Vanadium flow batteries are considered a leading light of the push towards technologies that can meet the need for long-duration energy storage. Not least of all by the companies that mine the metal from the ground. Andy Colthorpe learns how two primary vanadium producers increasingly view flow batteries as an exciting opportunity in the energy transition space.
Four flow battery manufacturing research and development (R&D) projects will each receive a share of US$17.9 million funding from the US Department of Energy (DoE).
Update 27 September 2021: Australian Vanadium contacted Energy-Storage.news to say it has selected a contractor to deliver the first stage of its vanadium electrolyte production facility project.
US Vanadium has followed up a recent commitment to ramp up its flow battery electrolyte production with a deal to secure vanadium feed material and the acquisition of a processing plant near its existing facilities in Arkansas.
US Vanadium, which counts high purity electrolyte for flow batteries among its range of vanadium products, has said it will expand its annual electrolyte production capacity to 2.25 million litres a year in response to demand.
An official ceremony was held in Hubei Province, China, as work began on the first phase of a 100MW / 500MWh vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) system.
Australia’s federal government has committed millions of dollars in grants to companies involved in lithium battery and vanadium redox flow battery value chains, as part of a wider pledge to support resources and critical minerals sectors in the country.
