energy (EASE) is glad to extend a warm welcome to its newest member SQM who joined EASE in March 2022. Mr Giuseppe Casubolo, Commercial Vice-President Industrial Nitrates at SQM, accepted to talk with us about the expertise of SQM in energy storage and the expectations from this collaboration with EASE.

EASE: Mr Casubolo, thank you very much for accepting this interview. We are really happy to incorporate SQM among our members and we would like to know more about your activities in the sector. Could you summarise the most interesting insights from the work of your company for energy storage?

SQM is world leader producer of Solar Salts, a mixture of sodium and potassium nitrates which is used as a thermal storage medium in Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plants and thermal storage units (also called Carnot batteries).

In this application we have been pioneers when in the 90s we participated in the Solar Two project in Barstow California. Solar Two was the first pilot CSP plant where solar salts have been tested and created a reference for the whole industry.

As of today, we have been supplying our salts to 29 CSP power plants and we expect a large growth of demand for this application as well as in the Carnot batteries.

EASE: We look forward to a very fruitful collaboration with you and to receive SQM inputs for our Working Groups and Task Forces. What created the interest from your company to join EASE?

We are very excited to be part of EASE now and we believe that the association is an excellent vehicle to promote the value of the different storage technologies. The need for a structured development of storage solutions has never been so critical like nowadays.  

EASE: What is your vision for how energy storage can contribute to the energy transition?

I believe that the need to decarbonize the entire power generation and reach independency from fossil fuels has reached the point of no return. This process requires a massive deployment of renewable power generation which can only be achieved with reliable storage capacity. There is simply no other way to go further.  

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13.04.2022 / Press Releases

European Energy Security Needs Energy Storage

On 13 April, Breakthrough Energy, the European Association for Storage of Energy - EASE, Solar Power Europe, and Wind Europe signed an open letter calling on the European Commission to recognise energy storage’s crucial role for the security of energy supply in Europe.

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