Australian energy storage company Redflow has signed an agreement to supply a combined 2MWh of its zinc-bromine flow batteries for a microgrid project in the US.
A total of 192, 10kWh energy storage systems will be used to reduce peak energy use at the Rialto Bioenergy Facility in California owned by waste management firm Anaergia company.
Twelve ‘Energy Pods’ containing 16 Redflow batteries in each will enable the facility to store and supply up to 2MWh of power from 4-9pm each day.
Each battery can operate at ambient temperatures up to 500C (122 degrees F) without air-conditioning.
Redflow will also provide and the power electronics needed to link with external inverters.
A Redflow statement said that while each battery has a rated energy storage capacity of 10kWh, in practice, each battery stores about 10.5 kWh of energy, meaning it was comfortable rating the system at 2MWh.
Under the contract, Redflow will receive more than $1.2 million (excluding taxes) for the system.
The microgrid project was funded in part by a grant from the California Energy Commission and consists of the batteries, a biogas conditioning system to support a 2MW biogas-fuelled cogeneration unit, and a microgrid control system.
The Californian Senate Bill 100 commits the state to decarbonise its electric grid by 2045. A study commissioned by the California Energy Storage Alliance (CESA) found California will need to deploy between 45GW and 55GW of long-duration energy storage to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from its electricity sector by 2045.
Image: The Anaergia Rialto Facility with an artist’s representation of Redflow batteries installed