The VoltStorage Iron Salt Battery
The Iron Salt Battery from VoltStorage bridges supply gaps in wind and sun-free periods and addresses a duration range of 12 to 100 hours. As a Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) system, it is designed for applications at energy utilities, grid operators or large industrial companies. This ensures the provision of base load and makes renewable energy available day and night.
Rethinking Renewable Energies
MASTER THE ENERGY TRANSITIONTo balance the natural fluctuations in renewable energy, make wind and solar power baseload-capable and also support the decarbonisation of the energy sector, we need sustainable, intelligent and economical storage solutions. They can be used to reliably integrate renewable energies into the grid and promote the widespread use of renewable energies.
Rethinking Sustainable Technologies
LEARN MORE ABOUT TECHNOLOGYFlow battery technology is characterized by the storage of electrical energy in a liquid electrolyte solution. With our international team of experts, we have continuously advanced this resource-saving storage technology and scaled and optimized it for various applications. The result is a flow battery based on iron and salt, which offers a number of advantages as an LDES application and in terms of charging and discharging times of more than 12 hours.
Iron and Salt: Raw Materials for Tomorrow’s Storage Technology
Our Iron Salt technology uses materials that are not only environmentally friendly, but also cost-effective and available worldwide.
Iron
Iron (Fe) is a chemical element in the periodic system of elements and belongs to the metals. It is the most common element in the earth. In the electrolyte, it acts as an energy carrier as it can absorb or release electrons through redox reactions. We are also researching how to extract iron from waste from other industrial production processes. By processing and recycling the iron produced there, we can make an important contribution to the circular economy concept.
Salt
The salt used for the electrolyte has the chemical name ammonium chloride and is a colorless, crystalline solid which is highly water soluble. When dissolved, the salt increases the electrical conductivity of the electrolyte, which in turn improves efficiency. It is a classic industrial salt that is used in many applications, e.g., in medicines.
Water
Water (H₂O) is a chemical compound of the elements oxygen (O) and hydrogen (H). In the electrolyte, water assumes the function of a solvent in which the remaining components are dissolved.
Leading in Economic Efficiency
Designed as an LDES solution, the Iron Salt Battery is suitable for stationary applications with a need for constant power throughout the year. The storage system has a modular design, which means that capacity and power can be decoupled from each other and expanded flexibly.
The solution also impresses in terms of investment security. With over 10,000 charging cycles and a lifetime of more than 20 years, our Iron Salt Battery offers a high level of durability.
This significantly reduces the costs per kWh compared to other storage systems in an LDES-optimized configuration.
The cost advantages of this ecological storage technology increase significantly in correlation with the storage duration, which makes it particularly interesting from an economic point of view for use as a long-duration storage solution.
Compared to storage systems based on hydrogen or pumped storage power plants, the use of the Iron Salt Battery from VoltStorage does not require any massive expenditure in the provision of a suitable infrastructure.
Our Platform Approach for Market-ready Solutions
MARKET OVERVIEWWhen developing our storage technology, we follow a dedicated platform approach with specified project teams. This allows us to work flexibly and scalably towards different market requirements already from the early development phase of the battery cells and power units. This makes it possible to provide tailor-made answers to specific deployment scenarios.
Our technology and product development steps aim to have achieved the necessary scaling of the power units by around the end of 2025. At the same time, the first pilot applications are to be defined with partners. From 2026, the aim will be to multiply the capacities of the power units. These are modular in design, each with an output of 192 KW and can be flexibly expanded in accordance with our platform approach. This allows us to reach sizes up to the gigawatt range.
Our Experience
Since the start of development of our Iron Salt Battery in 2018, we have already made great progress and have now reached a far advanced level of development. We are conducting discussions with interested parties and partners in around the globe and incorporating the findings into the design of the solution. The goal is a sustainable, economical energy storage system that leads the way in innovation and at the same time meets the requirements of companies and partners in the best possible way.
Our Positioning
The range of energy storage systems ranges from short-duration storage systems (from 1 to 12 hours), the vast majority of which are lithium ion based, to ultra-long-duration storage systems (more than 100 hours storage time), where very large-scale hydrogen-based systems can be applied.
The Iron Salt Battery fills the crucial gap in long-duration storage, offering solutions for durations in the spectrum between 12 and 100 hours in a sustainable and economical manner. As renewable energy sources surpass 60% of the grid, the Iron Salt Battery ensures the stability and reliability of electricity supply, acting as the essential link in the energy infrastructure.