The project has received £149,062 (US$199,322) funding from Innovate UK partners the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council and the Scottish Funding Council.

The aim of the three-year project which starts this month, is to develop a hybrid energy storage system that enables a redT flow energy storage machine, typically used for long duration, energy intensive, industrial applications (such as mining), to be operated alongside a short duration, power intensive, energy storage technology such as lead acid, lithium battery or super capacitator.

By combining different technologies, the hybrid system can utilise the individual energy and power strengths of these complimentary technologies and offer a full range of energy storage systems to serve the entire market. There is currently no model which offers a combination of technologies to the market in one system.

The partnership with Newcastle University also serves as a transfer of knowledge from academia to industry, utilising the resources of both parties through a mutually beneficial relationship. The company said this will help deliver a high-performance, low-cost system to the market, while also developing a greater understanding of the technology through the research focus.

Scott McGregor, CEO, redT energy commented: “Hybridisation holds a promising future for energy storage, and an area which requires research in order to identify the best power-intensive technologies to work with vanadium energy storage machines, particularly to optimise the electrical control management of these complementary technologies to deliver a hybrid commercial storage system.

“redT’s energy storage machines, which don’t degrade, are the lowest cost energy storage suitable for commercial and industrial energy-intensive applications which require daily storage of energy for long durations. Conventional batteries, which degrade quickly if used in this manner, are power intensive and can then be used for short term high power demands to prolong their life.

“In a hybrid system, optimising the best and lowest cost technology solution, a redT energy storage machine will perform 70-80% of a customer’s requirements for energy storage and a conventional battery the remaining 20-30% of power intensive services.”

Dr Haris Patsios from Newcastle University added: “We recognise that in order to provide the most efficient energy storage solution, we need to be flexible and combine the various technologies that are best suited for different applications. By creating a model that facilitates this we will be providing the first ever hybrid energy storage system based on Vanadium Redox Flow machines to the market.”