Quino Energy has received a grant from Tencent‘s CarbonX programme to support the deployment of a MWh-scale organic flow battery as part of an island microgrid project in the Maldives.
The California-based company said the battery system will be installed on Himandhoo Island, where it will be integrated into a microgrid combining floating solar photovoltaics, terrestrial PV generation and lithium-ion battery storage. The project aims to reduce the island’s dependence on imported diesel fuel while providing a more resilient electricity supply.
Maldives is “poised” to transition to sustainable energy
According to Quino Energy, the floating PV installation is being financed by the Asian Development Bank and will complement the Maldives’ ongoing Preparing Outer Islands for Sustainable Energy Development (POISED) programme, which is adding ground-mounted solar generation and lithium-ion batteries to the island. The company’s flow battery will provide additional long-duration energy storage for the system.
The project will be supported by Atri Energy Transition, which led Quino Energy’s Series A funding round in October 2025. Atri will collaborate with Quino to manufacture the company’s proprietary organic electrolyte in Pune, India, and will provide operations and maintenance support for at least five years after commissioning. Chinese company Suqian Time Energy Storage will supply the flow battery hardware.
“Quino Energy is immensely grateful for the support from the Tencent CarbonX program to enable us to demonstrate our organic flow battery in a setting that can directly benefit a community,” said Eugene Beh, CEO and co-founder of Quino Energy.
“This represents the first commercial deployment of the organic flow battery technology, in addition to government-supported projects we previously announced. The collaboration showcases how Quino’s technology will continue to enable cooperation between parties from across the world to rapidly advance the next generation of flow batteries.”
S. Kishore, founder of Atri Energy Transition, added: “We’d like to extend our congratulations to Quino Energy and all the stakeholders of this project.
“The selection of Quino by Tencent for the CarbonX Award is an endorsement of organic electrolyte chemistry. We are happy to be part of the transition of this chemistry from pilot to commercial scale.”
Quino said members of the project team recently visited Himandhoo Island to meet representatives of the local council and officials from the Maldives Ministry of Climate Change, Environment and Energy ahead of the project’s implementation.
The company said the Maldives project follows a period of commercial progress that has included the completion of its Series A funding round, a US$10 million grant from the California Energy Commission, US$5 million in funding from the US Department of Energy’s Critical Facility Energy Resilience (CiFER) programme for a separate 5MWh flow battery project in southern California, and a joint development agreement with Jena Flow Batteries.
Main photo: tourists watching the sunset over a Maldives atoll
Credit: James Snodgrass
