SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: Redflow and Empower Energies have signed a Letter of Intent to develop integrated solar + flow battery solutions for the North American commercial and industrial (C&I), remote community micro grid, and utility markets.

The integrated solar and Redflow energy storage solution architecture was developed through the companies joint engagement with a Fortune 500 company who is interested in deploying solar + flow battery storage projects at one of its the commercial campuses.

Redflow’s President of North America and Chief Commercial Officer Mark Higgins believes that this co-developed solution will serve the Fortune 500 customer well, while also meeting the needs of a variety of customer segments across North America.

“The integrated solution we’ve developed in partnership with Empower Energies represents a unique, innovative, and stress-tested alternative to the status quo solar + lithium ion solution,” Mr. Higgins said.

“Our integrated offering provides a safer, rugged, more sustainable and cost competitive alternative to lithium ion batteries + solar, and our batteries don’t materially degrade over their useful life, unlike lithium ion,” he said.

“The uniquely safe zinc bromine chemistry has no risk of thermal runaway, making our solution better to deploy in urban and suburban environments where safety is a paramount consideration. Also our hibernation mode enables our batteries to be used for backup power and resilience deployments in a very cost-effective manner versus lithium.”

Empower Energies Chief Strategy Officer Patrick Corr and CEO Michael Belko believe the partnership can provide a truly differentiated solution for North American customers.

“We’ve found that our integrated solar + flow battery solution is of particular interest to certain C&I customers looking for energy shifting, peak shaving and other daily cycling applications for their corporate campuses, reducing energy costs and enabling on-site carbon reduction safely.” Mr. Corr said.

“Our solution could be of great interest to utility customers deploying community resilience and non-wires alternatives projects, particularly those where wildfires make the traditional approach no longer viable.” Mr. Belko said.

The LOI is non-binding and non-exclusive. Plans are underway to conduct webinars and provide educational materials about the integrated solution in the coming months.