Australian battery manufacturer Redflow enters voluntary administration

Queensland-based zinc-bromine flow battery producer Redflow has entered voluntary administration after it was unable to attract capital to scale up its X10 battery.

In March 2024, Redflow was awarded AUD 1.1 million ($740,000) from the Queensland Critical Minerals and Battery Technology Fund, to develop and build a large scale version of the X10, which is aimed at sites with a multi-megawatt-hour scale.

Redflow also secured $20 million of United States government funding in June 2024 for a 6.6 MWh zinc-bromine flow battery energy storage system (BESS) and, in July 2024, Redflow teamed up with Queensland state government-owned generation company Stanwell to develop a non-lithium long-duration BESS for use in a 400 MWh project.

Those arrangements are now on hold until administrators from Deloitte determine the company’s future.

An Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) statement said, despite significant interest in a proposed new factory in Queensland to manufacture the upsize X10 battery, an inability to raise the necessary capital led Redflow directors to the decision to enter administration.

“This strategic plan requires significant capital and over the past nine months Redflow has engaged with a number of state and federal governments and agencies that confirmed that significant government support was available to fund the Redfow plan,” the ASX statement said. “In order to access these funds, however, Redflow required significant ‘matching funding’ from the Australian capital markets. Based on encouraging external financial advice, Redflow considered and pursued the equity funding sources available to it but, in the current market has been unable to attract the required equity support.”

From pv magazine Australia.