ZBB gets Australian contract for renewable energy storage

ZBB Energy of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (AMEX and ASX: ZBB) today announced a contract with the Australian Federal Government to accelerate development of the company's zinc-bromine storage systems for renewable energy projects.

The Australian Department of the Environment and Water Resources will pay ZBB $2.6 million USD over two years in project funding under its Advanced Electricity Storage Technologies (AEST) program.

The Australian Government’s AEST program identifies and promotes strategically important energy storage technologies that promise to increase the ability of renewable generation to contribute to Australia’s electricity supply system.

The project will integrate ZBB’s zinc-bromine energy storage systems with multiple renewable energy sources at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization’s (CSIRO) Newcastle Energy Centre in New South Wales.

ZBB's energy storage system will be used to store and supply renewable energy generated from photovoltaic solar panels and wind turbines already operational at the CSIRO Energy Centre. Electricity will then be used to provide power to the CSIRO laboratories or will be exported into the grid.

“We have designed our product to address this exact application, the storing of intermittent power at the time of generation for delivery at a later point in time when the consumer most needs power,” said Rob Parry, CEO of ZBB Energy.

“Our storage systems smooth the delivery of renewable power to the grid as well as maximize value by delivering power at times of peak demand. Additionally, off grid customers will have the ability to store their renewable power for use at later times when they might not have the generating source available to them.”

ZBB develops and manufactures distributed energy storage solutions based on a proprietary zinc-bromine rechargeable electrical energy storage technology.

The company’s modular core 50 kWh product enables ZBB’s battery to be sized and packaged as a fully customized, large format, energy storage system, ideally suited for a number of large market applications, the company said.

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