Long-duration energy storage provider ESS will deliver three Energy Warehouse systems to Coldwell Solar for a solar + storage microgrid at Roederer Estate, Scharffenberger Cellars and Domaine Anderson — California wineries in Mendocino County known for their sparkling and still wines. Coldwell Solar worked with the wineries to design a system that met their needs and the microgrid is expected to be operational in late 2023.
“The wineries needed an energy storage solution that could withstand the elements and operate safely in a wildfire-prone region. With its inherent safety and low carbon footprint, ESS technology was the only option that meets the energy resilience and sustainability needs of our customer. We look forward to partnering with ESS on future projects to accelerate clean energy deployments in the state,” said Sean Hood, COO of Coldwell Solar.
“Our safe and sustainable long-duration energy storage systems are ideally suited to a wide variety of commercial and industrial applications. We’re pleased to support these wineries’ commitment to sustainability while providing the energy security needed to continue delivering economic benefits to the Mendocino region,” said Hugh McDermott, SVP of business development for ESS.
ESS iron-flow technology provides long-duration energy storage and is ideal for applications that require up to 12 hours of flexible energy capacity. ESS technology is safe, non-toxic and has a 25-year design life without capacity fade.
News item from ESS
For every Engineered solution there are pros and cons. The redox flow battery is no different, although these energy storage systems can be designed to be from 10 hours up to 100 hours, depending on the size of the ion tanks used to create the cell ion exchange that creates the “battery” voltage, there is no free lunch. IF a redox flow battery has a 1C discharge rate, it also has a 1C (recharge rate). For a 100 hour system it would be able to discharge in 100 hours, but would also take up to that 100 hours to recharge the ion tanks completely. Depending on the actual design criteria of a lithium ion ESS one could also set up the ESS as “power blocks” and each of these power blocks could be added or subtracted from the overall site output and create a variable storage/output dispatch depending on grid load demands. For instance one could design powerblocks of 750kW/4MWh, if one has 50 of these power modules set up as a “matrix” you could have 37.5MWh for 4 hours dispatchable energy generation maximum or 7.5MWh for about 20 hours dispatch or 18.75MWh for about 8 hours.
Great work being done out there with the new iron batteries. Both ESS and Form Energy (Jeff Bezos) have gotten investment monies lately from Breakthrough Energy Ventures (key investor Bill Gates), for two very different battery technologies. Form Energy is the new kid on the block with their reverse oxidation principle, basically rusting and unrusting iron – we might soon see batteries systems able to retain charges up to 100 hours (vs. a couple hours for lithium ion).