Brisbane-based battery storage company Redflow has installed six of its 10kWh ZBM2 zinc-bromine flow batteries at a Dutch dairy farm, in what is believed to be a first for the technology in the Netherlands, and is a first time in that part of Europe for Redflow.
Located at Vierakker in the eastern Netherlands, the 57.5-hectare family-owned sustainable dairy farm – which has been dubbed the Photon Farmer – houses a 50kW rooftop solar system, as well as 100 cows.
The addition of the Redflow batteries aims to help the farm become energy independent – a nation-wide push that has won the Photon Farmer project financial backing from the European Union.
The aim is to enhance the ability of farms to be energy self-sufficient, using their large shed roofs for solar panels, and even available paddock space for windmills.
By adding the ZBM2 batteries into the mix, and using Redflow’s intelligent battery management system, the hope is that it can optimally match supply and demand.
The install is a win for Redflow, which earlier this week conceded that its technology would not be able to compete in Australia’s household battery storage market, against increasingly cheap lithium-ion products like Tesla’s Powerwall.
In a major strategic review released on Monday, the company flagged a shift in its major market to the industrial, off-grid and telecommunications markets, where its zinc-bromine flow batteries are believed to have “unique competitive advantages” over existing battery chemistries including, their ability to operate in high ambient temperatures and on a daily 100 per cent Depth of Discharge usage cycle without degrading storage capacity or lifetime.
Indeed, it appears to have been these same qualities and advantages that led to Redflow being proposed for the Photon Farmer project. (The farm has previously tested vanadium redox flow battery storage, via a 100kWh CellCube, according to this report.)
“The battery project is seeking the best business model for future local sustainable energy production, including energy storage in a battery,” said Redflow’s global sales director, Andrew Kempster, who is visiting the Netherlands this week for the project’s launch.
“Our zinc-bromine flow battery technology is well-suited.”
Sophie is editor of One Step Off The Grid and deputy editor of its sister site, Renew Economy. Sophie has been writing about clean energy for more than a decade.
