ViZn Energy Systems Inc. (ViZn), a leading provider of utility scale energy storage systems, and CMI Energy, a division of worldwide industrial leader Cockerill Maintenance & Ingénierie (CMI), are pleased to announce a strategic partnership on energy storage projects. The initial project features a 400 kilowatt, 3-hour, zinc redox flow battery system that will be integrated with 2 MWp of rooftop solar PV and installed at CMI’s headquarters in Seraing, Belgium.
“CMI is a leading EPC and has the engineering expertise to assimilate our zinc redox flow batteries into projects with business cases like peak shaving, time shifting, and numerous on-grid applications in addition to providing ongoing operations and maintenance over our systems’ 20-year lifespan,” said Ron Van Dell, CEO of ViZn Energy.
CMI Energy has been active in the energy business for 200 years and is a leader in the design and supply of numerous industrial-scale products for electric power plants such as industrial boilers, heat recovery systems, and solar thermal receivers. CMI Energy also utilizes its energy industry expertise to provide EPC and system integrator services for energy storage projects and with ViZn Energy will focus on: renewables integration, waste water treatment, mining, oil and gas, chemical, and other commercial and industrial energy storage use cases.
“We believe ViZn’s technology is very interesting and has significant potential in energy storage applications because it is non-toxic, utilizes abundant raw materials, is highly scalable, and can provide multiple revenue streams,” said Jean-Michel Gheeraerdts, Executive President at CMI Energy. “With renewables generation capacity rapidly growing, energy storage is set to expand globally. CMI Energy has conducted a thorough study and decided to invest in its headquarters with a 2MWp PV system and battery storage, which will help CMI demonstrate technologic and economic viability in both grid-tied and off-grid operations. CMI has created a new business unit dedicated to energy storage and is definitively moving forward to meet growing demand with a bankable solution.”
ViZn is currently delivering systems in the United States, Canada, Central America, Europe, and India. ViZn Energy’s flow batteries are uniquely capable of performing both rapid, high-power discharges and slower, long-duration releases at lower power – unlike other comparable storage technologies which can only do one or the other. This ability to provide a second daily cycle of merchant services can result in 50 percent more revenue per year. The inherently safe zinc-iron chemistry uses globally abundant materials and is non-flammable, non-toxic, and easily recyclable at the end of its life.
