7 July 2025:
The IFBF 2025 marks a turning point for the flow battery sector
Flow batteries are more than ready, they’re exactly what the market needs
Flow Batteries Europe (FBE) recently co-organised the International Flow Battery Forum (IFBF) 2025 which took place in Vienna (24 – 26 June), hosted by CellCube.
The event marked a pivotal moment for the flow battery sector, which brought over 350 attendees including industry leaders, policymakers, and developers announcing major flow battery projects. This year’s IFBF showcased the growing traction of flow batteries, with sessions highlighting technical progress, diverse business cases, regulatory gaps, success stories from around the world and much more.
Christoph Stelzer, COO of CellCube, set the mood for the entire event in his keynote speech: “The time for demonstrations is over, the time for deployment and customer value is now.”
Stelzer also emphasised the urgency of regulatory reform: “Our industry is ready to scale. What’s missing is a policy framework that recognises the strategic role of long-duration storage (LDES). This includes clear definitions, eligibility for grid services and market-based incentives.”
The event highlighted the tremendous progress of the flow battery sector, which is no longer a technical curiosity, but a commercial reality, rapidly moving toward widespread market adoption.
The roller coaster ride is over for the flow battery sector
Kees van de Kerk, President of Flow Batteries Europe stated that the flow battery sector has been on a roller coaster ride over the last few years but “we have reached the inflection point. The market is there and we must now work together to be cost-effective and scalable.”
The key theme echoed throughout the event was that collaboration and unity among all stakeholders is essential to accelerate the deployment of flow batteries across the continent. As calls for energy security, system resilience and decarbonisation intensify, flow batteries offer a flexible, sustainable and scalable solution for LDES. But their full potential depends on building a stable policy and investment landscape.
While there are many flow battery projects being successfully deployed around the world, particularly in the US, UK and China, Europe must catch up. Accelerating deployment requires strong policy support, investment, and unity across the sector.
FBE will continue to drive regulatory reform, standardisation, and industry coordination to ensure flow batteries play a central role in the energy transition. The next edition of the IFBF will take place in Budapest, Hungary in 2026.
