Last week I attended a large conference on energy storage in London. It was very enjoyable to reconnect with so many people from the energy industry and, in particular, so many people in the flow battery community. Long duration energy storage was one of the quieter themes of the conference, but the advocates of flow batteries were making their presence felt.

Interest in flow batteries continues to increase; the long duration energy storage demonstration competition has funded four flow battery projects in the UK this year. We hope to hear about one or two of these at this year’s IFBF conference, which we are very pleased to announce will be held jointly with Flow Batteries Europe in their home city of Brussels, 28–29 June 2022. As travel restrictions ease, we look forward to welcoming you in-person. Remote participation will be possible if you are unable to travel. Full details for attendees, sponsors and exhibitors will be available soon.

We’ve received many interesting proposals for posters and presentations, and we are now planning an engaging programme reviewing the progress, challenges, and opportunities for flow batteries. One theme will be “The Road To A Flow Battery Gigafactory”. However, we were reminded last week that the size of the factory is not the only thing that matters. We had an enquiry asking if smaller, domestic-sized flow batteries are available in Europe. Alas we did not know of any in production. Perhaps you can correct us, and we will forward your details.