Redflow’s new ZCell home battery, launched in March, is a 10 kilowatt hour (kWh) flow battery that can ‘timeshift’ solar power from day to night, store off-peak power for peak demand periods and support off-grid systems.
Redflow have now been able to fully integrate the ZCell battery with energy storage management provider Redback Technologies Smart Hybrid Solar Inverter System, which manages energy supplies from the grid, PV solar panels and a battery.
Australia is transitioning to lower emission energy systems, with one in five homes around the country equipped with solar. Due to the popularity of home solar systems over recent years, the government plans to minimise the subsidies to solar bonus schemes, with the NSW scheme ending on 31st December 2016.
Feed in tariffs will reduce by 38.8 cents per kWh to 5.2 cents per kWh from 44 cents per kWh, meaning home energy systems will need to be smarter and more productive to ensure peak performance.
Basically, this system will give greater overall savings because you’re consuming more of your on-site generated power.
Redback’s solution is hosted in Microsoft’s Azure IoT Suite cloud platform, with the aim being for updates and upgrades as the technology develops. It runs on a cloud-enabled system that gives options for analytics and remote control.
The platform also monitors consumption patterns, moving the use of appliances such as pool pumps and hot water into the “solar window” so they can be optimised to maximise self-consumption of rooftop solar.
Both Redflow and Redback are Brisbane-based companies that are using Australian developed technologies.
Redflow has undertaken extensive testing at its Adelaide-based battery lab to ensure ZCell can work quickly and easily with the Redback Smart Hybrid Solar Inverter System. Redflow “expects to announce” compatible inverters from other companies in coming weeks.
Redflow has already started installing exemplar ZCell energy storage systems and is currently training installers to enable them to install, maintain and monitor its flow batteries. The company expects customer installations of ZCell to commence in August.
The retail price for installed energy systems is set by each retail system integrator (we are chasing up some approximates and will update as soon as we have prices), however Redflow says that previous estimates for pricing “remains consistent” with the Redback inverter.