Zinc-bromine flow battery technology company Redflow has received a grant award and notice-to-proceed (NTP) for two projects in California, US, totalling 21.6MWh.
Redflow has been given NTP by Faraday Microgrids to begin manufacturing 15MWh of energy storage systems for a California project, while it has also been selected as technology provider for a 6.6MWh system in the state, the firm announced on 12 and 6 February respectively.
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The 15MWh order from system integrator Faraday Microgrids appears to be the first phase of a 20MWh project that was announced last year with grant funding from the California Energy Commission (CEC), part of a US$330 million package for long-duration energy storage (LDES). It will be deployed for the Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians.
This phase includes Redflow’s 200kWh modular storage solution Energy Pod and non-recurring engineering work, amounting to US$9.23 million in revenues (excluding duties and US sales tax). Shipment of the batteries is expected later in 2024 with commissioning in early 2025; it isn’t clear if the project has been reduced in size or if the remainder will be ordered later.
Redflow and Faraday Microgrids have collaborated on a second large-scale project in California, at 34.4MWh. That project received grant funding from the Department of Energy’s LDES programme (roughly the same size as the CEC’s) in September 2023 and will be deployed at a hospital in Madera.
The company’s technology offers durations of between two and 12 hours.
Fourth CEC-funded California project for Redflow
The new, 6.6MWh order also comes from a project that has been selected for CEC grant funding from a different scheme, the Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) programme. Submitted by consultancies Prosper Sustainably and Microgrid Initiatives in partnership with Redflow and system intergrator Ameresco, it will see the resiliency project deployed for the Barona Band of Mission Indians in San Diego. (Ameresco put Redflow on its list of technology suppliers in March 2023.)
The project was one of three out of 12 to be recommended for grant award by the CEC following a competitive solicitation and has now entered grant terms negotiations.
Redflow CEO and managing director Tim Harris commented: “Subject to completion of the grant award process, this would be Redflow’s fourth multimegawatt hour project in California involving the CEC as a funding partner, and would again demonstrate that Redflow’s LDES technology is flexible to operate, allowing 100% depth of discharge without impairing BESS capacity or lifespan, and achieving MWh-scale battery hibernation for resilient clean energy operations, aligned with California’s decarbonisation
goals.”
Energy-Storage.news interviewed Harris in June 2023 about the 20MWh CEC-funded project in California for a Premium article.
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