I-Corps: Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries for Small Urban Businesses

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of energy storage to provide reliable uninterrupted power supply to homes, businesses and hospitals along with the ability to restart the grid after a blackout. Electrical energy storage augments grid resources (renewables such as wind, solar and hydroelectric) as well as conventional nuclear and fossil fuel plants. Energy storage creates long-term benefits and reliability, saving consumers money, improving grid reliability and resilience, enabling integration of energy generation sources, and helping reduce environmental impacts. Grid operators in the United States have identified and acknowledged energy storage as important for stabilizing supply and demand through demand response. Vanadium redox flow batteries provide an essential element in enabling demand response to play a positive role in balancing supply and demand on the electric grid into the foreseeable future. Vanadium redox flow batteries have the ability to be integrated into such utility infrastructure as distribution substations and, in certain cases, to support transmission and other electrical infrastructure. Incorporating this technology in existing utility infrastructure has the potential to extend the capabilities and operational lifetimes of these facilities at a much lower installation cost than simply adding more traditional infrastructure.This I-Corps project is based on the development of vanadium redox flow batteries as energy storage technologies. Utilities maintain efficient power flow by balancing power supply and demand to meet the ever-changing electricity demand by adding or subtracting more fossil fuel burning plants. Utilizing these extra plants creates more pollution and is costly. Solar and wind energy have significantly increased their market share and are now cost competitive. However, the sun does not shine at night and in many places wind resources are not ideal. As more solar and wind resources increase, energy grid flexibility is needed. This flexibility can be achieved through “demand response,” i.e., the capability to balance supply and demand by turning power on or off from customers to limit power demand. Energy storage enables demand response to balance the ever-changing grid. Vanadium flow batteries operate by undergoing reversible electrochemical reactions during charge and discharge. This project explores the requirements of vanadium flow batteries in enabling the development of a more reliable, uninterrupted power supply.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.