One of the nation’s leading research facilities for energy projects and national security has tapped a Columbia Falls company for its cutting edge battery technology.
The Idaho National Laboratory, an 890-square-mile complex in the high desert of eastern Idaho, is contracting with ViZn Energy Systems for a flow battery system that was developed in the Flathead Valley.
The announcement was made last week as the U.S. Department of Energy moves forward on its $220 million initiative to improve and modernize America’s energy grid.
ViZn, an innovator of large-scale energy storage systems on U.S. Highway 2 West, received an order for a 128-kWh redox flow battery system that will be installed as part of a microgrid research, development and demonstration testbed in Idaho. The battery system will be installed by the second quarter of 2016.
“The characteristics of the ViZn battery are of significant interest for island grids and microgrids that support various services in heavy-use and challenging environments, especially for renewable energy integration challenges,” said Kurt Myers, clean energy market area lead for the Idaho National Laboratory. “We are interested in the potential for lower cost energy storage systems, with 20-plus year life terms and the ability to fulfill aggressive duty cycle requirements as well as long duration energy dispatch.”
The Columbia Falls company has ramped up production of its state-of-the-art battery technology in the last year and a half, growing to over 60 employees and maxing out its current space. The company has plans to expand its facility by the end of 2016 and add to its already growing workforce, according to Paul Siblerud, vice president of product marketing.
ViZn, which is headquartered in Austin, Texas, but operates its Columbia Falls facility as the core development site, was awarded a contract in August to build the largest flow battery in North America and Europe. The company is building a zinc-iron redox flow battery system for utility services in Ontario, Canada.
This latest contract expands ViZn’s scope of applications from utility to microgrid, which is a localized energy hub that can disconnect from the traditional grid and operate independently.
A federal government report from 2012 showed that outages caused by severe weather or other issues cost the U.S. economy over $18 billion annually. The Department of Energy is undergoing an ambitious effort to improve the reliability and security of the nation’s energy grid through the Grid Modernization Initiative. The research, being led in part by the Idaho National Laboratory, includes seeking expanded renewable energy opportunities and energy storage.
Over the last six years, engineers and scientists in Columbia Falls have worked to develop batteries that store unused power for extended periods of time, something that is severely lacking. Research shows roughly 56 percent of all energy generated in the U.S. is wasted, leading to billions of dollars of lost potential largely because there has not been an efficient way to store output that is not immediately used.
ViZn officials say their zinc-iron redox flow battery is the only flow battery on the market with a non-toxic, non-flammable, non-explosive alkaline chemistry, which allows it to be deployed safely in densely populated areas or adjacent to utilities and substations.
The Idaho National Laboratory agreed, highlighting ViZn’s batteries as safe and effective energy storage systems that could exist in harsh environments and last for 20-year life cycles.
“We are seeing increasing interest in our flow batteries from both private and public organizations looking to initiate large-scale energy storage for various applications,” Ron Van Dell, president and CEO of ViZn Energy Systems, stated.
Analysts are forecasting that global revenue for energy storage in microgrids will grow from $662 million in 2014 to more than $4 billion in 2024.