Quino Energy, a company developing water-based flow batteries, and Long Hill Energy Partners, a California-based clean energy developer, have been awarded $10 million in grant funding through the California Energy Commission Energy Research and Development Division’s Electric Program Investment Charge Program.
The funding will support a proposed 8 MWh flow battery energy storage project at the High Desert Regional Health Center in Lancaster, CA.
This project will be the first U.S. commercial deployment of Quino Energy’s proprietary organic flow battery technology and will demonstrate its viability in large-scale, long-duration storage in an application serving critical infrastructure.
Quino Energy and Long Hill Energy Partners will jointly develop this proposed project, with Quino leading technology development, integration, and testing and Long Hill serving as lead for project development, permitting and program management and reporting.
The demonstration will be conducted in partnership with Los Angeles County, where the site is located, and the Clean Coalition Group, a community-based non profit specializing in the development and testing of clean energy microgrids.
Once operational, Quino Energy’s organic flow battery is expected to provide critical energy resiliency and back-up power capacity for up to 100% of HDRHC’s energy demand during peak and off-peak hours while maximizing safety due to the system’s completely non-flammable nature, it said.
Additionally, Quino’s flow battery will enable the health center to save over $10 million in electricity costs over the flow battery’s estimated 20-year operating life.
Further, the installation of an on-site flow battery will allow Los Angeles County to expand an existing solar carport installed at this site, "dramatically increasing the percentage of clean and renewable solar power generated and consumed by the HDRHC and further reducing electricity costs."
Project permitting is anticipated to begin in Q3 2025; the project is expected to break ground in the Fall of 2026, with the flow battery system coming online in early 2027.
Quino Energy has previously received funding through the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office to support the development of its flow battery material production line as well as to demonstrate their innovative aqueous organic quinone redox flow battery (QRFB) technology in carbon steel tanks.
