Safeguarding our future with clean, sustainable energy
According to the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), 85% of homes in England, Scotland and Wales use a gas boiler. However, with the current surge in gas prices, many (over 13%) of UK households will be unable to afford their bills this winter.
Clean heating is front-and-centre of the UK’s strategy to reach net zero. Addressing this area of energy demand for the consumer is a key lever for lowering the overall energy profile of the UK overall and a catalyst to move our energy mix away from fossil fuels.
Moonlight Energy’s mission is to bridge the energy divide in the UK with affordable, clean and sustainable heating. Our innovation (Sand-Dome) is a novel community-scale thermal battery for heating multiple dwelling units, including district heating, apartment blocks, council blocks and business units.
A Stonehaven analysis of the 2022 Aurora study published by Elexon from Ofgem statistics for household electricity use, grid-scale estimates report that the UK wasted enough wind power between October 2022 and January 2023 to provide energy for 1.2 million UK homes. Over the same timeframe, the analysis reports that the UK important £60bn in gas. A Sand-dome stores off-peak energy from renewable sources (wind and solar) as heat or fuel in hot sand, which is, in turn, used in district heating for our homes and businesses. It uses hot sand, which is a healthy (50:50) blend of recycled sand and glass waste (cullet) stored in a dome with heat exchangers and internal aluminium lining.
Our device, a Sand-Dome, can store heat for up to 6 months and power a typical heat network of up to 6MWh in discharge mode from full capacity. A Sand-dome is cost-effective and has a lifespan of 50 years with a running cost of £0.01kWh and a 99% operating efficiency. Gas boilers, on the other hand, cost £0.07kWh (x7 Sand-dome's cost), have a 91% efficiency and a 10-15 year lifespan, while Heat Pumps typically operate at £0.27kWh (x27 Sand-dome cost) with significantly higher operational efficiency (~300%) and 20 years lifespan.
Sand-Dome represents an innovative approach to energy storage, offering potential advantages over traditional heating methods such as natural gas and biofuels in terms of cost, carbon impact, sustainability, and energy efficiency
