US Defense Innovation Unit signs CellCube and Redflow storage contracts

The US Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), in partnership with the US  Air Force and US Navy, has awarded prototype contracts for the use of CellCube and Redflow battery storage systems as part of its extended duration for storage installations (EDSI) project 

CellCube’s megawatt-scale vanadium redox flow battery and management system will deploy “integrated hardware and software to connect and balance base energy systems hosted in collaboration with the Navy and Marine Corps”, a statement said.

Meanwhile, Redflow’s megawatt-scale zinc-bromine flow battery and control system will be trialled by the US Air Force at a site where storage hardware will be linked with microgrid software to integrate multiple onsite systems. Redflow’s system will enable the microgrid to provide a dispatchable solar and storage resource for peak shaving and “energy resilience”, the statement added.

All DIU vendors with EDSI-awarded prototypes will face field trials —- which sets common core performance requirements for both mobile and stationary battery energy storage system (BESS) solutions —- to meet minimal criteria by providing high availability of electric power at no less than 50kw up to 1MW for at least eight consecutive hours. 

EDSI provides the defence sector with an “expandable set of resources to resolve thinking and non-thinking threats ranging from extreme climates to blackouts and brownouts”, the statement said. “In these events, high power availability empowers missions enabling installations to support operations downrange as well as in the homeland in the near term. Longer-term benefits examined by the EDSI project are anticipated to consider how stronger and longer device performance can be further coordinated for new efficiencies.”

The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) strengthens US national security by accelerating the adoption of commercial technology throughout the military. DIU partners with organisations across the Department of Defense (DoD) to rapidly prototype and field dual-use capabilities that solve operational challenges at speed and scale. The DIU has offices in Silicon Valley, Boston, Austin, Chicago and inside the Pentagon.

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