Darling Building beats energy shortfall with Redflow
Award-winning architecture firm Williams Burton Leopardi has deployed a scalable energy storage system based on Redflowâs ZBM2 zinc-bromine flow batteries to guarantee energy supply for its newly renovated Darling Building in central Adelaide. With the local electricity grid incapable of supplying the buildingâs peak power needs during summer and facing hundreds of thousands of dollars in extra costs to use natural gas, Williams Burton Leopardi has successfully deployed six ZBM2 batteries to store off-peak power and feed it into the building when required.
Redflowâs ZBM2 zinc-bromine flow batteries have solved the problem of insufficient energy supply that was holding back a $4 million renovation of a heritage-listed building in central Adelaide.
After architectural firm Williams Burton Leopardi bought the derelict 1916 Darling Building, largely neglected since the 1960s, they learned that the planned peak energy demand for the renovated building would require more electricity than the local power grid could supply. The peak power draw during summer was calculated at 290 amps â whereas SA Power Networks could initially supply only 150 amps, although this was later revised upwards to 200 amps.
Williams Burton Leopardi director David Burton said many solutions were so expensive they would have made the renovated building commercially unviable. âWe didnât have the space in the building for a transformer; gas would cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars and âwinging itâ was not an option,â he said.
âDuring a conversation with Simon Hackett, who was a client with his Base64 redevelopment, he said âyou need a battery as a peak management systemâ. When we looked at it, it stacked up, so we went with a scalable energy storage system based on Redflow batteries. We have six ZBM2s now, but we can scale the system to 12 or even 18 batteries if we require them.
âThe main purpose of the system is to ensure that the batteries can supply energy if the buildingâs demand outstrips the gridâs supply capacity, so it is primarily a peak management methodology. But they are also configured to buy power at low demand times to recharge the batteries and when power spikes past a certain price, they dribble energy into the load to manage that spike down.â
The award-winning five-storey renovated Darling Building on Franklin Street now has new lighting, air conditioning systems, kitchen facilities and washing machines and dryers on each floor, as well as a fully-rebuilt heritage-listed elevator.
Redflow partner Solar Depot installed the ZBM2 batteries with three 7.5 kW Selectronic SP Pro inverters, delivering three-phase power from the buildingâs basement. The only notable challenge was gaining fire compliance approval from the Metropolitan Fire Service, which acknowledged that zinc-bromine flow batteries comply with all the relevant building codes concerning fire rating as they do not present the same fire risk as lithium-ion batteries.
Mr Burton said Redflow batteries were uniquely suited for the buildingâs needs. âFor what we want to do, zinc-bromine batteries are ideal,â he said. âZBM2s can deep cycle without damaging the battery and they embody the concept of simplicity and look quite nice in their rows.
âLithium-ion batteries wouldâve cost us a lot more to completely fire-rate the room because lithium is like putting a bomb in your basement. With the Redflow batteries, we just open the windows and a fan circulates the air.â
Mr Burton described the Redflow-based energy system as an âexciting opportunityâ for other building projects. âOne battery system could support several buildings,â he said. âWith solar on the roof, youâd get a lot of power in, so it could operate as a mini storage facility and power station â if the statutory regs allow that kind of thing to start happening.â
Please click hereï»ż to read the full case study about the Williams Burton Leopardi ZBM2 deployment.
Tony Baird
New Zealand Technology Director
+ 61 7 3376 0008
[email protected]ï»ż
Hey there, this is the default text for a new paragraph. Feel free to edit this paragraph by clicking on the yellow edit icon. After you are done just click on the yellow checkmark button on the top right. Have Fun!