Taking its innovative findings to a global audience, the COOPERANT project made a major international impact at the prestigious ISES Solar World Congress (SWC) 2025. Held in New Delhi, this landmark event serves as the premier global gathering for solar energy scientists, engineers, and industry leaders from every continent, all focused on accelerating the transition to a 100% renewable energy world.
Representing the consortium on this grand stage, Adina Hochuli from the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU) presented a highly detailed technical poster and abstract that put COOPERANT’s core storage mechanics directly under the microscope.
Redefining the Solar Battery
Hochuli’s presentation, entitled “Hybrid Sensible-Latent Heat Thermal Energy Storage for Concentrated Solar Power Applications,” addressed one of the most critical challenges in the entire renewable sector: how to make solar batteries smaller, cheaper, and vastly more efficient.
Standard Thermal Energy Storage (TES) systems traditionally rely on “sensible heat”—meaning they store energy simply by raising the temperature of materials like molten salt or rocks. While effective, these systems require massive physical footprints. COOPERANT’s breakthrough relies on a hybrid approach, embedding phase-change materials (PCMs) directly into the storage medium to exploit “latent heat”—the massive burst of energy absorbed or released when a material melts and solidifies.
Hochuli showcased how this hybrid architecture acts like a thermal stabilizer. By blending sensible and latent heat, the COOPERANT system can maintain a remarkably steady, optimal temperature during energy discharge. This prevents the typical thermal drop-offs that plague older systems, ensuring that the turbines connected to the solar plant can run at peak thermodynamic efficiency for hours after the sun goes down.
Global Dialogue and Market Relevance
The presentation sparked intense dialogue among international delegates, particularly from regions looking to rapidly build out large-scale, reliable green grids without relying on expensive lithium-ion batteries.
By taking the stage in New Delhi, the COOPERANT project demonstrated that its innovations aren’t just designed for European climate roadmaps, but are globally scalable. The ability to dramatically reduce the physical footprint of thermal storage tanks while increasing power output makes the COOPERANT concept an attractive blueprint for sun-rich nations worldwide.
Scientific Resource: To explore the full datasets, simulation models, and schematics presented at the World Congress, view the official Zenodo repository: DOI 10.5281/zenodo.19385182
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