Change happens fast in the energy industry. It used to be the comment that power utilities were conservative and reluctant to change, but that has ignored the evidence of the big shift over the past ten years into renewable energy and advanced distributed technologies. Ten years ago we even thought that battery energy storage would never happen; batteries were expensive, had unreliable lifetimes and there was no satisfactory business case. But how that has changed!

Our programme at the IFBF in just ten days’ time includes an interview with Tim Rose, the project manager from Pivot Power, EDF Renewables, who has been responsible for the flow battery installation at the Energy Superhub Oxford. In just five years, Pivot Power has grown from a start-up battery project developer to being incorporated as a major part of one of the world’s largest power companies. What can we learn from their journey and their exploration into flow batteries?

We will also discuss the growth of start-up flow battery companies; how a stock exchange listing, government R&D finance and venture capital has propelled ESS Inc into the limelight. How Largo Clean Energy is financing flow battery electrolyte to take advantage of the emerging market for long duration storage. We will also talk about the successful projects installed by Sumitomo in Japan and the USA, and H2 Inc in Korea. As well as the scale and applications of flow batteries, we will look at the underlying issues of sustainability and environmental acceptance. Magdalena Neidhart of CellCube will discuss her analysis on the life cycle analysis of flow battery systems.

Jim Stover of VRB will be interviewed about VRB’s latest projects in China and his perspective on flow battery development. Jim quotes from the recent NREL report showing the expected growth in long duration storage:

EASE and Delta EE last week predicted that Europe needs to build 14 GW of new storage every year until 2030 just to meet existing climate obligations. We look forward to some interesting discussions in ten days’ time as to how the world is going to get ahead with the next phase of energy storage.

Join us

We have a rich blend of speakers, panellists and presenters at this year’s IFBF. Delegates will receive our book of proceedings – available as an ebook for those attending the conference online – with supporting information for each session.

Whether you are an investor, a customer for energy storage, a project developer, or a power company you will want to know how to be ahead of the market. Come and meet the industry – and the battery providers, the supply chain specialists, and the technology improvers – so we can work together to get ready for the next five years.

Over 200 delegates have already registered and we hope you will join us too.