According to media reports, ESS Inc's long-term all iron flow battery energy storage solution will be deployed in a demonstration and testing project by utility company Portland General Electric (PGE) in Oregon.

ESS Inc holds multiple patents surrounding this technology, making it the only liquid flow battery manufacturer in the world to integrate non-toxic electrolyte chemistry (mainly iron and salt water) into energy storage systems, which can provide up to 12 hours of storage and discharge duration.

Portland General Electric (PGE) will test the ability of liquid flow battery systems to provide various applications, including frequency response, emergency reserve, voltage and VAR support, demand response, and resource optimization.

The headquarters of ESS Inc is located in Oregon, and the 3MWh system will be located on land near ESS Inc's factory headquarters in the small western city of Wilson, USA. It is expected to go live around the middle of this year.

The Senior Manager of Grid Edge Solutions at PGE stated that collaborating with ESS Inc on this project will provide the utility company with "important experience in achieving our greenhouse gas reduction goals.".

"Building a reliable and affordable clean energy future requires us to collaborate with industry innovators," said Darren Murtagh of PGE.

It marks the first deployment of ESS Inc's energy center product, a configurable and integrated large-scale energy storage utility scale product designed for power supply and larger commercial and industrial (C&I) applications.

It was launched in February last year and is an upgrade to the ESS Inc energy warehouse's 75kW/500kWh solution based on the company's second-generation liquid flow battery module.

At the end of 2021, ESS Inc announced the use of six energy warehouse units for a zero emission microgrid project in California, totaling 3MWh.

The California investor owned utility company (IOU), San Diego Gas and Electricity Company (SDG&E), will deploy more liquid flow battery equipment in conjunction with solar energy to support many key community facilities in Cape Cameron.

As it has done in solar photovoltaic and lithium-ion battery storage, California is becoming an early leader in adopting long-term energy storage technologies. Among other developments, the most recent one is that the state's budget for 2022-2023 includes $380 million in funding for long-term projects.

ESS Inc claims a potential market opportunity of $8 billion
ESS Inc was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in October last year after completing a business merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) called ACON S2 Acquisition Corp.

The company admitted before going public that it needed to establish contracts, deploy and enhance its manufacturing capabilities before it could make a profit. In November, it disclosed that it believed its opportunity market value in the global market was $800 million by 2027.

It has signed a framework agreement with SB Energy, a subsidiary of SoftBank, to deploy 2GWh of liquid flow batteries by 2026, and a smaller agreement with Enel Green Power to provide 8.5MWh of equipment for a solar power plant in Spain.

Related links:

The California government will invest $380 million in 2022 to support the development of long-term energy storage