ve that capacity. The flow batteries Invinity produces can go beyond that because, Worthington says, you can just add more of the electrolyte liquid to a flow battery to make it hold a charge for longer. The company currently has a 10-hour flow battery system operating at a fire station on a Native American site in California.
Beyond duration, one of the perks of flow batteries is they essentially “do not degrade,” Worthington says, and they’re almost entirely recyclable. Lithium-ion batteries are famously difficult to recycle.
“A lithium-ion battery lasts seven years or so. A flow battery lasts 20,” Worthington says. “If you’re going to have it on your site for 20 years, you’re going to have to buy that lithium battery maybe twice more. You’ll have the same flow battery you bought on day one in year 20.”
The one downside with flow batteries is their size. They’re a lot bigger than lithium-ion batteries, which is why Worthington says they’re best for energy grids, rather than cars or other things that need to move around. In terms of price, flow batteries are catching up to lithium-ion batteries, which have become quite cheap in recent years.
“Today, we’re probably about commensurate with lithium-ion on an upfront-cost basis,” Worthington says. “When you get to the massive projects … lithium-ion definitely has the advantage today just because they’ve got this huge global supply chain and we’re still scaling up as a business.”
Michael Gravely, deputy division chief of the Energy Research and Development Division at the California Energy Commission, tells Digital Trends that California is very interested in flow battery technology and hopes to show the market that they’re a worthwhile investment.
“The challenge is there aren’t many technologies that are as far along as lithium-ion right now in the commercial process,” Gravely says. “There’s an understanding that we need more than four hours of storage, and it depends on how much, but no one knows.”
Gravely says flow batteries are probably the “next technology” in this space, and he believes they could soon be cheaper and simultaneously power things for longer than lithium-ion systems. He says they’ll be working on demonstrating the usefulness of this technology for the next few years while the technology becomes more established in the utility industry.
A battery that can hold a charge for longer, may soon be cheaper, is recyclable, and has a longer life span than lithium-ion is surely attractive. Lithium-ion won’t be replaced anytime soon when it comes to powering consumer electronics and electronic vehicles, but it could become the less-favored option for utility energy storage in the not-too-distant future. That would help states deal with extreme weather and help make sure the power keeps coming when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing.
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