The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) entered into a $2.83 million contract with Redflow Limited, Pacifica, Calif., a global leader in clean energy storage, to provide a prototype microgrid, using a 1.2-1.4 MWh Redflow long-duration energy storage (LDES) system. The contract was announced in September 2023.

The project is intended to extend the duration of energy storage for existing installations. Its initial application will be at the Stewart Air National Guard Base in New York, where it will repower an existing solar-powered microgrid. Integrating Redflow’s 1.2-1.4 MWh LDES system will allow the microgrid to provide a dispatchable solar-plus-storage resource, allowing peak shaving and enabling energy resilience.

Additional project highlights include:

• Contributing to the DOD’s emissions reduction goal of 25% by 2025
• Participation in the Defense Innovation Unit’s (DIU) Extended Duration Storage for Installations program, designed to match innovative LDES solutions to DOD bases
• Supporting New York state’s goal of 70% renewable energy by 2030

The DIU program that Redflow is participating in aspires to match innovative LDES technologies to projects exhibiting added technological capability by providing energy resilience and power backup across the DOD’s more than 450 bases worldwide.

The Department of Air Force also hopes to use the repowered solar energy microgrid at the Stewart Air National Guard Base to produce energy resilience for critical loads. Furthermore, this application is expected to demonstrate scalable flow batteries at the megawatt-hour level and restore microgrid-controllable renewables at military industrial-scale. Being able to integrate this system at the Air Force base will offer a stronger foundation of power, which, in turn, will improve resilience and enable an improved return on investment.

“We are proud to have been selected as the energy storage technology providers for this U.S. Department of Defense microgrid project,” said Tim Harris, CEO and managing director for Redflow. The clean energy storage provider has been working with the DIU on energy resilience objectives for a year.

Engineering on this microgrid project will be provided by a subcontractor that Redflow has previously worked with to supply its nonlithium battery energy storage technology for a variety of commercial and industrial projects. 

Deployment and commissioning of this system is planned for the second half of 2024. If it is successful, the solution could be rolled out across several DOD facilities and critical infrastructure around the world.