[ferro-alloys.com]Canada’s Zinc8 Energy Solutions (CSE: ZAIR) and Australia’s engineering firm SmartConsult announced that they are joining forces to explore joint-venture projects concerning the deployment of Zinc8’s Zinc-Air Energy Storage System.

In a press release, the companies said that the agreement focuses on deploying the energy storage system at aquatic centres, remote mines and behind-the-meter applications using SmartConsult’s knowledge, contacts in and relations with a broad range of energy users, energy systems suppliers throughout Australia and a pipeline of customers.

“Australia is one of the world’s leading countries on moving to complete elimination of greenhouse gas-producing power generation, through the rapid integration of renewables and energy storage,” Ron Macdonald, Zinc8’s president and CEO, said in the media brief.

“SmartConsult, as an Australian industry leader in renewable energy projects, is the ideal company to work with to deploy Zinc8’s long-duration storage system to this rapidly developing market.”

The Zinc8 ESS is a modular Energy Storage System designed to deliver power in the range of 20kW – 50MW with a capacity of eight hours of storage duration or higher.

It functions with rechargeable zinc-air flow battery technology, which means that the system can be configured to support a wide range of long-duration applications for microgrids and utilities.

The way it works is that energy is stored in the form of zinc particles, similar in size to grains of sand. When the system is delivering power, the zinc particles are combined with oxygen drawn from the surrounding air. When the system is recharging, zinc particles are regenerated, and oxygen is returned to the surrounding air.

In Macdonald’s view, this technology fits perfectly with the targets on renewable energy and energy storage that have been set in recent years by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency which, to date, has invested A$1.58 billion to expand the development and deployment of GHG reducing energy projects.

(Mining.com)

• [Editor:王可]