The core components are:

  • High Temperature Heat Pump [powered by Solar to charge the TORC PCM Storage Medium]

  • PCM material and modular Storage Medium

  • Organic Rankine Cycle Turbine and Heat Exchanger [Integrated into the PCM Storage Medium to discharge the heat Energy back to Electrical Power]  

Diagram of TORC energy recycling loop showing stages: charge with renewable electricity, heat pump for heat in, thermal storage medium, heat to ORC system for electricity generation, waste heat recovery returning heat to storage, and clean electricity output. Includes descriptions of efficiency, heat flow, and recycling advantages.

TORC Intellectual Property “IP”

While the componentry, even the PCM, is off the Shelf, and the integrated Close Loop = right down to recycling ORC waste heat to support charging the storage medium is not new (CHP), what is unique is the sum integration of all the said components to chase the theoretical undegradable pure energy delivery concept (Carnot). We are at the start of this journey but there is no vent or exhaust in our system and our efficiency at pilot stage already delivers commercially desirable LCOS<10cents/kWh (a fraction of the cost of deployable / off grid fossil fuel generators that are presently the only On-Demand Power option). We are not aware of any other Clean LDES development or proposal doing this.

Further, the OEMs of the TORC Componentry, are all global majors in their field, and TORC is working with each of the OEMs of the components to achieve optimum overlap on each system to maximise heat transfer from Charge to Discharge and back again. Efficient Energy Transfer is the core quest of TORC. Our system is driven by low entropy focus (a physics joke) on the First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics.

  • First Law of Thermodynamics Energy cannot be created or destroyed — only transformed from one form to another.

  • Second Law of Thermodynamics (informal) Energy naturally spreads out (disperses) and becomes less useful over time.

  • The transition from First to Second is the level of Entropy (Energy Spreads Out / gets weaker / less dense as Entropy get higher)

TORC’s focus is around maximising Low Entropy of our System. And the indicator of our IP is that there is no exhaust exit on our system with all energy retained and core to our Stretch Target LCOS Cost Ambition, is maximising Heat Exchange from Power to Energy to Power and Back Again (Power-Energy-Power, Repeat).

From experience ,and while we do have them, TORC has little regard for Patents (costly and ineffective). Key to our IP is the value of our Know How (7years to date of TORC and over 100yrs combined Finance and Project Energy Sector Experience of our Founders), “any one can bake a cake but can they bake it like Mum?”. And on this Quest of “Clean, Deployable, Cheap” (Well known and the overly used Phase of Clean Energy Transition as the Holy Grail of Clean Energy), we have three of the largest OEMs in their fields, Globally, working on this integrated objective. Like the Apple iPhone from 7 to 27… the quest will never be over, just continuous upgrade to Theoretical Maximums, which the low bulk commodity cost of our material and TORCs component construction (Pump / Tank / PCM in Tank / ORC Turbine) Future Proofs.

In fact TORC LDES SYSTEM (Swap Out & Upgrade) is built to grow on the Future.