WattJoule Corporation, a developer of next-generation liquid electrical energy storage systems, has developed and built a new system demonstrating a major industry cost breakthrough. The new storage platform is called ElectriStor™ and will be offered to system integrators as the preferred core component for storing large amounts of solar and wind energy.
One of the major barriers preventing the widespread adoption of large-scale energy storage has been cost. WattJoule has engineered the ElectriStor™ platform based on the redox flow battery concept where electricity is stored in a liquid. WattJoule’s proprietary liquid electrolyte is mostly water, and the company has developed a new, inexpensive process to make it in large quantities. Early liquid energy storage systems have suffered from a number of technical and cost limitations. Recently there have been several technical breakthroughs to overcome these constraints. WattJoule has both developed and exclusively licensed key technologies that, in combination, dramatically lower energy storage costs to $150 per kilowatt-hour in its first-generation energy storage product.
WattJoule has completely re-engineered the conventional vanadium-based storage system in order to dramatically lower cost based on solving critical limitations. The company has developed an advanced vanadium liquid that completely eliminates the need for expensive air conditioning for system cooling, that other systems require for proper operation. This new liquid stores more energy, in a smaller system with less material. The energy-conversion components now handle considerably more power, but use less material. To achieve all this, WattJoule has also developed a proprietary cell design, electrodes and separator. The company has a multi-generational pipeline of advanced storage liquids and materials in development to further reduce long-term cost. From early durability testing, WattJoule predicts a system lifetime of over 20 years.
“Our ElectriStor™ platform is the culmination of five years of intensive research, development and engineering work by our world-class team,” said Greg Cipriano, VP Business Development and Co-Founder of WattJoule. “We now have a combined technical team, with our strategic partners, of more than 30 engineers and scientists in multiple disciplines. The capabilities of our new platform are a direct reflection of the hard work and dedication of this team to solving a difficult, almost intractable, set of technical problems.”
“WattJoule’s technology combines high power, high energy, and a wide operating temperature range in a smaller, less expensive package,” said Dr. H. Frank Gibbard, CEO and Co-Founder of WattJoule, “we expect it to be highly competitive in the rapidly expanding market for large, stationary energy storage systems.”
