Flow-battery start-up looks to compete with fossil fuels
Flow battery start-up Baseload Renewables aims to compete with fossil fuels by producing fuel cells cheaper than lithium-ion batteries. The company aims to make batteries capable of producing reliable power from renewable sources 24/7, and at a cost some five times less than where lithium-ion cells are expected to plateau. This means that seasonal storage of power throughout the summer, to meet demand through the winter, could be economically viable, according to its founder, Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Yet-Ming Chiang.
That’s approaching the price point where the idea of “seasonal storage” becomes economically feasible—meaning arrays of these batteries could store enough solar power during times of excess generation through the summer to continue meeting regional demand through the long, cloudy winter, Chiang says.

Baseload is housed at the Engine, MIT's new accelerator, which recently provided the company nearly $2 million in funding (see “Developing a Tough, Time-Consuming Technology? This Investor Is Interested”).

Baseload isn't providing many technical details at this stage, but the key to its low cost is relying on sulfur. That's because the material is very abundant and energy-dense, Chiang says. Indeed, it's a waste product of oil and gas production that costs as little as 10 cents per kilogram.

"Based on the charge stored per dollar, sulfur was more than a factor of 10 better than the next best thing," says Chiang, a materials science professor who previously cofounded lithium-ion battery startups A123 Systems, 24M, and three other startups.

Baseload's other cofounders include Ted Wiley, previously a vice president at Aquion Energy, as well as Marco Ferrara and Billy Woodford, both of whom previously worked with Chiang at 24M (see “Why Bad Things Happen to Clean-Energy Startups”).

Better, cheaper, longer-lasting storage technologies are crucial for enabling renewable sources to meet a greater portion of energy demand, and significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions.

For all the hopeful commentary and coverage of wind and solar prices nearing parity with fossil fuels, the truth is it's an apples-to-oranges comparison. Because the sun doesn't always shine and wind doesn't always blow, those sources can't be used as reliably and flexibly as coal or natural gas unless they're backed up by fossil fuel plants, balanced out through demand-response programs or long-distance transmission lines, or paired with some form of abundant storage. The options for the latter are generally limited to cheap pumped hydroelectric storage—which is tightly geographically restricted since it requires a pair of water reservoirs—or batteries and similar technologies that are still too expensive, short-lived, or both.

The lithium-ion batteries that run our smartphones and electric vehicles are increasingly being used in limited ways to balance renewable generation. But many battery experts believe that their high cost and limited life cycles place hard limits on how big a role they can play on the grid.