Homerun Energy USA , a newly formed 100% owned subsidiary of Homerun Resources, is pleased to announce NREL Global ETES IP that the Company has signed an Intellectual Property Agreement (“IPA”) with Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC (“Alliance”), management and operating contractor of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (“NREL”).
Brian Leeners, CEO of Homerun stated, “This IPA is the culmination of a two-year partnership between Homerun and NREL and is the realization of the synergy across the Homerun vertical strategy where our unique silica sand facilitates particle-based energy storage and silica calcination purification integrated with the Homerun Energy EMS to complete and advance the potential commercial offerings. Having achieved this level of integration on the capital expended to date, is a complement to the vision and creativity within our electrification strategy. Working with the team at NREL, lead by Zhiwen Ma, has fast-tracked the development cycle to where we are today at the precipice of commercialization into a global electrification revolution demanding economic long-life, long duration energy storage and industrial heating/cooling solutions.”
Homerun entered a CRADA with NREL (CRD-23-24168), and subsequently formed a U.S. based startup company, Homerun Energy USA, Inc. that is securing the option for the license to certain intellectual property belonging to Alliance, which was brought into the IPA and/or developed under the CRADA (“Option”). Alliance is the owner of the Alliance Intellectual Property and is granting the Option through the IPA, for Homerun to advance the technologies toward commercial application. The option period runs for twelve (12) months, subject to ongoing negotiations during that period.
As a part of any license, Alliance requires Homerun to use commercially reasonable efforts to bring Alliance Intellectual Property to market through a thorough, vigorous, and diligent commercialization program. The NREL particle-based thermal energy storage system was originally developed using funding from ARPA-E, and the IP portfolio consists of many issued patents and patent applications filed in the U.S., Canada, and Brazil.
Figure A shows the diagram of long duration energy storage technology using sand-based thermal energy storage developed in the ARPA-E supported project that is under the license agreement.
Homerun also announces that a new patent application has been filed for the invention resulting under the Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA No. CRD-23-24168) between Homerun and Alliance. The invention relates to a thermal energy storage (TES) system integrated with silica sand purification processing.
Key relevant aspects of the innovation include:
- A system comprising a sand thermal energy storage process and a silica purification process where silica sand is used as the thermal energy storage medium and as a final product of the silica purification process.
- The storage charging/discharging devices are contained in a single system, and silica calcination and/or drying devices are contained within that system.
Sustainable Impact
- Synergize energy storage with silica purification and maximizes energy utilization.
- Efficiency: recovers and reuses process heat for both internal plant operations and external industrial customers (pulp & paper, food, chemicals, metallurgical applications and data centres).
- Flexible Revenue: the dual-purpose system opens multiple profit channels in power sales, industrial process heat contracts, and processed silica materials supply.
Under the commercialization plan for the NREL Energy Storage System, Homerun Energy will integrate its advanced AI energy management and control system (EMS). Homerun’s technology is designed to operate across devices and brands to optimize energy capture, maximize storage efficiency and enable smarter, more sustainable energy use. By integrating AI into the edge Hub and into the cloud, Homerun empowers the end-user to better monitor, control and predict energy generation, usage and needs, enhancing performance while reducing costs and environmental impact and enabling advanced services such as energy trading.
Figure B shows the innovative modular sand thermal energy storage that Homerun is looking to bring to the market as a first step of commercializing the sand energy storage method.
