Applications and competitiveness of redox flow batteries : Explotation of battery energy systems

Sammanfattning: The world is going through a sustainability transition and the energy market is a crucial part for enabling its success. Currently the trend is to transition towards intermittent sources which would make the energy system more volatile and/or unreliable. This research therefore investigates the potential for battery energy storage systems, with a focus on redox flow batteries in the Swedish energy system. The research utilized a mix-method approach by combining semi-structured interviews with a continuous literature review. From the research it is seen that redox flow batteries' competitive advantage lies in that they have long calendar and cycle life, good safety regards, have long degradation time, are scalable, flexible and modular as well as their levelized cost of storage decreases over time. It is also identified that market positions can be found in residential, industrial and grid/utility applications. In addition to the opportunities for redox flow batteries, barriers or challenges that exist are also discussed and addressed. These mainly regard current market limitations, regulatory barriers, technological development areas, etc. Overall, the research provides insights and builds an understanding of the current market potential and what is necessary for redox flow battery providers, but also other relevant stakeholder, to do in order to capture that potential. This to support strategic steps that need to be taken for battery energy storage to assist in the sustainable energy system transition.