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The Swiss just built a giant underground REDOX FLOW Battery. Why??

Just Have a Think

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Switzerland is building one of the world’s largest vanadium redox flow battery installations — a giant underground energy storage system designed to help stabilise the renewable electricity grid. But why choose a huge flow battery instead of the lithium-ion systems now dominating global energy storage?

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Reference Links

Interview with Kate O'Neill - CEO of NESO
Connections, Capacity & Clean Power: Brita...

BGR Article about FlexBase
https://www.bgr.com/2187513/switzerla...

Flexbase website
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Invinity website
https://invinity.com/

ESS website
https://essinc.com/

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20 Comments

@jimhood1202 1 month ago

Good news. The more examples we get of these technologies being produced economically at scale the less resistance there will be from investors. The more investors, the faster new innovations will be discovered. Well done Switzerland!

@535Computer 1 month ago

Another great video. Here in the USA it is frustrating watching the rest of the world make progress in these areas while we willfully move backwards. 😐

@AlanBevan-e6j 1 month ago

Good to see a British Company (Invinity Energy) making a mark in the battery world. We need more British tech companies like this.

@3komma141592653 1 month ago

The location is called "the Star of Laufenburg" and it connects Switzerland with Germany and France. So its very important for the grid. And when you watch daily spot prises, you can see them going from zero during solar times to 200 at night within 6 hours or so. Which means, there is a lot of possible profit to make. Switzerland has 6.5 GW capacity in pumping storage, but with increasing solar, they often run at maximum.

@joshm3342 1 month ago

It's great to know that some people in some countries are working on real solutions. Thanks for this report.

@mateocortes4148 1 month ago

It's always nice to see progress being done. Thanks Dave!

@Moritzdabooma 1 month ago

Swiss resident here. I am following both your chanel and the Laufenburg project since its announcement almost 2 years ago. I even was shortly in contact considering applying there, but finally decided to go in the similarly exciting field of industrial 3d-printing. Cool that you covered it, this plus the iron air battery in the NL are for me the most interesting topics in grid battery development in Europe at the moment.

@FierceMotorworks 1 month ago

Very interesting video, thanks for continuing to make ad-free content

@Seventh_Circle 1 month ago

...I'm really happy to see liquid vanadium flow batteries make a bit of a come back.

@Paul-yh8km 1 month ago

Coal fired power stations don't work well when a delivery of coal doesn't turn up.
It's not just renewable's that need energy storage.

@samueletortelli4887 1 month ago

Thanks for the great video. As Swiss living abroad I'm a bit proud 😊

@procrastinator41 1 month ago

Despite the US situation, real progress is being made. Thank you Dave

@paulsondj 1 month ago

Vanadium Flow batteries also don't catch fire, which is kinda important when they are located under a multi billion dollar data center.

@JDEE-q5l 1 month ago

The Swiss have a very good sense of safety via underground bunkers and they have probably opted to do this with long term critical grid infrastructure . In uncertain times the infrastructure is something to be protected and the contents of a bunker are not on display to be seen by any evil eye in the sky.

@koborkutya7338 1 month ago

It bothers me why large scale batteries should have the same architecture than those powering drones and flashlights. There are many-many locations where space just doesn't matter at all. You have space, as much as you want but you have problem with super finicky electronics and serviceability is critical.
I am still a big fan of open flooded industrial lead-acid batteries for household solar systems for locations where you can find the right place to put them (I have one). Still, I also fullly understand even in single-familty houses it may be a problem to find the right location for such a monster.
Same with industrial level and grid-scale storage - a good design team picks the right application for each job.

@decimal1815 1 month ago (edited)

Dear BBC, please give this man a series on Radio 4 / Sounds. This would work even better in podcast format.

@DanielaVerdonkschot 1 month ago

i am living in switzerland and that's not a really openly discussed topic!!!!! thanks for pointing it out ❤

@robertferry2911 4 weeks ago

Another great episode, well done.

@DikkeBetha 1 month ago (edited)

The town of Laufenburg is where "SwissGrid" call home (guess what this organisation does, hint: it's in the name). It's where a massive amount of major powerlines cross the river Rhine between Switzerland and Germany. Have this battery system there, makes perfect sense.

@GaryEasonFlightArtworks 1 month ago

I'm very pleased you have covered this. I have had some shares in Invinity for some years now; it's a great British success story most people have never heard of.