GigaOM » flow battery

Remember the artificial leaf? Startup turns to making a flow battery instead

Katie Fehrenbacher — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 18:27:12 +0000

Two years ago the blogosphere hyped the promise of an “artificial leaf,” which is a sheet that uses a catalyst to harness the sun and split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The tech was based on research from MIT spin-out Sun Catalytix, and led by MIT Professor Daniel Nocera. But it turns out the startup won’t try to commercialize the artificial leaf any time soon, and according to a report in MIT Tech Review, it has now turned to using its research to make a flow battery instead.

Flow batteries are large liquid-filled tanks that are mostly used to store energy for the power grid. A flow battery’s electrolyte is stored in two tanks that are separate from the cell itself, and the flow battery generates electricity when the liquid electrolytes, which are mixed with energy-storing materials, flow through the two sides and react with the electrodes in each side of the cell.

The idea, which has been around for decades, is to create a lower-cost battery option than, say, lithium-ion batteries. Power companies like them because the batteries are rechargeable, and can be scaled up and down by adding more tanks. Companies working on this technology include EnerVault, ZBB Energy, Prudent Energy, RedFlow, Primus Power and Deeya Energy.

ZBB’s flow battery

Sun Catalytix tells MIT Tech Review that it hopes to have a prototype of its flow battery later this year, which it can test out with customers, and then raise more funds for additional product development at that point. The end product is supposed to be a 1 MW flow battery that can last four to six hours and fit inside a 40-foot shipping container.

It’s not uncommon for cleantech startups — or any startup — to pivot and shift their plan as they progress. The artificial leaf was in the research phase and the company realized that commercializing it would take many years and lots of money. Though, as this New Yorker article points out Nocera has a bit of a reputation for hyping his discoveries.

The problem, though, is that funds for commercializing next-gen energy technologies are very tight these days. And Sun Catalytix already received a $4 million grant from the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E program, as well as a $9.5 million Series B round led by India’s Tata and including existing investor Polaris Venture Partners.

Venture capitalists have started to move away from investing in energy tech, and government funds could be tight in 2013, too. Funding could be particularly difficult for an early stage technology, where there are clear competitors that are farther ahead.

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3 things that are holding back grid energy storage

Katie Fehrenbacher — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 15:45:36 +0000

There are only a little over 500 deployed energy storage projects in the world, according to Pike Research. Energy storage technologies include things like battery farms, compressed air storage (pushing air into a container and letting it out) and pumped hydro (pumping water up a hill and then letting it flow back down).

The sector is emerging, and grew just 8 percent over the first half of 2012, says Pike. While there are now 649 energy storage projects that have been announced, of those, there are only 514 projects deployed.

So what’s the hold up? Energy storage has long been considered the key to adding more clean power onto the grid. Because solar and wind only generate power when the sun shines or the wind blows (called variable energy) they need to be connected to energy storage projects to level out that generation. Storage projects can bank, say, the extra power from a wind turbine on a windy day, and then release that energy when the wind stops blowing. Power companies can also use energy storage projects to better manage the grid for a variety of applications.

According to Pike, here’s three reasons for the slow moving sector:

1). The technology is still too expensive: The costs vary a lot between different types of energy storage technologies. Pumped hydro is one of the cheapest forms, as is compressed air energy storage, but lithium ion batteries are far more expensive. A report from EPRI last year found that if energy storage prices dropped to $500 per kilowatt hour that could boost the market.

2). The market is overstated: There are more projects that have been announced — and are even inactive — than are deployed. Some of these announced projects might not ever get built. Inflating the market isn’t good because it creates hype around a sector that still has substantial hurdles.

3). Advanced energy storage tech is dependent on government support: Many of these projects have relied upon government support in terms of grants. The flow battery project in Modesto that I detailed this week is being built with a Department of Energy grant.

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Filling up an electric car battery like a gas engine

Katie Fehrenbacher — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 22:13:29 +0000

Check out this idea: a next-generation electric car where you could refuel the battery’s electrolyte in the same way you’d fill up an internal combustion car at the gas station. Sound crazy? Well, a startup called Eos Energy Storage is researching a next-generation hybrid flow battery made from zinc and air that could provide such a scenario.

The refillable flow electric car battery isn’t the company’s first target product — that would be a low cost zinc air grid battery — but it’s the firm’s most unusual. Eos Energy Storage President Steve Hellman explained to me how the hybrid flow battery works in an interview at the ARPA-E event on Monday, and said the application is possible because the company uses air for its cathode, zinc as its anode and a liquid electrolyte.

A battery is made up of an anode on one side and a cathode on the other, with an electrolyte in between. For a zinc battery, zinc ions travel from the anode to the cathode through the electrolyte, creating a chemical reaction that allows electrons to be harvested along the way. Eos could create a system that could plug into one of its used flow batteries and pump out the used electrolyte, with the zinc dissolved in it, and pump in new electrolyte with new zinc to created a newly charged battery. Envision pulling into a gas station and taking a few minute to fill ‘er up with electrolyte.

O.K., the idea is still in the very earliest stages of research and development and concept. And technologies that try to build entirely new infrastructures tend to struggle with capital costs (where are all the natural gas cars or refuelable fuel cell powered laptops?). But Eos says an electric car that utilizes its flow technology could theoretically cost $25,000, have a range of 400-miles and take 3 minutes to charge.

Eos Energy won’t even be commercializing its first product, the grid battery, until late 2013, or early 2014. That initial product could potentially be a game changer for the power grid, providing low cost, long lasting energy storage, and delivering a battery cell that costs $160 per kWh, lasts 30 years and is made up of everyday benign materials.

Scientists have been working on using air (and water) as the cathode for batteries for half a century. But Eos Energy’s founder and inventor Steven Amendola discovered a breakthrough with his original design of the bi-directional air cathode that could last for 10,000 cycles (or around three decades). The company has largely been funded by its management team, but is in the process of closing a funding round from strategic investors for scaling up its first grid zinc air battery.

Image courtesy of Raindog.

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Why the world needs flow batteries

Ucilia Wang — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 18:21:56 +0000

Unless you’re a hard core energy geek, chances are you haven’t spent a whole lot of time thinking about “flow batteries,” which are basically large liquid-filled thanks that are used to store energy for the power grid. The idea behind the tech is to create a lower-cost battery option than, say, lithium-ion batteries.

But that promise remains just that, given that batteries of any kind are still mostly being tested in pilot projects by power producers and utilities. There’s has been some investment and innovation in the space in recent years: a flow battery startup called EnerVault announced this week that it’s raised a $15.5 million B round to help it install its first demonstration project in California’s central valley.

Flow battery isn’t as well known as lithium-ion battery partly because we don’t use it in our daily lives like we do with lithium-ion batteries, which run our mobile phones and computers. So what makes up a flow battery?

How do flow batteries work?: In contrast to a lithium-ion battery, where the energy-storing materials and electrolyte are enclosed in a cell, a flow battery’s electrolyte is stored in two tanks that are separate from the cell itself. The flow battery generates electricity when the liquid electrolytes, which are mixed with energy-storing materials, flow through the two-half cells and react with the electrodes in each side of the cell. Flow battery developers are experimenting with different types of energy storing materials, such as iron, vanadium, zinc and bromine.

EnerVault’s design uses iron in one tank and chromium in the second tank. Commonly the two electrolyte tanks hold different energy storing materials. But for vanadium flow batteries (an increasingly important and advanced type of flow battery) vanadium is used in both electrolyte solutions. The Electric Power Research Institute says vanadium flow batteries are a more mature technology than zinc- and iron-based flow batteries, which are mostly in R&D or field demonstration stages.

Flow battery makers like to point out that the use of external storage tanks means a flow battery system can be scaled up and down easily. Flow batteries are also rechargeable; the electrolytes can last a really long time, and typically use abundant materials — therefore can be a more affordable option. At the same time, flow batteries tend to be bulky, are not easily moved and the components have to be assembled on site.

The history of flow batteries: Flow batteries may not be common, but the idea has been around since the 19^th century. Many companies, along with NASA, have investigated various types of flow battery technologies in recent decades. NASA encountered a host of technical difficulties, such as significant losses of energy during charge and discharge. Creating a good separator for the ion exchange membrane also is a challenge.

What is the market for flow batteries like? Flow battery developers are targeting some of the same customers that competing battery technology developers — from lithium-ion to lead acid makers — are aiming for: power companies and utilities. Utilities are sought-after customers, because they are facing a growing need to manage the variable supply of wind and solar electricity, and they can use batteries to store solar and wind energy and release it when demand peaks.

Businesses and consumers also are potential customers for battery companies. Batteries can store electricity from, say, a rooftop solar system, and then draw energy from the batteries after the sun goes down. Battery owners can even sell the stored energy to their utilities when electricity pricing is high if they are located in states that allow such a practice. China is shaping up to be a large market for batteries of all types, and flow battery makers such as ZBB Energy have developed joint ventures with Chinese companies. Last week, ZBB said it made the first shipment of its new flow battery technology to its Chinese partner, Meineng Energy.

The players: Aside from ZBB and EnerVault, other flow battery makers include Prudent Energy, RedFlow, Primus Power and Deeya Energy.

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China: The next big grid storage market

Ucilia Wang — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 07:00:52 +0000

China has made it clear that it wants to be a big clean power consumer, even if it has no plans to ditch coal and nuclear as key sources of electricity. That renewable energy ambition will also turn China into a big market for energy storage. Flow battery maker ZBB Energy, announced its foray into China on Tuesday, while lithium ion battery maker A123 Systems announced its work in China in July. More American energy storage companies are sure to follow.

ZBB Energy says it plans to form a joint venture with three Chinese companies, AnHui Xinlong Electrical Co., Powersav and WuHu Huarui Power Transmission & Transformation Engineering Co. to bring ZBB’s batteries to China. The joint venture that will require $13.4 million worth of cash and other investments from the companies, said Wisconsin-based ZBB. The new factory is set to rise in WuHu City in Anhui Province next year, ZBB said.

ZBB makes zinc bromide flow batteries in which the electrolyte sits in two tanks that pump the electrolyte to the battery cell to generate electricity. Xinlong makes transmission and transformer equipment while WuHu engineers transmission and electrical substation projects. Powersav sells equipment from ZBB and other manufactures.

What makes China a critical market?

ZBB, like other American energy storage companies with a China strategy, expects China to become an massive market because energy storage is considered a must for managing the supply and demand of solar and wind energy. Solar and wind equipment can only produce electricity when the sun shines and the wind blows, and an infusion of clean power could be disruptive to the grid. But energy storage can bank solar and wind power and discharge them only when needed.

Renewable energy generation is set to bloom in China. Chinese state media reported Tuesday that the government is accelerating its wind energy master plan to target 100 GW – instead of the 90 GW previously proposed — of wind power installations by the end of 2015. Earlier this month, the Chinese government also announced an incentive plan to guarantee higher prices for solar electricity.

The growth in renewable energy generation in the U.S. has also forced utilities to invest in and experiment with storage technologies. However, most of the energy storage projects are in the early, pilot, stages.

American energy storage companies that are knitting together plans for China include A123 Systems , which earlier this year said it was supplying one of the top Chinese wind turbine makers, Dongfang Electric Co., with a 500 KW demonstration system of lithium-ion batteries. A123’s vice president of energy storage, Rob Johnson, told us that China could be the largest grid storage market in the world, and A123 wants the demonstration project to turn into a larger deal.

Duke Energy, a power producer and utility based in North Carolina, signed a broad agreement with China’s ENN Group to work on a variety of renewable energy and smart grid projects, including energy storage deployment, to build an “eco-city” near Beijing. Duke said it would use what it learns from the collaboration for projects back in the U.S. The two companies also previously signed a pact to jointly develop solar power projects in the U.S.

Images courtesy of ZBB and Land Rover Our Planet via Flickr

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How farmers are clean power pioneers

Ucilia Wang — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 20:00:52 +0000

When it comes to adopting new technologies, particularly solar, farmers and owners of agriculture-related operations have often led the way. They make good pioneering cleantech users for several reasons: They have a lot of space to deploy first-gen technology, particularly for equipment that’s heavy and bulky; they’re heavy energy users who seek ways to reduce energy costs; and they look for opportunities to supplement their incomes by leasing land or from byproducts of their operations that would otherwise go to waste.

Here are some of the recent cleantech projects that have counted on the agricultural community as early adopters:

1. Heat and power for indoor gardening facility. General Hydroponics just had a 75 KW solar energy system installed on an industrial rooftop in Santa Rosa, Calif. The system, designed by Cogenra Solar, produces 15 KW of electricity and 60 KW of thermal energy that in turn is used to produce hot water. The system should offset about 60 percent of General Hydroponics’ natural gas use each year. The system is the second project announced by Cogenra, a startup that previously installed its first demonstration project at Sonoma Wine Company last year.

2. Nuts for energy storage. An almond farm in California’s central valley town of Turlock will host a demonstration project by flow battery company EnerVault, which has gotten federal funding for installing a 250 KW system next year that will be able to discharge 1 megawatt-hour of energy. The battery system will store energy from an array of nearby solar panels and power irrigation pumps. Flow batteries feature two external tanks containing electrolyte and energy storing materials. Pumps send the solutions to the battery cell where electricity generation takes place.

3. An orchard of giant solar panels. Pistachio grower Nichols Farms, in another California central valley town, Hanford, became home to a 1MW system of concentrating solar panels by SolFocus earlier this year. SolFocus installed its first 1 MW system at a community college in southern California last year. Concentrating solar panels use mirrors to amplify and direct the sunlight onto solar cells, and such a design makes it possible to use less solar cell materials to cut costs.

4. Under the Italian sun. Solergy, which launched its first concentrating solar panel system last November, plans to demonstrate its technology with a project at a farm in Italy. Similar to the concept embraced by Cogenra, Solergy is designing the system to supply both electricity and heat. Solergy plans to install a system to produce 70 KW of electricity and 105 KW of heat on the rooftop of a greenhouse at Azienda Agricola Ciccolella, which produces olive oil and cut roses and is looking at working with Solergy to market the technology to other farms in the region.

5. Floating solar: Several vineyards and wineries in Northern California have been test beds for solar electric systems engineered to float in ponds. SPG Solar built one at the Napa Valley’s Far Niente Winery in 2007 and used it to improve the technology. SPG launched an improved floating solar system in April this year and began installing it in an irrigation pond that feeds vineyards in Sonoma County.

Photo courtesy of Cogenra Solar

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A battery startup flows toward launch

Ucilia Wang — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 15:16:21 +0000

Will flow batteries — large tanks of liquid batteries — be a key technology to help deliver more clean power for the grid? Flow battery startup EnerVault is getting closer to commercializing that vision; it has completed the design of its prototype battery and is counting on a demonstration project next year to help the company launch its technology into the market in 2013, EnerVault CEO Craig Horne told us.

The Silicon Valley startup is developing rechargeable flow batteries that, unlike a lithium-ion battery, separate the energy storage materials and electrolyte from the cells in which the electrochemical reaction occurs. The design involves two tanks, each of which contains a different mix of energy storage material and electrolyte. EnerVault’s design fills one tank of electrolyte with iron (the energy storing material) and another electrolyte tank with chromium. Pumps send the solutions from the tanks into separate chambers of a cell to generate electricity.

Flow batteries can be scaled up and down easily because of the use of external storage tanks. Flow batteries are also rechargeable, the electrolytes can last a really long time, and typically use abundant materials, so can be a more affordable option.

However, flow batteries tend to be bulky, aren’t easily moved, and the components have to be assembled on site. The membrane that keeps the two electrolytes separate but allows ions to pass through, is also expensive.

EnerVault’s innovation

EnerVault, which raised $3.5 million from Oceanshore Ventures and U.S. Invest in 2010, is developing what it calls an “engineered cascade design,” in which multiple cells are arranged to allow the electrolyte solutions to flow from one cell cluster to another along the same path. The system uses membranes with different permeability, and Horne says the design improves safety and cuts costs.

EnerVault is looking to sell its flow battery tech to utilities, which are investing in various energy storage technologies to help manage the variable supply of wind and solar electricity. Batteries can store solar and wind energy when it’s available, then release the energy when demand peaks. Businesses and consumers are also potential customers for battery companies.

EnerVault has completed its flow battery prototype and plans to install a demonstration project at an almond farm near the California Central Valley town of Turlock in the third quarter of 2012, Horne said. The 250 KW system will be able to store 1 megawatt-hour of energy and power the farm’s irrigation pumps, he added. Ktech will carry out the project and combine EnerVault’s battery system with an 180 KW array of solar panels. The project will cost about $9.52 million, and the U.S. Department of Energy has awarded about $4.76 million to make it happen.

The success of the demonstration project will be crucial for EnerVault to sell its technology, which it hopes to bring to the market in 2013. To reach that goal, the company will need to raise more funding soon.

EnerVault isn’t the only flow battery startup out there. Primus Power has received $14 million from the DOE for a $47 million project to build a 25 MW (75 megawatt-hours) zinc flow battery farm in Modesto, which also is in California’s Central Valley. Primus Power’s storage farm will demonstrate how its battery will complement wind power generation from the area, and construction is supposed to start in 2012. Last month, Primus said it had raised $11 million in venture capital from investors including DBL Investors, I2BF Global Ventures, Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Image courtesy of EnerVault, Horia Varlan, Mark Florence.

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What you need to know about flow batteries

Ucilia Wang — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 14:58:36 +0000

Flow batteries — big tanks of liquids that can store energy — were invented in the 19th century and investigated closely by NASA in the 1970s. Now, flow batteries are jockeying for a place in a growing energy storage market that will enable utilities to better manage the electric grid, provide back-up power and potentially work with the electric rates system.

The Electricity Energy Storage Association highlighted the development of flow batteries at its annual meeting in San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, where a panel of public and private technology developers outlined their efforts to convince customers that flow batteries are cheaper and more reliable than a slew of other types of batteries and energy storage technologies that have been flooding the market as of late.

How they work

In contrast to a lithium-ion battery, where the energy-storing materials and electrolyte are enclosed in a cell, a flow battery’s electrolyte is stored in two tanks that are separate from the cell itself. The flow battery generates electricity when the liquid electrolytes, which are mixed with energy-storing materials, flow through the two-half cells and react with the electrodes in each side of the cell.

Who buys them?

Flow battery developers are targeting some of the same customers that competing battery technology developers — from lithium-ion to lead acid makers — are aiming for. Utilities are sought-after customers, because they are facing a growing need to manage the variable supply of wind and solar electricity, and they can use batteries to store solar and wind energy and release it when demand peaks. But utilities aren’t easy customers to score, because they are known for their conservative (i.e. slow) approach to adopting anything new, especially when new technologies are pricey.

Funding sources

The federal government has doled out billions of dollars for all sorts of energy storage technologies for powering cars and building a smarter electric grid. Utilities have benefited from this largess by applying and receiving funds to carry out energy storage demonstration projects. Flow battery developers such as Primus Power and EnerVault are working on projects funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Venture capitalists are also occasionally funding flow battery companies. Last week, Primus Power announced it had raised $11 million in venture capital to help build a demonstration project in California and commercialize its technology. While the $11 million round shows there is private investor interest in energy storage, venture capitalists overall have been rather cautious about betting on energy storage, said Craig Horne, CEO and co-founder of EnerVault, which is developing iron-chromium flow battery, during the panel discussion on Tuesday.

“A lack of market pull is causing the investor community to approach this space with caution,” Horne said. “That’s true for stationary energy storage in general. There hasn’t been a big success in (flow) battery space, so it’s even more difficult to get the capital you need.”

The innovation

Flow battery developers are innovating around using different types of energy storing materials, such as iron, vanadium, zinc and bromine. Commonly the two electrolyte tanks hold different energy storing materials. But for vanadium flow batteries (an increasingly important and advanced type of flow battery) vanadium is used in both electrolyte solutions. The Electric Power Research Institute says vanadium flow batteries are a more mature technology than zinc- and iron-based flow batteries, which are mostly in R&D or field demonstration stages.

Prudent Energy, a vanadium flow battery maker, says one reason vanadium is a good solution is that using the same materials in both tanks means if the two solutions accidentally get mixed up, the battery won’t be permanently damaged. “Any mixing of the electrolytes ends up with something you have to clean up,” said Tim Hennessy, president of Prudent Energy, during the panel, but with vanadium flow batteries “We don’t have this concern. We lose some efficiencies, but there is no clean-up, so it can work continuously.”

Prudent builds its battery systems with 7 KW cells, and each system can be scaled up to 10 MW. The company has worked on projects in Japan and China, and it’s now participating in a project to demonstrate how its technology can work with solar systems from SunPower. Prudent plans to build a 100 KW system that can deliver 300 kilowatt-hours of energy, and also won a contract to install a 600 KW system at an onion processing plant in California.

Another company on the panel, RedFlow, offers a 5 KW (10 kilowatt-hours) zinc-bromine battery and is taking part in a government-funded smart grid trial in Australia, where the company will install 60, 5 KW systems, said Chris Winter, RedFlow’s chief technology officer and co-founder.

Photo courtesy of Prudent Energy

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Primus Power Raises $11M for Grid Flow Batteries

Katie Fehrenbacher — Tue, 31 May 2011 16:07:53 +0000

Large tanks filled with fluids could be the next low-cost way to provide energy storage for the power grid. A quiet company called Primus Power is developing so-called flow batteries, and on Tuesday morning, announced it has raised a round of $11 million from a group of venture capitalists including DBL Investors, I2BF Global Ventures, Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Primus Power has been building a flow battery farm that when completed offer between 25 MW to 75 MW on energy storage capacity for the Modesto Irrigation District. The battery farm will be Primus Power’s demonstration facility and will provide storage technology to make up for the variable nature of wind power in the area. The company said these new funds will go towards completing that facility and for wider scale commercialization.

While I don’t know all the intricacies of Primus Power’s technology, flow batteries, in general, use large storage tanks full of electrolytes and pumps that circulate the solution throughout the system (see image of Sumitomo’s tech). Flow batteries can be safer and more reliable (compared to lithium-ion batteries), can be lower cost than other forms of energy storage, and can be deployed relatively quickly. Some flow battery technology can run around $100 per kWh, compared to some batteries which can range in cost between $200 per kWh to $500 per kWh and up to $1,000 per kWh for more advanced batteries.

According to a Department of Energy website, Primus Power is working on an inexpensive metal electrode for a flow battery, and is also employing manufacturing processes common in high volume metal production to develop the electrode. Primus Power was awarded two grants from the Department of Energy for the innovation. Greentech Media reported earlier this month that the technology is based on a zinc bromine system.

Other startup flow battery makers include EnerVault and Deeya Energy. Deeya Energy is a 6-year-old company that has raised $53 million from Technology Partners, BlueRun Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and New Enterprise Associates and has redox flow battery inventor Lawrence Thaller as a technical adviser. EnerVault has raised $3.5 million in venture funding, from Oceanshore Ventures and U.S. Invest.

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Daily Sprout

Josie Garthwaite — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 20:23:58 +0000

Greenwash or Real Deal?: “Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tells Copenhagen that Iran, a fossil fuel giant, wants to dive into renewable energy and stitch cooperative links with other developing nations to develop non-fossil fuel energy,” including solar and wind. — WSJ’s Environmental Capital

Road Ahead for Electric Cars: Pike Research offers predictions for the electric vehicle market in 2010, and warns that,”Once the market of environmentally conscious drivers is saturated, automakers will have to come up with a plan B.” – CNET’s Planetary Gear, Pike Research

Tesla Takes Marketing Bonanza on the Road: Tesla Motors kicked off a 2,700-mile cross-country road trip this morning. Engineers, lawyers and other employees of the electric car startup will make dozens of stops over the next three weeks for test drives, tech talks and “customer-appreciation events” en route to the Detroit Auto Show. — Press Release

Inhofe Weighs In: Republican Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, “one of the most ardent detractors of man-made climate change,” showed up in Copenhagen Thursday morning to tell negotiators that the chances Congress will approve pending climate legislation are “zero.” — The Boston Globe’s Green Blog

German Researchers Go With the Flow: A team of German engineers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology thinks it may be possible to produce a flow battery for an electric car which can be recharged in minutes, pumping out the discharged electrolyte and replacing it with a solution that has been recharged elsewhere. – The Economist

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