Smart energy storage solutions lead way to zero-carbon future

A new Údarás na Gaeltachta enterprise centre in Aughleam, Co Mayo has the potential to be powered by solar energy 24 hours a day thanks to the installation of revolutionary energy storage technology from Irish Times Innovation Award winner RedT Energy.

The centre features built-in solar photovoltaic (PV) generation units along with smart electrical storage heating (SETS). When coupled with RedT’s system, the solar energy can be used to heat the building throughout the night as well.

"A key challenge for renewable energy generation, and in particular installing integrated PV arrays, is that it produces power only during daylight hours," says RedT executive president John Ward. "This makes it challenging to match supply with demand throughout the 24-hour period of energy consumption.

“The installation of the RedT system at this centre will demonstrate that by using our vanadium energy storage system, the business can maximise self-consumption of PV energy generation with significant financial and environmental benefits over time.”

Main barriers

RedT’s technology sets out to tackle one of the main barriers to widespread adoption of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, which tend to be intermittent and not necessarily available when they are most needed. This means they have to be backed up with expensive reserve generation capacity that can come online at a moment’s notice.

The company’s distributed flow battery storage technology offers a highly efficient and scalable alternative solution that stores and releases energy across a range of applications including conventional distributed generation, renewable energy and grid support. Like a standard battery it takes excess energy when it is not needed and stores it for when it is.

Ward first identified this problem in 2002. “What is needed is an energy storage system that performs like pumped hydro in terms of being there when you need it. Battery technology back then was simply not good enough to meet the needs of intermittent energy sources,” he says.

“They couldn’t take a charge quickly enough. The lead acid battery in a car takes 40 minutes to discharge but six hours to charge up. You need to be able to charge up the battery as quickly as you discharge it and that’s what we have achieved with our technology.”

Chemical properties

Ward and his co-founders set about researching a solution and identified vanadium redox flow technology as having particular potential in 2008. Vanadium is a naturally occurring element with chemical properties that make it very useful for electrical energy storage applications.

“The chemistry involved and the construction of the batteries allow for almost unlimited storage capacity as well as very rapid charging and discharging,” Ward says.

After four years in development the technology was proven in 2012 and the first system installed in Portugal the following year. The first commercial product from the company was a 5kw unit launched in 2014. This offers sufficient storage capacity to meet the needs of a very large house or an average dairy farm in Ireland.

“This was our Mark 1,” Ward says. “We have since added several other innovations to the technology and commenced production of units up to 60kw products. The unit at Aughleam is 40kw in size.”

Aughleam is one of a number of demonstration projects organised under the Great (Growing Renewable Energy Applications and Technologies) Project which aims to accelerate the deployment of smart-grid technologies in northwest Europe.

The focus is on the provision of information to regulatory authorities on technological development, as well as encouraging SMEs and communities to develop solutions in relation to smart grids, renewable energy and distributed generation technologies.

“This area is a becoming a national hub of wave energy research and demonstration, and this project will further enhance the area as a centre of renewable energy demonstration excellence,” says Ward.

“The project is supported under SEAI’s Research, Development and Demonstration Programme which supports the commercialisation of new technologies. It is expected that this demonstration will become a reference site for the commercialisation of building integrated PV and RedT’s liquid energy storage technology across a wide range of applications and scales.”

This is just one of a number of demonstrator sites for RedT. “We have developed the technology, built the units and proven that they work,” says Ward. “A lot of people wanted to buy the systems and we had interest from across the world, but we had to decide on the best way forward for us.

“The world is a very big place and we had to make up our minds as to what was the best way to grow. We decided to demonstrate the systems in key markets such as Ireland, the UK and mainland Europe first and then build our marketing around that.

“We have about 15 demonstration sites and we will continue developing those until March or April of next year when we will begin marketing the systems in earnest.”

Surplus energy

The attractions of the technology are clear. Enterprises such as farms and supermarkets can generate power through either PV systems during the day or wind turbines when the wind is blowing and store any surplus energy using the RedT system until it is required.

“We are offering businesses the prospect of going to zero carbon operations which hasn’t really been possible up until now,” he says. “There is also the prospect of businesses and communities being able to share the stored power with each other; that’s the essence of the smart grid.

“In future years, when the technology has been developed further, we may also be able to look at the data centre market and offer a solution which meets its very high energy storage and reserve power needs. We are now listed on the AIM in London which will be important for our future funding.”