This is the first time that the battery storage manufacturer Cmblu Energy has delivered an organic large-scale storage system of this size to an energy utility in the USA.
The company, along with Arizona-based Salt River Project (SRP), announced the successful launch of the joint pilot project “Desert Blume,” which will integrate a 5-megawatt, 50-megawatt-hour capacity organic solid-flow battery into an existing and expanding solar farm near the major U.S. city of Phoenix by the end of 2025.
SRP’s Copper Crossing Energy and Research Center is already home to a 20-megawatt solar farm, which will be joined by another 55 megawatts of photovoltaics, a 99-megawatt natural gas-fired power plant and several heat-resistant long-term battery storage systems without lithium-ion technology by 2026.
“Desert Blume” aims to prove performance and efficiency of SolidFlow battery
The project will serve as a pilot to demonstrate the performance and efficiency benefits that the non-flammable, solid as well as liquid electrolyte-based Organic SolidFlow batteries can deliver in the challenging environment of the Arizona desert. At the same time, they provide over 1,000 homes with a maximum of ten hours of excess clean energy from Arizona’s solar farms. Cmblu Energy expects its recyclable battery system, based on environmentally friendly materials, to be able to store and re-inject energy two to three times longer per cycle than conventional lithium-ion technology, which is typically designed to store energy for one to four hours.
“Desert Blume” is expected to make a correspondingly clear case for the cost-effectiveness of the innovative and sustainable technology once it starts operating. Storage operation will be monitored by the renowned Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), which will validate the battery’s performance data under the hot and dry environmental conditions in Arizona. As recently as July 2023, Arizona had experienced several heat records.
SRP and Cmblu Energy are optimistic about their future collaboration
“We are excited about the privilege of working with Cmblu and gaining experience with this highly innovative technology,” said Jim Pratt, CEO of SRP. “The SolidFlow battery will be a useful addition to SRP’s energy system, helping to provide stored power for longer periods of time, especially during periods of high and fluctuating energy demand from customers in the Valley of the Sun. It will be a helpful addition to SRP’s many renewable systems and storage projects, which typically can only store energy for up to four hours.”
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“Desert Blume is an important project to validate large-scale Organic SolidFlow batteries and promote safe, sustainable, long-term energy storage in the United States,” explained Ben Kaun, president of Cmblu Energy’s U.S. subsidiary. “We are very excited to partner with SRP to help the utility rapidly transition to clean energy and to have the opportunity to demonstrate our technology in the southwestern United States. Phoenix is one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the country with large solar potential, making it an ideal environment for next-generation long-term storage.”
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SRP had decided to collaborate with Cmblu Energy after an RFP for long-term storage from emerging energy storage companies. Production of battery storage for the Desert Flower project is scheduled to start in early 2025. Following the announcement of a pilot battery storage project in cooperation with Milwaukee-based WEC Energy, the cooperation with SRP is now the second major entrepreneurial milestone for Cmblu Energy in the US. The U.S. market is particularly attractive for storage companies in view of the high energy demand, rather unstable power grids and government subsidy programs, and the demand for scalable storage without conflict raw materials is particularly high here.
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At the industry’s leading trade fair RE+, which will take place in Las Vegas from September 11 to 14, Cmblu Energy will present the “Desert Blume” project in detail to experts and many thousands of visitors. (hcn)
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