Powering up the locals: Novonix delivers with microgrid battery
Brisbane company Novonix has delivered its first custom designed microgrid battery to a residential pilot project in Tampa, Florida, promising to change the way energy is created, stored and used.
Novonix chief executive Chris Burns
The battery pack allows a community to pool renewable energy from rooftop solar into a battery, creating a shared energy network and distributed by a platform.
Novonix chief executive Chris Burns said the project opened up opportunities for a cleaner, more reliable power grid with renewables being produced, stored and consumed within local communities.
“It will change the landscape of how we produce and consumer energy going forward,” Burns said.
“We are continually innovating and investing in technologies that deliver high performance battery materials to support longer life batteries and advanced storage systems.”
The project is a departure from Novonix’s main business of battery materials. It has an anode materials division in Tennessee that manufactures synthetic graphite which is used in lithium-ion batteries.
The Tampa venture is with Emera Technologies and BlockEnergy, which is the operator.
The prototype battery was developed by Novonix and is the first of its kind. The pilot scheme includes 37 homes in an estate.
Testing of the microgrid battery is expected to be completed this year and made available commercially in 2023.
