Redflow ZBM2 Battery Deliveries About To Get Under Way

Australian energy storage company Redflow announced yesterday it had completed testing of the first ZBM2 batteries using battery stacks produced by its new Thailand factory, and is now ready to start fulfilling back orders.

Last month we reported the first battery electrode stacks had arrived in Brisbane. The battery stacks were then installed locally in around 200 ZBM2 battery tank sets produced at the former factory in North America and tested.

Here’s what a ZBM2 battery stack looks like:

The battery stack is the critical component of the zinc-bromine flow battery, containing electrodes that charge the battery by depositing zinc on a membrane and discharge it by reversing that process.

“Our pre-delivery tests have confirmed that these complete batteries, using Thai-made stacks and existing battery tank sets, perform to standard, so we are now scheduling deliveries to start supplying outstanding back orders,” said Redflow CEO Richard Aird.

One of the finished products ready to ship:

The 10 kWh capacity ZBM2 is primarily used in industrial, commercial, telecommunications and grid-scale energy storage applications. Multiple units can be connected together to boost capacity to the megawatt-hour range.

Redflow also offers a containerised Large Scale Battery (LSB) platform featuring up to 45 ZBM2 batteries and six 12kW Victron Quattro 48/15000 battery inverter/chargers. The LSB solution recently underwent a major redesign, replacing the single inverter approach with multiple Victron battery inverter/chargers that enable “plug and play” integration.

Redesigned Redflow LSB installed at Base64 in Adelaide

The redesigned LSB pictured above sits beneath a 50-kilowatt peak (kWp) array of solar panels at Base64 in Adelaide that charge the battery system. Base64 has an additional 20kWp of solar panels installed elsewhere in the precinct.

The  ZBM2 also forms the basis of Redflow’s Z-Cell battery system, the company’s home/small commercial solar battery storage solution.

The ZCell and ZBM2 are the world’s smallest commercially available zinc-bromine flow batteries.

Redflow says it will continue to assemble, test and deliver limited quantities of ZBM2 batteries with Thai-produced battery stacks until the facility in Thailand starts end-to-end manufacturing and testing of complete batteries, which is expected to occur by June.

While Redflow has copped some flak for manufacturing overseas rather than in Australia, the company has previously said Thailand offered the manufacturing expertise, lower labour costs, logistics and favourable tax treatment it needed to remain competitive.