Wellington Based Research Could Change How We Store Electricity

Isaac Taylor

My favourite kind of energy storage has to be a big ol valley full of water. But when dams and regular hydro aren’t available how do you store energy? There are plenty of options out there but this one company may have found the edge on all the competition with an energy storage solution that requires no rare materials, has a 20-year lifespan, and is a solution that they consider is safer and outperforms many of the key metrics of competitors.

Allegro Energy has a water-based Redox flow battery that touts itself as being a high-performance offering with a higher RTE (ratio of Energy put into the Storage Unit) rate of many RFB (Redox Flow Battery). The patented invention was originally spun out from research being done at Victoria University of Wellington and can be simply described as a water-based electrolyte system that has managed to overcome many of the voltage limitations that are constantly setting back similar solutions.

These storage systems are about as green as they come, non-flammable and fully recyclable, unlike say, a drum of nuclear waste.

Allegro Energy are currently situated in Australia where they recently entered a strategic partnership with the ASX-listed Origin to start scaling. The Origin 5% equity stake has opened the door to Allegro piloting a 60MWh RFB at one of Origin’s plants and could pave the way to a gigafactory. The potential of this company is staggering if it can bring to life a long-duration energy storage solution. The total market for this product is estimated to be worth US$223B by 2044.

“This is a powerful endorsement of our proprietary battery technology and an exciting moment for our team,” said Professor Thomas Nann, Allegro’s co-founder and CEO. “Origin’s support will help us develop large-scale manufacturing of our RFBs which will deliver a cleaner, cheaper and safer global storage solution to the worldwide energy market.”

Origin’s head of energy supply and operations, Greg Jarvis said, “We are pleased to be investing what we view as a very promising technology. We believe long-duration storage will ultimately play an important role in the energy mix, and we look forward to watching the progress of this trial and seeing how this technology could complement other storage projects within Origin’s portfolio.”

They also have Allegro Supercapacitors which are for short sharp fast charging, able to charge something as big as “a tram, car, or Ebike in 30 seconds” according to Allegro. Once again the Supercapacitors make use of a water-based electrolyte that makes it a good piece of safe tech, that’s efficient to boot. The possible applications Allegro could address are broad and could touch everything from wind and solar farms looking for long-term energy storage over excess generation periods as well as home consumer products if their supercapacitors are able to be used alongside consumer tech like Ebikes.

Watch this space. A bit of Kiwi research from Wellington, supported by the Booster Innovation Fund, could result in greener energy conservation across the entire globe.

Booster Investment Management Limited is the issuer of the Booster Innovation Scheme, Booster Innovation Fund (Fund) an investor in Allegro Energy Limited. The Fund’s Product Disclosure Statements are available at www.booster.co.nz or by contacting your financial adviser.