A Flow Battery Stealth Attack Is Coming For Your Fossil Fuels

Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!

---

Wind and solar energy have achieved stunning success in just a few years, and the gloves haven’t even come off yet. The real action begins when low cost, long duration energy storage systems hit the market, enabling grid managers and off-grid users to sock away more renewable energy than ever before. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the new vanadium flow battery from the UK firm Invinity Energy Systems.

The Flow Battery Advantage

As defined by the US Department of Energy, long duration energy storage systems last for a minimum of 10 hours, preferably much longer. The goal is to introduce more wind and solar energy into the grid by deploying long-lasting energy storage systems, instead of building new baseload, 24/7 gas power plants.

Lithium-ion batteries are creeping closer to the 10-hour floor. However, a duration of just 4-6 hours is more typical of today’s Li-ion arrays. That’s enough to help avoid the construction of new gas “peaker” plants to meet demand spikes, but not quite up to the baseload power task.

Flow batteries fit the bill for long duration energy storage. A flow battery is a relatively simple device that generates an electrical current when two specialized fluids flow adjacent to each other, separated by a membrane. Scaling up is a straightforward matter of using bigger tanks to keep the two liquids separated (see more flow battery background here).

Compared to lithium-ion technology, flow batteries also have the advantage of using non-toxic, inflammable materials. They are also cultivating a reputation for being less noisy than lithium-ion battery arrays, helping to alleviate community concerns over new energy storage faciliites.

The Flow Battery Stealth Attack And Rural Electric Cooperatives

For all their advantages, flow batteries are still a blip on the screen of the energy storage market. Grid managers and off-grid users can be reluctant to invest in new energy storage technologies without a proven track record in hand. So, the Energy Department is giving things a little push.

In a somewhat unheralded announcement last year, the Energy Department included Invinity in a new round of funding in support of long duration energy storage innovation. The company was tasked with installing 84 megwatts’ worth of its “Mistral” flow batteries, distributed among six locations.

In support of the overall program, the Energy Department’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is hosting one of the batteries for a 10-year demonstration period.  All five of the other batteries will be hosted by ratepayer-owned rural electric cooperatives in the Midwest and Southeast, under the umbrella of the National Renewables Cooperative Organization.

That’s interesting because the nation’s 900+ rural electric cooperatives account for a huge portion of electricity service in the US, to the tune of 56% by land mass covering 42 million people, including 92% of counties defined by persistent poverty. A successful trial among five co-operatives could potentially spread into hundreds more.

Job creation and preservation is a centerpiece of the public benefit mission of rural electric co-ops, which can make it difficult to ditch outdated power sources. However, that same mission provides co-ops with some extra latitude to adopt new energy technologies, and they have begun to play a leadership role in the energy transition.

“Invinity and its NRCO consortium partners expect these projects to improve energy independence in the rural communities they serve,” Invinity emphasizes.

More Flow Batteries For The USA

Installation of the six flow batteries is scheduled for next year. In the meantime, Invinity is not letting the grass grow under its feet. Earlier this week the company dropped word that its 4th-generation, modular “ENDURIUM™” flow battery is ready for the market.

As for what’s wrong with the other three generations, the answer is nothing. The new battery is scaled up and optimized for high volume applications, pitched with up to twice the energy density of the company’s 3rd-generation flow battery.

“ENDURIUM is engineered to scale from 10 MWh – 1 GWh and charge/discharge durations between 4 and 18 hours with no cycle limits and proven sub-second response times,” Invinity enthuses.

Customers with less than 10 MWh of need can still get hold of the the company’s VS3 platform. Invinity notes that its flow battery technology, including the VS3, has been deployed in more than 80 projects around the world.

Who Needs A Flow Battery, Anyways?

To help overcome hesitation on the part of grid managers, Invinity emphasizes the bottom line advantages of the new flow battery. The list includes:

High Throughput Applications. Unlike lithium-ion batteries, vanadium flow batteries don’t degrade over repeated cycles. “ENDURIUM’s non-degrading chemistry gives owners unlimited flexibility in how they use their batteries, easily discharging for up to 18 hours, or performing multiple shorter cycles per day to address ever-changing market conditions and maximise revenue capture,” Infinity explains.

Large Wholesale & Grid Assets: Invinity points out that demand is increasing for energy storage solutions with more than six hours of capacity. The Texas grid is a particularly good example, as grid manager ERCOT scrambles to get its hands on more in-state supplies of wind and solar power.

Paired with Solar at Large Industrial Sites: Invinity is also taking aim at the market for on-site energy storage for large commercial operations and corporate campuses, enabling them to time-shift the availability of low cost solar energy. “Avoiding peak pricing and shifting large blocks of solar energy for overnight operations are ideal applications for ENDURIUM,” Invinity explains.

Locations Facing Difficult Permitting due to Fire Risk and Noise: A backlash has been building against utility-scale lithium-ion battery arrays in residential areas, with opponents raising concerns about public health and environmental hazards as well as noise. Municipal planners seeking to balance local grid resiliency with quality-of-life issues may find a less contentious alternative in flow batteries.

What About The Flow Battery EV Of The Future?

Considering the advantages of flow batteries, it’s fair to ask why they don’t make an appearance in electric vehicles. Weight and bulk are two reasons, and they are reasons enough.

Nevertheless, at least one EV stakeholder is willing to give it a try. Last year the European startup nanoFlowcell announced plans to bring its flow battery electric car to market.

When last heard from, NFC was looking to acquire land in the US for a proposed “Quant City” flow battery innovation hub, so stay tuned for more on that.

Image (cropped): Five electric cooperatives in the US will each host a new vanadium flow battery from the UK firm Invinity, in an energy storage demonstration project overseen by the US Department of Energy (courtesy of Invinity).