‘Hybridising’ energy storage systems by combining lithium-ion and flow batteries, shares the power and energy application workloads between the two types of battery and can prolong their life expectancy, a representative of Thai engineering firm TSUS Group has said.
Pivot Power will collaborate with manufacturer and system integrator redT on what is claimed to be the world’s first grid-scale hybrid battery energy storage project to use a combination of lithium-ion and vanadium technologies.
Norwegian utility Statkraft has partnered with flow machine specialist redT on a fully-financed solar-plus-storage offering for the UK’s thriving C&I renewables market.
Flow battery maker Avalon has initiated a novel business model aimed at lowering the cost of deployment of its energy storage units, effectively ‘renting’ the electrolytes in the devices to a customer in California.
Long duration flow battery manufacturer CellCube will bring its large-scale vanadium redox flow systems to the UK, with the country’s Capacity Market firmly in its sights, according to Immersa, which the Canadian energy storage company has signed up to partner with.
Australian Vanadium (AVL) and VSUN Energy have signed an agreement to work with the Future Batteries Industry Cooperative Research Centre (FBI CRC) on developing vanadium extraction and processing skills, particularly in Western Australia.
Vanadium redox flow battery maker VRB Energy has begun commissioning a 3MW / 12MWh energy storage system project in Hubei, China, which is expected to help serve as a demonstrator for much larger projects to come.
First developed by NASA, flow batteries are a potential answer to storing solar – and wind – for eight to 10 hours, far beyond what is commonly achieved today with lithium-ion. In the second of a two-part special report, Andy Colthorpe dives deeper into questions of bankability, market segmentation and manufacturing strategies with four very different providers of flow energy storage technology.
