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Simon Hackett

280kWh Redflow-based microgrid in Tasmania

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Redflow CEO Simon Hackett has installed a 280kWh Redflow-based rural microgrid in Tasmania. The sheep farm will benefit greatly from the ZMB2 flow batteries – let’s take a look at the install and how it’s going to work.

Simon Hackett – installing a microgrid in Tasmania

Redflow Microgrid in Tasmania (source: Redflow)

The 280kWh Redflow-based rural microgrid is now live according to a press release on the Redflow website. Simon Hackett’s place, a sheep farm named the Vale, has seen install of 280kWh of  Redflow ZBM2 zinc-bromine flow batteries. We first wrote about this Redflow microgrid in 2019 – fantastic to see the Vale’s solar installation improve and upgrade along with solar panel technology.

The Vale (http://www.thevale.com.au), a working sheep farm with the largest private runway in Tasmania, is a 73-hectare property including a number of farm buildings and multiple houses.

The solar install uses a cluster of 12 x 15KVA Victron Quattro inverter/chargers and control systems that can deliver a peak energy output of 180KVA – it’s wired throughout the property to create the microgrid. The solar energy created by the ground-mounted 100kWp solar array is stored in 28 Redflow 10kWh ZBM2 zinc-bromine flow batteries, for a total storage capacity of 280 kWh. 

Hackett went on to discuss some of the specifics of his microgrid in Tasmania:

“The battery array makes extensive use of the Redflow Standby Power System (SPS) mode, allowing batteries to be fully charged during good solar weather days, and to then be ‘hibernated’ with zero self-discharge. During extended overcast periods, the SPS batteries are automatically activated to support site loads instead of using the grid. This unique strength of Redflow’s ZBM2 batteries allows the site to maximise both energy storage quantity and also energy storage efficiency.”

Hackett, who also works as Redflow’s Systems Integration Architect, said the system will completely eliminate grid electricity costs for the property. “The system also gives us energy resilience by automatically switching to off-grid mode during any grid power failures,” he said.

 

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Redflow in Thailand – Produce First Battery Stacks

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Redflow in Thailand – we reported last year on their decision to move manufacturing of the Redflow zinc-bromine flow batteries to Thailand. Today they have emailed out a press release advising that they’ve successfully produced the first battery electrode stacks from the new factory southeast of Bangkok at the Hemaraj Chonburi Industrial Estate. 

Redflow in Thailand

Redflow in Thailand - Battery Production Milestone Reached
Redflow in Thailand – Battery Production Milestone Reached (source: redflow.com)

Redflow announced in December last year that they had successfully started manufacturing core components for the zinc-bromine flow batteries at its new production facility – with the successful production of electrode inserts made of HDPE (High-Density Polyethylene) plastic at their Thai factory.

Today’s press release noted that they’ve now successfully produced battery electrode stacks – a key component of the ZBM2 zinc-bromine flow battery. The stacks involve using electrodes that charge and discharge the battery by “plating” and “deplating” zinc on a membrane. This process means the membrane is able to sustain 10 kilowatt-hours of energy storage capacity throughout the battery’s operating life, which  is estimated at 10 years of 36,500 kWh of delivered energy (whichever comes first). Keep in mind that battery performance and lifetime won’t be sensitive to cycle depth as there are no limitations due to the nature of zinc-bromine flow batteries. They’ll deliver 100% depth of discharge every day for their warranted time and this doesn’t cause any damage to the battery. 

According to the Redflow Limited Managing Director and CEO Richard Aird, the process has been smooth sailing so far: 

“The manufacturing team is very happy with the consistent quality and acceptable yield metrics of the stack line,” he said in the press release. 

As per Redflow’s manufacturing timeline, they are well on track to be able to produce complete batteries by June of this year. 

It’s been a brave move for Simon Hackett’s Redflow, who have had a challenging 2017 and made some tough operating decisions for the new year. We’ll keep you updated as to how production goes for their batteries. 

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Redflow News: to move manufacturing to Thailand

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A lot of Redflow news recently – the Australian solar battery manufacturer has had a fairly tumultuous 2017, with the temporarily halt in delivery of their zCell batteries to fix some operational issues, to a steadily sinking share price. The last couple of months had had more positive news, with an $800,000 sale of its ZBM2 batteries to New Zealand company Hitech Solutions and the establishment of a company in Thailand to manage the manufacturing process of its zinc-bromide flow batteries in South East Asia.

Redflow News: Equity, Thailand, Change in Direction..

Redflow News - ZBM2 Solar Battery
Redflow News – ZBM2 Solar Battery

Redflow Limited made a statement to the ASX on August 17 where they noted that the final North American production batch of ZBM2 batteries is now in transit to Australia. They have a new manufacturing partner, Malaysian based MPTS, who have been a long term supplier of components for the Redflow battery. They have moved their manufacturing base from Flex in Mexico to Thailand, and have cut staff in Europe and the US in order to streamline operating costs.

They also completed an equity raising round via a share placement of $10.5 million in two portions to investors and another $4 million in shares to Hackett CP Nominees Pty Ltd (i.e. Redflow CEO Simon Hackett).

Hackett was positive about the future of the company, noting that “In May Redflow recorded its largest sale to date, to an energy systems integrator working in the telecommunications and network power sector.”

Meanwhile, Redflow Chief Operating Officer Richard Aird discussed the impact of moving manufacturing locations and hinted towards their plans for the future, posting on the Redflow website that “The activities Redflow is undertaking to transition manufacturing and to implement key product cost-down projects are critical to the future success of the company,”.

This comes off the back of a statement by Redflow that they were less bullish about the future of their ZBM2 zinc-bromide flow batteries in the residential sector in Australia, given the rapid sink in cost of mass produced lithium ion batteries and being unable to match these prices. A statement from the company advised that a strategic review has necessitated a change in focus:

“The review anticipates that this may not translate into strong sustained sales growth in the mid and late majority residential market, due to the price-sensitivity of competitive, highly commoditised markets, which tend to prioritise a low purchase price over technical advantages, such as those offered by Zinc-Bromine flow batteries.”

Quite a big quarter for Redflow news and we’ll be interested to see how its move into large arrays of battery storage goes – the company has identified that they will focus on more mature markets – industrial, commercial, off-grid, telecommunications companies where they will look to replace existing lead acid battery with their zinc-bromide offering.

Will the $800,000 sale to Hitech Solutions be a flash in the pan or a harbinger of things to come? It’s great to see how they have been flexible in terms of moving around their operational focus – hopefully this new focus will prove to be more fruitful than their foray into the residential market.

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Redflow halt delivery of Solar Storage Batteries – ZCell

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Sales of the zinc-bromide flow batteries pioneered by ex Internode CEO Simon Hackett’s Redflow have been halted temporarily after a number of faults were found in tests on seven recently replaced batteries. According to a press release, this was due to a “different observed failure mode.”

Redflow ZCell Battery

Redflow Energy Storage Zcell
Redflow Energy Storage (source: redflow.com)

Redflow’s main solar storage offering, the ZCell, touted as a Tesla Powerwall 2 competitor, has a number of significant differences to a standard lithium-ion battery and appears to still be in the problem solving phase of development due to the errors. A fault in the zinc-bromide flow batteries means that sales of new batteries have been paused pending “the outcome of further testing” after some impurities in the electrolyte were found “beyond acceptable levels”.

Although a disappointing outcome, the speed at which the problems have been detected and the rapid response from the Redflow team means that this is far from a death knell – the team are simply ensuring they’re able to deliver reliable and great value solar storage without compromising the integrity of the product.

“Most of these problems were resolved on an ongoing basis via ‘over the air’ remote deployment of updates to battery software,” according to their ASX market update.  “Thus, lessons learned from ‘real world’ customer deployments are being fed back into product improvement.” According to One Step Off the Grid, there are currently about $1m of backorders, 96 batteries in stock, and 120 currently in transit from manufacturing. Of these battteries a total of 23 have been repaired/replaced in 2017 – so a fairly small number.

Redflow Future

In other news as per an update on ‘working capital facility’ an extra $2m in funding has been offered by CEO Simon Hackett to the business.

“Redflow Limited refers to its announcement of 29 March 2017 and is pleased to advise that, at Redfow’s request, Hackett CP Nominees Pty Ltd (Financier) has elected to provide up to a further $2 million advance in tranches as and when required.”

So it looks like Hackett is sold on trying his best on making the zinc-bromide battery model work. They have an innovative design and there are many benefits to zinc-bromide solar batteries, so we hope to see great things from them in the coming months and years and this is just a minor problem. We’ll keep you updated!

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