According to the Wisconsin State Journal, Madison startup Flux XII is making a battery that could safely store energy like solar and wind energy for a longer time.
The startup was launched in 2021 by CEO and UW–Madison Department of Materials Science and Engineering graduate Patrick Sullivan as well as co-founder and UW–Madison assistant professor Dawei Feng.
The two developed and studied a prototype battery over the last few years that can store electricity from renewable energy sources much longer than batteries currently on the market, which often waste excess energy. A research paper regarding the new battery was published by Nature Energy, a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal, and Advanced Energy Materials, a peer-reviewed journal about energy-related research.
Flux XII’s new battery, which can produce one kilowatt of energy, will be able to help people and companies go off the utility grid, drastically reducing energy costs. The battery stores energy using organic salts that are dissolved in a water solution and pumped through the device, allowing a continuous flow of electricity. The plan is that batteries could be stacked together to fit the energy needs of any given building. The goal is for the new battery to last 10–20 years.
Flux XII plans to hire its first employee and chief scientific officer within the next year and conduct further studies on large-scale versions of the battery. The startup is also awaiting patent approval of its battery concept, for which it applied with the help of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation in 2021. The company ultimately intends to open a lab in Madison.
