Redflow looking to raise money for residential flow battery marketing push

Australian battery storage developer Redflow is seeking to raise $12.9 million for marketing and fine-tuning production of its household “plug and play” battery storage product, which is set to launch later this month.

Chairman Simon Hackett says he is pitching in another $3 million of his own money as part of the fund raising, which comes at what he believes is a “pivotal time” in the development of the energy storage market.

Hackett says grid operators around the world are starting to embrace grid-scale storage, but battery storage is also a hot topic for the residential market, with the looming expiry of premium solar feed-in tariffs in NSW, Victoria and South Australia creating a “clear economic trigger point” for households and businesses to add energy storage.

Redflow flagged the imminent launch of its “flow battery” storage product last month. It is yet to reveal details of its pricing, it says its costs will compete with lithium-ion alternatives. And the company says it has seen significant interest (or, as it says, inbound registrations) for the launch of the product.

Many of the first units will go to shareholders who are being offered a shareholder discount offer for ‘early adopters’. “Our aim is to see 2016 be the year that our strongest supporters (our own shareholders) decide to be amongst the first to install an energy system featuring Redflow batteries into their homes and offices.”

Redflow says about $4 million of the funds being raised will be used for technical and product development, the product launch and marketing and establishing channels to market, training, installation and product support.

Another $1 million will be spent on product improvements, including the development and release of a new higher energy density battery model, and $2 million will be spent on manufacturing arrangements.

© 2016 Solar Choice Pty Ltd

Giles Parkinson

Comments

  1. Hi adventurous innovator, we have a small feed in tariff system, but since the advent of the tesla wall storage battery we have been looking into the off grid option. being decentralised it would make perfect sense . last year before its release they were touting three & a half to four thousand dollars for the price of the battery depending on size . however we recently heard that someone had installed a system in victoria for thirteen thousand dollars , quite a substantial sum . as we are no longer young it would seem that we would never recoup the savings in our lifetime . looking for a better option in the knowledge that prices will drop over time . yours sincerely tery abbott.

    1. Hi Terry,

      You’ll want to watch for battery storage prices to drop to about $500-$700 per kilowatt-hour (still at least a year or two off). That is the point at which most of us agree that battery storage will be an ‘economically rational’ decision to make. There are already some situations where battery storage is starting to make financial sense, however – you can read about them here.

      In the meantime, feel free to compare battery storage quotes with us – simply fill your details into the Quote Comparison Request form to the right of this page.

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