The storage can be used to help make variable wind or solar production more practical for the electric grid.
EPA gave a Green Chemistry Challenge Award to UniEnergy Technologies, which manufactures advanced vanadium redox flow batteries near Seattle using a new electrolyte chemistry developed at PNNL with Department of Energy funding.
The electrolyte can store 70 percent more energy and operates over a wider temperature range than conventional vanadium electrolytes. The cost of ownership is lower than lithium-ion batteries.
“Research at PNNL has led to considerable technical improvements and substantial cost reductions resulting in a commercially viable flow battery,” said Imre Gyuk, director of energy storage research at DOE’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability.
UniEnergy Technologies recently installed an 8 megawatt-hour system, the largest flow battery system in containers in the world, at the Snohomish PUD in Everett.
It has installed more than 14 megawatt-hours of flow batteries for all its customers and has 155 megawatt-hours of flow batteries ordered. Its customers are in three countries and six U.S. states.
©2017 Tri-City Herald (Kennewick, Wash.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.