VisBlue Flow Battery to Optimise Energy in the Public Swim Stadion of Furesø Municipality, Denmark

Last Wednesday, a 40 kW flow battery with 200 kWh capacity arrived at Værløse Swimming Hall. The battery is a crucial part of Furesø Municipality's green transition and goal of becoming CO2 neutral by 2030. It aims to ensure that the swimming hall's future energy budgets are sustainable both economically and environmentally.

Furesø Municipality's Green Transition

Renewable energy is the future, also for Furesø Municipality, which aims to be CO2 neutral by 2030 and CO2 negative by 2035. To achieve these climate goals, the municipality is looking at solutions to optimize energy usage in its many existing and new buildings, including schools, nursing homes, sports halls, and swimming pools. "It's no secret that buildings like a swimming hall have a high energy consumption," says Christian Normann Johansson, project manager in Furesø Municipality. "Therefore, it's also an important place to optimize energy use," he emphasizes.

Flow Batteries - Part of the Solution

With the investment in a 40 kW flow battery with 200 kWh from VisBlue, the municipality gets an annual storage capacity of 150,000 kWh, which can be used to balance their consumption sustainably both economically and environmentally. A flow battery allows the municipality to draw power from the grid and store it in the battery when grid prices are low, and conversely, draw power from the battery when grid prices are high and based on fossil fuels. This results in additional cost savings.

"And that's exactly the purpose of VisBlue," says Søren Bødker, CEO of VisBlue, adding, "We are extremely happy to contribute to Furesø Municipality's green transition. The climate crisis is an issue that has always been close to our hearts. Therefore, we also actively work with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, both in the development and production of our batteries as well as in our collaborations and employee composition. We are pleased that municipalities have embraced our battery solution," says Søren Bødker.

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About VisBlue

VisBlue, the company behind the battery, is headquartered in Aarhus, where 20 employees work daily, and has an office in Porto, Portugal, with three employees. In Aarhus, VisBlue develops, designs, and produces their green flow batteries for storing solar and wind energy.

About the Technology

VisBlue's flow battery works by storing energy in four large tanks containing a mixture of 85% water and 15% sulfuric acid with a vanadium electrolyte solution. This means the battery requires no fire safety measures, as the contents are not flammable. With a recycling rate of 99% and a lifespan of over 20 years, VisBlue's flow batteries are a sustainable, safe, and scalable alternative to conventional battery types on the market.

Solar Panels and Flow Batteries

The battery is not the only energy initiative the municipality has planned for the swimming hall. In 2023, the municipality will also install a solar panel system on the swimming hall's roof. In conjunction with the battery, the municipality can further free itself from the volatile prices in the power grid. One of the challenges with solar panels, however, is that they depend on input from the sun to produce electricity - and as is known, it’s like the wind: “it’s as the wind blows” or here “as the sun shines.” The fact is that we cannot control how much input we get from the sun or when we get it; and this is a challenge in the renewable energy society we are working towards.

This challenge is partially solved by VisBlue's flow battery, which makes it possible to store excess electricity from the solar panel system and save it for days or times when the sun is not shining, such as at night, or during times when the grid is running on fossil fuels. Thus, this case is a good example of what can be achieved when nature, technology, and people work together.

Furesø Municipality's investment in VisBlue's flow battery is a step forward towards a sustainable future, combining technological solutions with targeted climate action.