Six reasons why you should replace your industrial gas boiler

Production requires heat, but how do you pay less for it?

Heat is eating at your profit margin. Anyone who needs process heat to make their product is squeezed in two ways. First: high and volatile prices of fossil fuels, that must be secured in advance of production, to make the necessary heat to produce your product, are difficult to predict. Second: CO2-taxes to compensate for emissions are continuously increasing. The more output you produce, the more you pay. With the long term goal of climate neutrality, one day renewables will have to replace the gas boiler in your factory. But why wait? Switching to a renewable energy source is possible now, and it only comes with financial benefits.

Cheap electricity beats the price of gas

As more and more renewable energy sources come online, the price of electricity will drop significantly. This drop makes electricity cheaper than any alternative, and the electrification of industrial energy consumption a reality. In some countries it’s already happening. When supply is greater than demand, prices drop. This occurs in the electricity market at night and midday. If only there was a way for you to capture this electricity at this lower price point? There is! A thermal battery.

A thermal battery stores renewable, cheap energy 

Both your budget and the planet would benefit from a thermal battery, but what is a thermal battery? A thermal battery uses a resistive heater to heat a storage medium, when the price of electricity is low. This heat is then used later as steam, in the same pipe in which steam is delivered from your fossil fuel boiler today. This means that you can capture electricity at its cheapest point and use it later. You have a sustainable, secure and affordable energy source to use whenever needed 

Thermal batteries come with many benefits. Here are six reasons to switch your gas boiler to a thermal battery:

1. Make your heat cheaper 

Reduce the cost of energy by charging heat when electricity is cheaper at night or midday. Then, discharge heat when production starts in the morning, or whenever production demands. Charging and discharging can take place simultaneously, if required to take advantage of competitive prices.

2. Decarbonize your heat

Run production without paying CO2-taxes - you won't be making any. You will be using a sustainable source of heat that is CO2 free. Everyone will have to stop CO2 - emissions in the future. By switching to a thermal battery, you will be set and ready in advance, and ahead of your competitors.  

3. Increase the security of energy supply

Imagine a constant supply of stable, cheap and renewable energy. Renewable energy is the future, and it can be captured reliably with a thermal battery. This ensures a secure supply of energy to your business, which means you only need your gas boiler as a back-up, if at all. Having this security in place you will be free of political effects on the energy market, leaving you and your margins safe from political influence.

4. Get predictable low energy bills

The price of electricity is irrelevant if your production output is unstable. A thermal battery stabilizes energy output which means it also stabilizes the price of electricity for you. If you can charge your thermal battery at a lower price point, your energy bill will be stabilized at a lower level. Some industries use hedging strategies to avoid peak prices, consistently paying extra to avoid sudden spikes in the price of energy. A thermal battery replaces the need for fixing a high price and instead focuses on the cheapest time to charge. 

5. Energy flexibility is an advantage

You could save money by staying away from the grid at peak hours. This directly benefits the Transmission System Operator (TSO), who are responsible for transporting electricity to you, as they will save money on infrastructure expansion. Think of it as not having to build more lanes on a busy road. TSOs monitor peak demand to make sure they are able to deliver energy when consumers need it at the same time. While the demand for electricity is likely to increase in the future, each customer promising to stay away at peak hours, dampens the need for grid investments and futureproofs your energy supply.

6. Buy heat as a service

A thermal battery can also be delivered with heat-as-a-service (HaaS) operation. You would pay to have steam delivered in a pipe, without the worry of owning and maintaining the battery yourself. This means you could pay for only the heat you actually use, at a lower price than using fossil fuels or gas, and not pay for any of the actual equipment needed to make it all happen.

Do you want to know more about how to use a thermal battery to decarbonize the production of heat, lower your energy bills and become future-proof? At Kyoto Group we are experts in thermal batteries as a renewable energy source. 

Get in touch with us!