Brisbane-based energy storage specialist Redflow has bagged a contract to provide six ZBM2 zinc-bromine flow batteries for energy storage at an Optus mobile phone tower in the environmentally sensitive Daintree rainforest in tropical North Queensland.

The batteries will store and deliver 60 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy for the Optus mobile phone tower at Alexandra Range, in the Cape Tribulation section of the Daintree rainforest, a remote headland and ecotourism destination in Far North Queensland.

Made from easily recycled or reused materials, the batteries contain a zinc bromide electrolyte solution that can be cleaned and re-used after their operating life.

Redflow Limited, a publicly-listed company (ASX: RFX), produces small 10kWh zinc-bromine flow batteries that tolerate daily hard work in harsh conditions. Marketed as ZCell and ZBM2, Redflow’s batteries are designed for high cycle-rate, long time-base stationary energy storage applications in the residential, commercial and industrial and telecommunications sectors.

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Redflow CEO Tim Harris

“This Optus deployment, along with Hitech’s use of ZBM2 batteries for its digital television network rollout in Fiji, demonstrates how Redflow is establishing its credentials in the telecoms sector,” said the firm’s CEO Tim Harris.

Redflow bills its ZBM2 battery as a scalable 10 kilowatt-hour (kWh) zinc-bromine flow battery that can deliver 100 per cent depth of discharge each day for its warranted 10 years.

It said ZBM2 works in warm climates without external cooling, with its performance, safety and operational lifetime unaffected by ambient temperatures up to 50 degrees Celsius (122°F).

“Our batteries thrive on heat and hard work and are not prone to thermal runaway like other battery chemistries,” added Harris.