Honeywell has chosen to invest a minimum of $300 million into ESS Inc, a provider of iron flow batteries into the energy storage sector. The agreement entails an immediate $42.5 million payment onto ESS’ balance sheet, $27.5 million of which is an investment into common stock while the remaining $15 million is the beginning of a commitment to purchase $300 million of ESS components until 2020. The deal also gives ESS the exclusive right to Honeywell’s flow battery-related IP, which while Honeywell doesn’t seem too keen on detailing which chemistry it is using for its pilot project slated for operation this year, its patent filings cover iron flow batteries, iron-chromium flow batteries, and vanadium flow batteries. With this investment we…