Going with the flow to charge a clean energy revolution
Marion Rae April 23, 2023 8:32AM
Tim Harris says governments will wax and wane on energy transition, unlike corporates. (JONO SEARLE) Credit: AAP
Amid the energy revolution frenzy and talk of superpower status for Australia, one Brisbane-based company is getting on with the job.
Redflow boss Tim Harris is shipping batteries to California as industrial and business customers cry out for fire-safe, industrial-strength energy storage.
While automakers are queuing to lock in Australian lithium for electric car batteries, Redflow uses a different technology suitable for backing up utilities, mobile phone towers or data storage sites as well as city council childcare and sports centres.
"Lithium is great for short duration," Mr Harris tells AAP.
"Whereas lithium is a sprinter, we're a marathon runner."
Batteries can shift the renewable energy that's generated during the day, including excess solar energy, to be used when it's needed most.
Redflow's "zinc-bromine flow" battery system uses a chemical reaction between zinc metal and bromine to produce an electric current.
Mr Harris says duration is moving from two, three or four hours to energy storage requirements of eight to 10 hours. This refers to the length of time a battery can be discharged or drained of stored energy until it needs recharging.
He says companies that found it relatively easy to get to 50 or 60 per cent renewable by using solar now want to reach 80 to 100 per cent to meet steeper consumer and government demands on climate change.
"They're thinking how do I solve today's problem without causing a problem in the future.
"You can use energy storage to keep the lights on in the absence of other traditional sources - gas turbines or coal-powered system."
Customers are also increasingly concerned about where the components come from and how they can be disposed of, and are thinking about multi-technology approaches.
"We're getting past that first generation of widespread consumer use and people are starting to get savvy about what they've bought, how it's being used and how it's performed," Mr Harris says.
"Zinc is one of the most abundant minerals in the world and we're 100 per cent recyclable."
The non-lithium battery made by Redflow, the world's smallest commercially available zinc-bromine flow battery, can be stacked on a scale to suit small or big businesses.
In Queensland's Daintree rainforest, Optus has used the modular batteries to back up a remote communications tower. Redflow batteries are also installed at three Bureau of Meteorology weather radar stations at Yeoval, Hillston and Brewarrina in regional NSW.
Even a new regional netball centre in Melbourne's Ferntree Gully has rooftop solar and Redflow energy storage, as the council seeks to cut power bills and carbon emissions.
"When we started back in 2008, energy storage had nowhere near the profile it has today," Mr Harris says.
Redflow has since been developing and refining the technology and is considering manufacturing in the United States to meet demand generated by hefty tax breaks under climate laws passed last year.
Generous incentives are also available at state level, with California already years ahead on decarbonisation and Redflow is there with a two megawatt-hour battery system at Anaergia Rialto Bioenergy facility, approved this month for use across disadvantaged communities.
"Governments will wax and wane on the energy transition," Mr Harris says.
"But you should start to look at what the corporates are doing around their renewable energy plans and their requirements to have 100 per cent of the electrons they use to be green."
Calls are growing for the federal government to do more so Australian firms and workers don't get left behind in the clean energy push, particular as the US ratchets up subsidies.
Consultancy Accenture says up to 1.35 million new jobs could be supported across the Australian energy system by 2050, 85,000 of them by 2030.
But that's under a "co-ordinated action scenario", which assumes industry decarbonises rapidly and is supported by substantial incentives.
Almost half Australia's "carbon workforce" is concentrated to six key regional and rural areas in central Queensland, NSW and Western Australia's Pilbara and Kwinana, who will be most affected by the exit from fossil fuels, Accenture says.
Some of Australia's largest investors, representing more than $2 trillion in assets under management, and climate and energy leaders, met federal treasurer Jim Chalmer in Brisbane on Friday ahead of next month's federal budget.
They discussed top priorities in the net zero transformation, what the scale of subsidies elsewhere mean for local firms and how to protect the integrity of green finance.
As well as saving investors from false claims about credentials, leaders also wanted more on energy performance and opportunities to help consumers unlock savings on their side of the smart meter.
Dr Chalmers said after the meeting Australia's economic prospects will be determined in large part by the energy transformation.
"By working together we can create new jobs and industries and leverage our traditional economic strengths," he said.
"That's what the budget will be all about ... aligning the work of government and investors when it comes to our big national priorities."
Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen, who was also at the roundtable, says the climate emergency is also Australia's jobs opportunity.
In its first budget last October, Labor committed more than $24 billion to bankrolling the net-zero push.
The May 9 budget will include a new Sovereign Green Bonds program so investors can back public projects and is designed to attract more green capital to Australia.
Managed by the Australian Office of Financial Management, the program is slated to begin in mid-2024.
But the United States has committed almost $US400 billion under the Inflation Reduction Act, including tax credits for batteries made and assembled in the US.
"The US IRA is going to make energy storage a lot more attractive in the US, so that's very exciting for us" Mr Harris says.
"But, also, it does bring opportunity for us to establish manufacturing in the US and the investment tax credits that provides."
The Albanese government wants to establish a battery manufacturing industry in Australia, not just ship out raw commodities.
But that may need big subsidies, quicker project approvals and preferential treatment for Aussie-made batteries.
Mr Harris says there is no reason for Redflow to stop investing in Australia but present-day demand lies in the US.
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