Redflow’s non-lithium batteries gain access to key California rebate scheme

Brisbane-based flow battery manufacturer Redflow has chalked up a new success in the US market, gaining approval to participate in a California government scheme offering generous rebates to technologies that support energy “self-generation.”

Redflow says it has been approved by the California Public Utilities Commission as one of few non-lithium energy storage providers to be eligible for the state’s Self-Generation Incentive Program, or SGIP.

SGIP provides rebates to support existing, new, and emerging energy storage resources in California that, when installed, are able to meet all or a portion of the electrical energy needs of a facility.

Qualifying technologies include wind turbines, waste heat to power technologies, pressure reduction turbines, internal combustion engines, microturbines, fuel cells, and advanced energy storage systems.

According to Redflow, current SGIP rebates for qualifying battery technologies installed on the customer side of the meter can range up to $US1,000 per kilowatt-hour, with the highest amounts for projects deployed within state-designated disadvantaged communities.

Redflow CEO and managing director Tim Harris says the Australian company’s zinc-bromide flow battery technology is well proven in a wide range of harsh environments, and well-placed to support the needs of disadvantaged communities in California.

As well as offering longer duration energy storage than its lithium-ion counterparts, Redflow ZBM3 batteries are fire-safe, have a hibernation feature, and suit a wide range of environments and use cases.

On the down-side, non-lithium batteries can have a tough time competing on price with their more common cousins – a hurdle that a government subsidy can help overcome.

SGIP approval means that qualifying distributed energy projects using Redflow zinc-bromine flow batteries are now eligible for rebates, making the Brisbane born energy storage technology a better economic proposition.

“With more than ten years of experience delivering energy storage solutions and supporting critical infrastructure, our rugged technology has already been proven in a wide range of harsh environments,” Harris says.

“With the need for energy storage solutions rapidly rising, we’re looking forward to making our field-tested systems more accessible to commercial and industrial organisations.”

Already in California Redlow has supplied a 2MWh battery system at Anaergia Rialto Bioenergy facility, the company’s largest commercial deployment yet, and – after more than 12 months in operation – the first commercially proven zinc flow battery deployment at that scale.

Harris said earlier this year that the US Biden Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, has already delivered “transformational impacts” to the US clean energy industry, and was expected to double battery storage on the grid.