Kyoto has established the subsidiary Kyoto Technology Denmark ApS to be closer to partners and customers in the key Danish market, building on the company’s first commercial contract.

The new subsidiary will be headed by Peter Iversen, who will also be the Chief Manufacturing Officer of Kyoto Group. A native of Denmark, Mr Iversen has 25 years of international management and supply chain experience from oil, gas, construction, pharmaceuticals and renewable energy.

“The Danish market has several characteristics that make it ideal for Kyoto, and I am excited to be working with Peter to leverage the momentum created by our first commercial contract with Aalborg Forsyning,” says Camilla Nilsson, CEO of Kyoto Group.

The utility Aalborg Forsyning will install Kyoto’s Heatcube thermal battery at the Nordjyllandsværket power plant outside of Aalborg as a commercial demonstration unit, which will be operational this fall.

The Heatcube is a thermal battery, meaning it stores energy in the form of heat. The battery is then used to produce steam or a combination of electricity and hot water for industrial use or district heating systems. It is based on molten salt technology, which has been used extensively in the Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) industry.

Several factors make Denmark an attractive market for Kyoto, not least the fact that nearly half of the country’s energy production on the national grid comes from wind, making it challenging to match production and consumption, creating the need for energy storage.

“At night, the wind is still blowing, of course. And the prices are low. But there is almost nowhere to put the energy. You have to get rid of it by giving it away or paying people to take it. A Heatcube can receive energy during the night, and customers can benefit by off-loading it as heat during the daytime,” says Mr Iversen.

The Danish government has set a clear goal of phasing out coal from the power supply by 2030.

“Both politicians and people are on board, as Denmark quickly wants to become the greenest country in the world,” says Mr Iversen.