The aqueous redox flow battery is perhaps the key to renewable energy the world is overlooking. Do you remember late last year when China completed a 175 megawatt / 700 megawatt-hour vanadium flow battery project? Well, a doctoral student at Concordia University in Canada decided it was time to recap on this exciting technology.
Aqueous Redox Flow Battery to Achieve Climate Goals
Meysam Maleki is a Ph.D student of chemical engineering at Concordia University. He believes that decarbonizing Canada’s energy grid, is the key to becoming net zero by 2025. Renewable energy resources will play a vital role in achieving this goal. However, there is a storage challenge attached.
Canadian’s rested easy until climate change began to bite, knowing that 60% of their electricity came from hydropower storage dams. But that was until low rainfall in 2023. This temporarily cut their electricity exports to United States by 25%. One province even had to import electricity to meet local demand.
Ph.D student Maleki believes the solution lies in creating alternative energy storage facilities. He envisages these systems storing surplus renewable energy, and releasing it to the utility grid when needed. But currently 90% of global storage is in hydropower storage dams
Therefore, it seems logical to find ways to supplement, even replace energy stored in dams. Maleki believes the solution lies in aqueous redox flow battery technology. Let’s delve deeper, and understand why he says this.
Another ‘Water Based Battery’ May Meet Canada’s Need
Maleki suggests that aqueous redox flow battery technology, such as we show in our images, may meet Canada’s energy storage need in future. And perhaps the rest of the world’s needs too, for that matter. Flow batteries store their energy in adjacent tanks, where they can release and replenish it.
These powerful batteries may be able to keep working for 25 years, according to the Concordia article we link to below. They are also more cost-effective to up-scale than lithium-ion, and safer too because they have water-based electrolytes that do not burn.
More Information
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