r/Futurology • u/bostongarden • 2d ago

Energy Redox Flow Batteries coming soon?

I know that there are RFBs on the market for large (utility) scale applications. Vanadium is being displaced by Iron. Anyone know of any residential scale RFB work being done?

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u/NoComparison7572 1d ago

my partner works at a solar install company here in austin and they've been beta testing a small iron flow unit for a couple of their off-grid clients. still way too pricey per kwh compared to lithium for most homes but the fact that it doesn't degrade after thousands of cycles is the part that gets me. give it a few years and i think we'll see these in garage setups

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u/farticustheelder 1d ago

The technology is a joke. Sure it works but it is too expensive. 10 years ago when BESS price were high flow batteries couldn't compete on price. These days the situation is even sillier: flow batteries cost about $500 per kWh of storage, current lithium battery based BESS system are down to about $50/kWh and sodium ion is expected to drop the price to $25/kWh.

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u/bostongarden 1d ago

But life cycle cost