E101: Reinventing Grid Storage with XL Batteries
E101: Reinventing Grid Storage with XL Batteries  
Podcast: Everybody in the Pool
Published On: Thu Sep 04 2025
Description: For the next few episodes, we’re digging into the wild world of energy and the aging global electricity grid. This week, we start where reliability begins: utility-scale storage. The grid we have was built for one-way power plants; the grid we need has to juggle rooftop solar at noon, heat waves at 6 p.m., EVs, and data centers galore.My guest is Tom Sisto, founder & CEO of XL Batteries. His team is commercializing a pH-neutral, aqueous organic flow battery — a non-flammable, salt-water system using carbon-based molecules instead of vanadium. Think: safer, long-life storage you can scale for hours to days, without sulfuric acid or scarce metals.We get into:Why storage is the “time machine” the grid needs (match generation to demand, cut curtailment)Flow batteries 101: engine vs. tank, independent power and duration, and why that matters for utilitiesXL’s chemistry: organic charge carriers in neutral saltwater (no vanadium, no acid), designed for long lifeCost and safety vs. lithium — and why duration + cycle life drive utility economicsReal-world progress: containerized field unit, EPRI duty-cycle testing, and an industrial pilot at Stolthaven TerminalsRetrofit potential: turning existing petrochemical tanks into energy storage tanksStorage-as-transmission: placing batteries on both sides of a bottleneck to double effective flowReliability + resilience: PSPS/wildfire shutoffs, hurricane backup, and data-center load growthWhere decentralization fits, and how industrial customers can de-risk adoption on the way to utility scaleLinks & resources:XL Batteries — https://xlbatteries.com/Everybody in the Pool: all episodes & newsletter — https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/Become a paid subscriber for an ad-free feed (and my eternal gratitude) — https://plus.acast.com/s/everybody-in-the-poolCall to action & what’s next:Send thoughts & voice memos: in@everybodyinthepool.com — where do you see storage unlocking reliability?If you liked this one, share it with a grid geek friend.Smart Grid Series lineup:E101 (this episode): Safe, long-duration flow batteries with XL BatteriesE102 (next): Grid “airbags” — synthetic inertia & fast frequency control with WärtsiläE103 (after that): A rechargeable zinc sponge anode that solves dendrites — Enzinc Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.