For someone unfamiliar with the topic of flow batteries, Eugene Beh, the Founder and CEO of Quino Energy, put it in easy-to-understand terms. The simplest way to understand flow batteries is to think of them like a conventional car: a fuel tank and an air intake are used in the engine to produce movement. Similarly, flow batteries require fuel, oxidizer, water, and solvent to extract chemical energy. Flow batteries store the liquid electrolytes (think fuel) separately, and they then flow into the central cell. This flow into the central cell will then result in the charging, or discharging, of the battery.
The use cases for flow batteries are centered on energy storage. With solar projects continuing to have intermittency problems, having a way to store additional energy so as to avoid negative pricing is crucial. Negative pricing for excess renewable energy continues to strain the industry, and the low cost of flow batteries could be a significant possibility.
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