It is no secret that the Northern Territory (NT) is looking to go big on battery storage. In May 2020, Sun Cable CEO David Griffin told pv magazine Australia that its $60 million Middle Arm megabattery in Darwin had received planning approval, and in April NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner announced almost $31 million in funding for a grid-scale battery and energy storage system to support the continuing uptake of solar.
Clearly, the NT is hungry for energy storage, but at the smaller scale (particularly off-grid and battery-smoothing projects), the landscape is slightly different. Few companies have been around the Territory’s electricity sector longer than Delta Electrics, announced recently as Redflow‘s newest partner. Andrew Boller, Delta Electrics General Manager, believes that Redflow’s zinc-bromine flow batteries are ideally suited to the hot, demanding conditions of the Top End.
“Delta Electrics understands the challenges and limitations of working with lithium-based battery chemistries within the NT,” said Boller. “Unless they are installed in an air-conditioned environment, the operating temperatures of lithium-batteries are always in the high 30s or more, which can significantly impact their life.”
“Redflow zinc-bromine flow batteries are the ideal energy storage technology for the NT,” continued Boller, “due to their ability to operate in harsh conditions and in warmer temperatures without cooling.”
Delta Electrics is not the first to admire the durability of Redflow’s batteries, last year Redflow won a contract with one of Africa’s largest telecommunications companies to provide 68 ZBM2 zinc-bromine flow batteries for at least 20 mobile phone tower sites throughout harsh rural South African conditions.
Moreover, Redflow’s batteries have been used to power television stations in Fiji, store solar power in Northern Thailand, and provide peace of mind to orchardists in Western Australia threatened by bushfires.
Image: Redflow
Boller sees Redflow as the perfect partner for its off-grid and battery-smoothing projects below 1 mWh, particularly the popular 200-600 kWh range but also the sub-100 kWh range.
With its entry into the NT market Redflow is now Australia-wide. Redflow CEO Tim Harris believes the partnership with Delta Electrics is the beginning of a strong presence in the NT.
Marketed as ZCell and ZBM2, Redflow zinc-bromine flow batteries are designed for high cycle-rate, long time-base stationary energy storage applications in the residential, commercial & industrial and telecommunications sectors, and are scalable from a single battery installation through to grid-scale deployments.
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