University of Minnesota Morris’ thermal battery demonstration

“This project was focused on installing a thermal battery storage unit at one of our campus buildings to provide heat during late winter/early spring. We worked with Cache Energy to install a thermochemical battery at UMN Morris. The thermal battery provided heat to our Carpentry shop.”

The project ran from March to May 2026, as the first demonstration of the technology to heat a building at a university in the United States. 

“The project worked great,” claims Goodnough, “as the system produced hot air which was brought into the carpentry shop. We provided tours to hundreds of people of this project during this time. And, the campus gained valuable insights into how this thermal battery technology works.”

“We offered an open-house for the project, which was really successful. We had the CEO/founder and technical staff from Cache on-site to visit with folks who attended. We had people from the Metro and Morris-area come to the event.”

“We learned that you can get a thermal battery project up and running in a few days and that a Cache thermal battery is capable of heating a large space during late winter/early spring conditions. For this demonstration, outside air (for example, at 32° F) was heated up to over 70° F and ducted into the building. 

“Having the correct electrical supply available was one key aspect of the project, since it required a mix of electrical sizes. In a likely more common application of this technology, you would only be adding a few degrees to an air stream or hot water system, for example, adding heat to a hot water system, adding a few degrees at a time. In this experiment, we needed to add a lot of heat to heat air from freezing to over room temperature.”

“The key energy impact is that we were able to use wind-generated electricity to heat a large shop building at UMN Morris campus. So, the heating was carbon-neutral to this space and used power that we would have exported to the grid.”

“Yes, we will be exploring further how thermal battery storage could help the UMN Morris campus offset more of its natural gas usage by using green electricity to heat the campus.”