Otoro - Flow Batteries
Power plants can store energy on site as fuel and use that fuel to produce power on demand. Renewable energy, on the other hand, is intermittent in nature and cannot be produced on demand. Imbalances in electricity supply and demand are traditionally solved by overproduction, reserve power generation, and other inefficient means.
Batteries such as lithium ion face major challenges when deployed at large scale on the grid. Because all their energy is contained within the battery cell, the only way to store more energy is to use more cells. This means that the cost of storage scales one-to-one with the amount of energy stored.
A flow battery is a rechargeable battery consisting of two liquids that are charged and discharged. The liquids are simultaneously pumped through an electrochemical cell, where energy is either added or removed from the liquids.
The battery liquids determine the cost and performance of the battery system. Although many flow battery chemistries have been studied, none have been able to deliver the cost, power, and efficiency required for widespread deployment.
Otoro has developed the best flow battery chemistry that can safely deliver high power and efficiency at low cost.
Flow batteries are a compelling platform for low-cost energy storage due to their all-liquid nature, which allows for energy and power to be decoupled. The amount of power produced is determined by the size of the electrochemical cell. The amount of energy stored is determined by the size of the tanks and the amount of liquids. To increase the amount of energy stored, flow batteries can simply use larger tanks and liquid, while the expensive power systems remain the same. Provided the liquid materials can be manufactured at low cost, the flow battery design allows can access lower costs curves than traditional batteries.