Vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) manufacturer VRB Energy intends to build two factories in China through a joint venture (JV) and one in the US through a new subsidiary.
VRB Energy, the vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) subsidiary of mining and exploration technologies group Ivanhoe Electric, has partnered with Chinese investment firm Shanxi Red Sun (Red Sun) in a deal claimed to be worth US$55 million.
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At this stage, the signed agreement is a framework to set out the binding parameters of the proposed transaction, which Ivanhoe Electric said is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year.
Through it, the JV, VRB Energy System, will produce VRFBs from the two factories in China for the Asia, Middle East and African markets, while VRB Energy’s US subsidiary will focus on the North American, South American and European markets from a factory in Arizona, US.
In China, a plant with 300MW annual production capacity will be built in Shanxi province’s Changzhi City, and the other, with 200MW of annual production capacity, will be sited in Huaihua, a city in Hunan province.
The Shanxi factory’s construction is scheduled for completion during 2025, with an annual production capacity for 5,000 cubic metres of vanadium electrolyte which can be expanded to scale with market demand, Ivanhoe claimed.
Meanwhile, the VRB Energy USA plant in Arizona, US, will have an annual production capacity of 50MW. VRB Energy and Ivanhoe Electric did not provide timelines for the completion of the Arizona and Hunan plants in announcements made last week (23 September).
JV to own China factories, VRB to own Arizona plant and US IP
Red Sun will own 51% of VRB Energy System with VRB Energy owning the remaining 49%, while its soon-to-be-establishde VRB Energy USA subsidiary will own 100% of its Arizona factory. Patents in the US will continue to be held by VRB Energy, although this will require restructuring of the company’s IP to transfer patent rights from the JV back to the manufacturer.
The Chinese investor will pay VRB Energy US$20 million in cash, payable in two instalments. Red Sun also intends to raise US$35 million capital for the JV by issuing new shares.
VRB Energy is the manufacturer of products including a 50kW vanadium flow battery cell stack and a 1MW VRFB power module.
VRB Energy currently has around 50MW of global annual production capacity. It has to date been involved in some of the biggest flow battery projects in the world, including a 100MW/500MWh project in Hubei, China.
Construction began on the first 100MWh phase of that project in 2021, following a successful pilot deployment. At the time construction began in August 2021 at Hubei’s Xiangyang New High-Tech Park, VRB Energy was reported to be in talks with local stakeholder partners about building a potential 1,000MW factory in the province.
VRB Energy’s majority shareholder Ivanhoe Electric is part of the Ivanhoe Capital Corporation led by mining industry figure Robert Friedland. It was formed to capitalise on the parent company’s leverage in the minerals and exploration sector. In addition to serving as Ivanhoe Electric’s executive chairman since 2022 (after stepping down as CEO), Friedland is chairman of VRB Energy.
India’s NTPC orders flow battery system from domestic manufacturer
In other flow battery news, Indian state-owned power generation company NTPC has ordered a 3MWh vanadium flow battery system from Delectrick Systems.
NTPC, India’s largest power generation company with more than 76GW in its portfolio, tendered for flow battery capacity through its innovation and new tech arm, NTPC Energy Technology Research Alliance (NETRA).
Delectrick won the competitive solicitation in partnership with renewable energy EPC Rays Power Infra.
The battery energy storage system (BESS) will be deployed at a NETRA campus in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, and installed at an existing microgrid. The long-duration energy storage (LDES) VRFB technology will allow NETRA to increase the campus’ self-consumption of locally generated renewable energy.
Delectrick launched a 2MW/10MWh 5-hour duration flow battery product last week, which enables 200MWh of capacity to be fitted into an acre of footprint. The NTPC project will be among the first to use the new product, of which deliveries are expected to begin in the first half of 2025.
