Honeywell introduces flow battery technology toprovide safer, durable solution for large-scale renewable energy storage.
- Non-flammable flow battery to be fieldtested at Duke Energy’s Mount Holly, N.C. facility for large-scale deploymentfor diverse energy storage solutions.
- Sustainable solution uses wind and solarto reduce carbon emissions and lower costs.
Honeywell has recently announced a new flowbattery technology that works with renewable generation sources, such as windand solar, to meet the demand for sustainable energy storage. The new flowbattery uses a safe, non-flammable electrolyte that converts chemical energy toelectricity to store energy for later use while meeting the environmental,longevity, and safety objectives of utilities.
Honeywell’s new technology delivers greaterflexibility and extended duration for utilities. The battery stores energy thatcan be used when wind and solar are absent, in the event of power outages andwhen power grids are at capacity. It can store and discharge electricity for upto 12 hours, exceeding the duration of lithium-ion batteries, which can onlydischarge up to four hours.
The battery is designed with recyclablecomponents and does not degrade over time. It maintains system performance,providing a reliable and cost-efficient system for 20 years.
“With this flow battery, Honeywell has developedan innovative energy storage technology to answer upcoming energy storage needsbeyond the current technologies available on the market,” said Ben Owens, Vice Presidentand General Manager, Honeywell Sustainable Technology Solutions. “As utilitiesand corporations seek cost-effective alternatives to coal-fired plants withlong-duration energy storage solutions, they are switching to renewable energytargets that work around the clock to reduce carbon emissions.”
The flow battery technology will be tested byDuke Energy at its Emerging Technology and Innovation Centre in Mount Holly,N.C. The company has more than a decade of experience testing various batterychemistries and has deployed numerous large-scale energy storage projectsacross the US.
Honeywellwill deliver a 400-kilowatt-hour (kWh) unit to Duke Energy’s facility in MountHolly in 2022. If the battery is deployed at scale, it will reduce the use ofDuke Energy’s fossil-fuel power plants by utilizing solar and wind.
Theserenewable generation sources are increasingly cost competitive versustraditional fossil fuels and represent over 70 per cent of new powergeneration. Honeywell aims to deploy a utility-scale pilot project of60-megawatt-hours starting in 2023.
Industry data states that the long durationenergy storage market will grow to $13.7-bn by 2030 and require 115 gigawatts(GW) of energy storage to support the implementation of wind and solarcapacity. The International Energy Agency’s (IEA) India Energy Outlook 2021projects that India could have 140-200GW of battery storage capacity by 2040 —potentially a third of total battery storage capacity in the world by then.