Fike wins as pv magazine Awards 2024 recognizes storage champions

Fike Corporation has topped the Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) category of the pv magazine Awards 2024, in a record-breaking year for the global program. More than 300 entries from 36 countries were received, with winners in eight categories selected by independent expert jurors.

US-based Fike Corporation topped a competitive field in the BESS category as jurors warmed to its Fike Blue solution. Fike was awarded the BESS prize for its efforts to improve BESS safety features. Battery thermal runaway incidents are a relatively new phenomenon and while battery fires remain rare, effective suppression methods are vital.

To achieve this, Fike has developed a tank with a liquid that has a boiling point of more than 400 C. When a heat anomaly is detected, a releasing panel activates a cylinder that allows Fike Blue to flow through a piping network. The fire suppression liquid is then discharged in a targeted way through nozzles to where the fire is located, immersing cells and absorbing heat.

Fike Blue has been third-party tested by the Canadian Standards Association, which observed heat from thermal runaway subsiding within five minutes when the system was deployed.

Expert approval

Anna Darmani, lead analyst on Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables’ global energy storage team, who served as an award juror, praised Fike for bringing a solution to the market.

“While the number of incidents on both the grid-scale and distributed segments is very limited, there is still room for improvement,” she said.

Fellow juror Hans-Günter Schwarz, who heads German utility RWE’s utility-scale battery business, said Fike Blue could be “yet another important step in improving the safety of battery storage.”

Highly commended

Jurors for the pv magazine Awards also recognized two entrants as “highly commended” runners up in the BESS category. Twaice was recognized for its Twaice Performance manager, a software tool designed to help BESS operators identify and resolve issues standing in the way of optimal storage asset performance. Nina Munzke, awards juror and team leader for stationary energy storage at Germany’s Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, said the software addressed balancing issues, which post a challenge for battery storage systems.

“The proactive identification and resolution of such issues could greatly improve BESS availability and performance,” she said.

Finnish telecom operator Elisa was also awarded highly commended status for its distributed energy storage (DES). Elisa’s DES uses artificial intelligence and machine learning-powered data management automation technology to create a platform for aggregating, optimizing, and trading storage capacity.

Anna Darmani noted that many distributed storage assets are not being used optimally in Europe to improve grid flexibility, making the Elisa DES a valuable contribution.

“Elisa is aiming to address this with their integrated approach spanning different market sectors,” she said.

The full result for the pv magazine Awards 2024 are available now on our Global platform.