Brisbane-based flow battery company secures its largest sale at $1.5 million

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The momentous sale will see the largest deployment of Redflow batteries globally, allowing the Brisbane-based company to get a foothold in California – a global clean energy exemplar.

Redflow will provide Anaergia with a 2 MWh system comprising of 192 x 10 kWh flow batteries. The energy storage system will permit Anaergia’s Rialto Bioenergy Facility to reduce its peak energy use by supplying the stored energy between 4pm and 9pm daily, sidestepping tariffs. Once’s operational, the Anaergia Rialto Bioenergy Facility will be North America’s largest landfill-diverted organic waste digester facility, converting 700 tonnes of organic waste and 300 tonnes of biosolids into renewable natural gas and fertiliser daily.

The US$1.2 million (AU$1.5 million) battery contract is part of Anaergia’s microgrid project, which also includes a biogas conditioning system and was funded in part by a grant from the California Energy Commission.

Redflow batteries at Swansea University in Britain.

Image: Redflow

“Anaergia selected Redflow’s zinc-bromine flow batteries because they are uniquely suited to meet the demands of the Rialto site,” Anaergia’s Chief Operating Officer, Yaniv Scherson, said in a statement. Specifically, zinc-bromine flow batteries are extremely tolerant of heat – which has made them a favourite in sweltering states like the Northern Territory, Western Australia, even Fiji, Thailand – and now California.

“Anaergia’s Rialto Bioenergy Facility provides the ideal use case for Redflow zinc-bromine flow batteries. Our batteries thrive on heat and hard work – exactly what Anaergia requires from them,” Redflow Managing Director and CEO Tim Harris said.

“This project also enables Redflow to establish a presence in California, where we can offer commercially-proven zinc-bromine flow battery solutions to the broader Californian and US energy market. These markets are expected to accelerate the transition to renewable energy under the new administration of President Biden. We are very excited about the potential for Redflow in California and the broader US market.”

Delta Electrics General Manager Andrew Boller with a Redflow ZCell battery.

Image: Redflow

In January, Redflow put the finishing touches on its latest model, the Gen3. Already boasting the world’s smallest commercially available flow batteries, the ZCell and ZBM2, Redflow is looking to move into mass production techniques for the first time with the Gen3. This should lower cost barriers considerably for its deep cycling, long-duration storage solutions. Redflow’s arrival on the American scene seems ideally timed, especially given California’s decarbonisation commitments will require it to add between 45 GW – 55 GW of additional long-duration energy storage before 2045.

Redflow will also provide Anaergia with 12 newly-designed ‘Energy Pods’ to meet the waste conversion facility’s needs. Each of the ‘Energy Pods’ contains 16 Redflow batteries and the power electronics needed to link with external inverters.

As Redflow’s statement published on Tuesday notes, while each of the provided batteries has a rated energy storage capacity of 10kWh, in practice each battery stores about 10.5 kWh of energy, meaning it is comfortable rating Anaergia’s system at 2MWh.

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