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Next-level energy storage systems are beginning to supplement the familiar lithium-ion battery arrays, providing more space to store wind and solar energy for longer periods of time, and consequently making less room for fossil energy in the nation’s power generation profile. The California flow battery startup Quino Energy is in the mix, and it is gearing up for the first ever commercial deployment of its organic, water-based storage technology.
The Flow Battery Difference
Lithium-ion batteries have been the workhorses of the renewable energy storage industry, but they only last for a handful of hours. Flow batteries are among the next-generation storage systems that can sock away wind and solar energy for 8-10 hours or more, enabling grid managers to handle an increasing amount of renewable energy while improving resiliency and reliability.
The basic technology behind flow batteries was first patented back in the 1870s. Leveling them up for 21st century applications has been a challenge. Nevertheless, in recent years flow batteries have begun seeping into the stationary energy storage marketplace. Talk of flow battery electric vehicles has also emerged, though that is an outlier (here’s more background on the EV angle).
Quino is among the flow battery innovators to seek opportunities in the nation’s growing thirst for renewable energy. The Harvard spinoff launched in 2021 with the help of a $4.58 million grant from the US Department of Energy, and it has not let the grass grow under its feet.
Repurposing Old Oil Tanks For Good
Quino surfaced on the CleanTechnica radar last year with a battery formula consisting of water and an inexpensive class of organic molecules called quinones. The mild formula opens up the potential to cut costs by repurposing old oil tanks, in contrast to conventional corrosive flow battery solutions.
The company also received an additional Energy Department grant of $2.6 million last year, aimed at demonstrating that the company’s proprietary formula will not corrode the carbon steel typically used to fabricate oil tanks.
The oil tank angle is the key to Quino’s business model. “Quino Energy has identified a largely untapped opportunity to leverage unutilized oil and fuel storage tank capacity to hold redox flow battery (RFB) reactants rather than oil,” the company says of itself.
Citing data from the US Energy Information Agency, Quino calculates that the existing oil tank storage capacity of the US would hold 4 terawatt-hours of electricity, if all the oil was replaced by the company’s RFB electrolyte.
“If fully filled, two 75,000 cubic meter tanks could hold up to 3 GWh of energy in a land area around three times smaller than an equivalent mainstream lithium ion phosphate (LFP) battery facility,” Quino states, taking a poke at a competing energy storage technology.
One Way Or Another, The Cost Of Energy Storage Is Going Down
If you’re wondering why the comparison to LFP technology, that’s a good question. LFP arrays are less expensive compared to Li-ion batteries, but they have a relatively large footprint. Quino aims to compete against LFP in cases where space is at a premium and oil tanks are available.
“By leveraging existing tank infrastructure that already comes with completed civil works at facilities that are already set up to store hazardous chemicals, Quino expects permitting and installation time for these projects to be greatly reduced,” the company explains. They estimate that the installed cost of their flow battery will beat LFP by 30% while also undercutting conventional flow battery formulas by 40%.
We’re about to find out if all the pieces come together. Earlier this week, Quino Energy announced a partnership with the clean energy developer Long Hill Energy Partners, towards the goal of installing its first commercial-ready flow battery, an 8 megawatt-hour project to be installed at the High Desert Regional Health Center in Lancaster, California. A $10 million grant from the California Energy Commission will help move things along.
In addition to improving resiliency and emergency backup at the facility, Quino anticipates that the new battery will save the facility more than $10 million in electricity bills over 20 years.
“Further, the installation of an on-site flow battery will allow Los Angeles County to expand an existing solar carport installed at this site, dramatically increasing the percentage of clean and renewable solar power generated and consumed by the HDRHC and further reducing electricity costs,” Quino notes.
The Flow Battery Trickle Becomes A Flood
If all goes according to plan, the permitting process will get under way this fall towards groundbreaking in 2026, with operation anticipated early in 2027.
Meanwhile, activity continues apace elsewhere in the flow battery field. As exemplified by Quino, one branch of the effort involves developing non-toxic, longer-lasting, and less costly alternatives to conventional vanadium flow batteries.
One key piece of the puzzle fell into place last year, when researchers in the UK and China announced another step in their work on developing a new membrane for low cost, long lasting zinc-iron flow batteries.
Another development on the cost-cutting side occurred earlier this year, when the new US flow battery venture Storion launched into being. Storion aims to provide vanadium flow battery manufacturers with a domestically sourced electrolyte formula on a lease basis.
The company is a mashup of the Stryten Critical E-Storage branch of Georgia-based Stryten Energy, and the Largo Clean Energy branch of the Massachusetts firm Largo. Storion also notes that it has an exclusive supply chain deal with another Largo branch, Largo Physical Vanadium Corp.
“Storion combines access to high-quality vanadium supply from the only operating Western Hemisphere vanadium mine with domestic electrolyte production to establish a fully integrated vertical supply chain for utility-scale vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFB) used in long-duration energy storage (LDES) applications,” Storion states.
Hold on to your hats. The howling maniac who occupies the Oval Office sailed to victory last fall on a “drill, baby, drill” platform that attracted big-dollar donations from US oil and gas industry stakeholders, but if things keep going the way they are, plenty of empty oil tanks will be sitting around for Quino to scoop up.
“Oil companies expected a big business boom under Trump. Now they’re worried,” reads the headline of a National Public Radio report on the impact of Trump’s tariffs on the cost of drilling for oil and gas drilling in the US.
If you don’t believe NPR, believe the leading oil and gas services firm Schlumberger, which reported a rare earnings miss today.
“The company also missed first-quarter revenue expectations, citing a ‘subdued start to the year’ amid particular weakness in its well construction and international businesses,” MarketWatch reported, noting that Schlumberger CEO Olivier Le Peuch cited “evolving tariffs” as a factor.
For US fossil energy stakeholders, it’s a classic case of being careful of what one wishes for. If you have any thoughts about that, drop a note in the comment thread. Better yet, find your representatives in Congress and tell them what you think.
Image (cropped): The US flow battery startup Quino Energy aims to repurpose old oil tanks for low cost, long duration clean energy storage (courtesy of Quino via CleanTechnica archive).
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