ESI in The Australian
The Australian, 16 October 2023
Going with the flow: Qld battery venture on the charge
By Glen Norris, Senior Business Reporter
Stuart Parry went from big ships to big batteries. The former naval officer, who founded Brisbane-based Energy Storage Industries five years ago, is now preparing to roll out shipping container-size iron-flow batteries for Queensland’s state-owned power giant Stanwell Corp to strengthen a power grid increasingly fuelled by renewables such as solar and wind.
The huge batteries will be co-located next to generators to stabilise and underpin power supply when the sun is not shining and the wind not blowing. Flow batteries work by pumping liquid electrolyte through electrodes to extract power.
Mr Parry says while such batteries have been around for more than 40 years, their time has come as the global economy moves to renewables and needs a reliable baseload supply to meet demand.
ESI is now developing a $70m state-of-the-art factory in Maryborough, 255km north of Brisbane, to build the huge batteries to be stacked in multi-level silos next to power stations or next to solar or wind farms.
The iron liquid – a mixture of iron, salt and water – will be manufactured in Townsville. ESI is preparing to deliver 20 12m-long batteries for Stanwell as part of a pilot project that creates up to 10MWh of medium-duration energy storage – the first baseload iron-flow battery in Australia and the largest in the world.
Queensland is targeting to have 50 per cent of renewables by 2030.
After leaving the navy, Mr Parry became interested in the shift to renewables, initially looking at purchasing solar farms.
“There were a lot of transactions happening and a lot of generation supply going in,” said Mr Parry. “But I soon realised if we have a 24-hour grid, you need storage. So we engaged engineering firm Arup to do a worldwide review of all the different storage technologies.”
He said lithium batteries were emerging as a technology but “were a flight to the bottom”, with competitors all trying to beat each other.
“We don’t have a natural advantage here in Australia with lithium,” he said. “What we do have is a lot of iron so we can manufacture the electrolytes here. We need to bring manufacturing back to Australia. We’ve got wonderfully talented people in Australia but we’re not manufacturing enough.
“I think Covid-19 really highlighted what a lot of people have been talking about for a long time. With these batteries, 80 per cent can be manufactured or sourced here in Queensland because we have the skills.”
Mr Parry said he was not seeking to “reinvent the wheel”. Much of the manufacturing know-how needed to build iron-flow batteries was the same as required for a lot of mine processing equipment, where Australia already had many strengths.
“There are a lot of pumps and pipes similar to a mine processing facility,” he said. “I don’t like to do anything fancy.”
When fully operational by 2026, ESI will have up to 500 employees in Maryborough and other regional areas.
Mr Parry said iron-flow batteries provided medium duration storage of up to 12 hours compared to lithium, which supplies large amounts of energy in short periods.
“That effectively provides energy overnight and that’s why we call it a baseload battery,” he said. “It’s at least a third cheaper than lithium but we are not really competing with lithium.
“We’re going to provide a safe, secure, affordable grid because the cost of the delivered energy is quite cheap. And that’s going to put downward pressure on the energy prices.”
Mr Parry adds that the batteries are 100 per cent recyclable, with the environmentally-friendly electrolyte allowing them to be situated in remote locations close to national parks or the Great Barrier Reef.
“These batteries will soak up energy from the grid,” he said. “So we will build generation around them, not just power stations but wind farms and solar. We can build these in five-storey blocks and can expand. That’s our sweet spot.”