Starting in January 2017, AMADEUS (www.amadeus-project.eu) is the first project funded by the European Commission to research on a new generation of materials and solid state devices for ultra-high temperature energy storage and conversion. By exploring storage temperatures well beyond 1000 ºC the project aims at breaking the mark of ~ 600ºC rarely exceeded by current state of the art TES (thermal energy storage) systems. AMADEUS Project, through a collaborative research between seven European partners, aims to create new PCMs (phase change materials) based on silicon and boron alloys with latent heats in the range of 1000-2000 kWh/m3, an order of magnitude greater than that of conventional molten salts used in CSP (concentrated solar power). Also, a new kind of solid-state device, the hybrid thermionic-photovoltaic converter, will be developed for heat to power conversion at very high temperatures in the range of 1000-2000 ºC. The final objective of the project is to develop a new kind of extremely compact energy storage device that will eventually lead to a new generation of modular CSP systems, new electricity storage devices for the housing and district sectors, or new systems for grid-scale storage applications.
