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SYDNEY-based Ecoult has launched its medium-scale supercharged lead-acid battery hybrid, based on UltraBattery technology developed by the CSIRO.
According to CEO of Ecoult, John Wood, the UltraBattery completely changes the lead-acid battery paradigm. While many entrepreneurial companies continue to focus on newer lithium-based battery solutions for renewable energy storage, the UltraBattery takes the ubiquitous lead-acid battery, but enhances its chemistry.
“UltraBattery is the missing piece that allows lead-acid to excel in applications that require continuous high-rate cycling, and unlock the potential of all that energy storage,” Mr Wood explained.
“It’s an advanced, environmentally sustainable, safe and cost effective industrial-strength hybrid lead-acid battery and ultracapacitor housed in a single cell with a common electrolyte.”
The UltraBattery cycles longer, outlasts and charges faster than most competitors, has a great safety record, and is more easily recyclable than lithium-ion batteries — 96 percent of used lead-acid batteries are reformed into new lead-acid batteries. They also feature extended longevity in partial-state-of-charge, symmetric high-rate charge and discharge, and are very efficient, and their performance can be monitored via the cloud.
UltraBattery’s applications range from energy solutions for complex and large-scale grid systems, to home-based systems that harness and optimise a mix of traditional and renewable energy sources including solar, hydro and wind.
The UltraBattery technology has already been proven in selected large scale megawatt installations in Australia and the US.
With the release of the UltraFlex, a 25kW medium-scale industrial, agricultural, off-grid and business battery solution, Ecoult says it will change the way organisations manage and optimise the mix of energy they use through capturing, storing and releasing power symmetrically and quickly.
“We’ve already partnered with several businesses in Australia who have seen wonderful results in cost savings, reduced fuel consumption, renewable self-consumption, reliability and emissions reduction,” said Mr Wood.
For example, CedarVale Health Retreat, in Kangaroo Valley, NSW, is an off-grid facility which is using onsite solar and micro-hydro generators, as well as power management provided by a single UltraFlex, to achieve close to zero diesel usage.
Ecoult says it will launch a residential UltraBattery product into the Australian market, in order to complete in the renewable energy storage space.