Australian energy storage specialist Redflow has revealed the custom-designed enclosure for its recently launched ZCell home battery at the Australian Energy Storage Conference & Exhibition in Sydney.

The outdoor-rated enclosure, which measures around 1000mm long, 500 mm wide and 1150 mm high, holds Redflow’s unique 10 kilowatt hour (kWh) ZBM2 flow battery.

Designed to be easy for installers to deploy, one or more ZCell units are typically installed on the ground beside an outdoor wall and connected to appropriate battery inverter/charger equipment.

Redflow executive chairman Simon Hackett said the ZCell enclosure was designed and is being manufactured in Australia.

“This is the first time we have shown our ZCell enclosure publicly,” he said.

“We’re very pleased with the design, which is both attractive and practical, that allows straightforward outdoor installation and features a built-in secondary containment system to protect against the unlikely event of an electrolyte fluid leak.

“We expect to receive the first production batch of ZCell enclosures for quality assurance testing before the end of June, with ZCell bundles now expected to be delivered to installers for customer deployment from August.”

ZCell is a residential energy storage system that includes a battery made from easily recyclable or reusable components. ZCell’s 10 kWh of stored energy allows people to ‘timeshift’ solar power from day to night, store off-peak power for peak demand periods and support off-grid systems.

ZCell’s benefits include:

• Supports 100% depth-of-discharge energy delivery with no potential for battery damage when fully discharged. Can be stored indefinitely without requiring maintenance charging.
• Greater safety inherent in ZCell’s flow battery design. Mechanical damage does not risk explosion and the battery can not suffer ‘thermal runaway’. Indeed, ZCell’s electrolyte is intrinsically fire retardant.
• Robust performance in even hot and demanding remote locations without the need for external cooling until an ambient outside temperature of at least 45 degrees Celsius.
• Recyclable or reusable: most components, including plastic, aluminium, steel and ZCell’s electrolyte, are recyclable or reusable.

Redflow has commenced installing exemplar ZCell systems at a range of Australian sites and is now developing documentation and training processes in order to accredit qualified installation partners.

Simon Hackett said Redflow had received a strong response to the ZCell launch from prospective customers and potential installers. “We are installing selected exemplar systems during June and July, with larger volumes of ZCell batteries scheduled to start arriving from August,” he said.

ZCell’s international availability will be announced in coming months.