2020 was touted by many as the year of the vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB). In spite of the impact of the global pandemic, this prediction is beginning to bear fruit and the year is only halfway through.
The VRFB was invented in the 1980s at the University of New South Wales by Emeritus Professor Maria Skyllas-Kazacos and her team. It was commercialised overseas and the majority of the installations have been outside Australia.
The most recently completed VRFB installation in Australia is a 150kW/600kWh battery from UniEnergy Technologies. The battery was commissioned in early 2020 in conjunction with a 344kW solar PV system to power and protect Heron Island in Queensland. The standalone microgrid will power the Heron Island Research Station and achieve a renewable energy fraction of more than 85%. For this project, one of the main drivers for selecting a VRFB was the fact that it is non-flammable.
21 April 2020: Vanadium mining and processing plant plans given support as WA state government targets battery industry strategy
The government of Western Australia (WA) has handed support to a project by Australian Vanadium Limited, a vanadium mining company seeking to vertically integrate its supply chain with its vanadium flow battery subsidiary VSUN Energy.
Stock Exchange-listed Australian Vanadium has been given Lead Agency status in WA by the state government’s Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DMIRS) for its project to develop vanadium supply from a mining project and concentrator as well as a processing plant nearby (pictured below).
The Australian Vanadium Project was awarded Major Project Status by the Federal Government last September, with vanadium on a “critical materials” list not only in Australia but also in the UK and US. The metal is used not only in the energy storage industry as electrolyte material for redox flow batteries by some makers but is also used in the steel industry and aerospace construction.
At state level, the DMIRS will now “provide advice and assistance” to Australian Vanadium on how to coordinate getting project approvals across government. Australian Vanadium says that the project could create 500 jobs during construction, while resources thought to be available could support an initial 17-year lifetime for the facilities over just 2.5km of a total 11km of vanadium minerals thought to be in the area.
WA’s government is also targeting becoming a leading exporter of battery materials through a Future Battery Industry Strategy. Australian Vanadium and flow battery subsidiary VSUN meanwhile 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, in late 2018.
A rooftop solar array installed across two turn-of-the-century buildings in Meekatharra in Western Australia’s Gascoyne-Murchison region is hoped to form the beginnings of a community energy trading platform for the remote goldfields town.
As it happens, Meekatharra is home to the world’s largest undeveloped vanadium resource, so the consortium has been liaising with VSUN Energy, a subsidiary of one of the companies developing the massive rare earths find, Australian Vanadium Limited.
“Having early dialogue with AVL and VSUN means we’re already looking ahead to the add-on potential of vanadium redox flow batteries and other energy innovations,” said Dr. Heij.
Our parent company Australian Vanadium Limited (ASX: AVL) has released our presentation from the National Renewables in Agriculture Conference and Expo.
A Victorian dairy farm is looking to cover all of its electricity needs with “affordable and reliable” renewable energy, via the installation of a 450kW solar system and a 80kW/320kWh vanadium redox flow battery.
Meredith Dairy – in the mid-western Victoria town of the same name – is installing the impressive solar and storage system in collaboration with Profit Share Power, with the battery component provided by VSUN Energy.
Victorian dairy quits grid, turns to solar power and vanadium flow battery
A Victorian dairy farm is looking to cover all of its electricity needs with “affordable and reliable” renewable energy, via the installation of a 450kW solar system and a 80kW/320kWh vanadium redox flow battery.
Meredith Dairy – in the mid-western Victoria town of the same name – is installing the impressive solar and storage system in collaboration with Profit Share Power, with the battery component provided by VSUN Energy.
VSUN’s owner Australian Vanadium Limited said on Thursday that the Dairy’s goal was to have a sustainable operation with full power being supplied via onsite renewables.
Australian Vanadium (ASX:AVL) has sold another vanadium battery energy storage system through its subsidiary, VSUN Energy.
VSUN Energy will install a 80kW/320kWh battery (also called a VRFB) at a dairy farm in Meredith, Victoria which follows the sale of a 20kW/80kWh energy storage battery to an orchard in Pakenham (also Victoria) in early September.
The same month, VSUN applied for a WA government grant to fund a vanadium-led renewable energy solution at Strelley Community School in the Pilbara region.
VSUN business development manager Sam McGahan told Stockhead that the company is only making small margins on the batteries at the moment, but this would grow as the volume of sales increased.
“We are seeing increased interest from the agricultural sector and remote communities,” McGahan says.
“For anyone who’s reliant on diesel, vanadium redox flow batteries are a great way to reduce diesel costs, reduce the impact of the noise of generators (this applies particularly to mining camps) and reduce emissions.
AVL’s wholly owned subsidiary, VSUN Energy Pty Ltd, has secured an order for a 20kW/80kWh vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) which will go to an apple orchard in Pakenham, Victoria. The sale confirms AVL’s and VSUN Energy’s promotion of VRFB technology for agriculture, based on the battery’s long duration and inherent safety – it is not flammable and cannot explode.
AVL Managing Director Vincent Algar said: “Having this Australian invention working consistently on a daily basis for the next 20-plus years at the orchard shows that there is a growing recognition of the role that VRFBs can play in the energy storage sector.”
Australian Vanadium-subsidiary VSUN Energy is teaming with the Nomads Charitable and Educational Foundation to bring renewable energy to a remote Aboriginal community school in Western Australia’s Pilbara.
Australian Vanadium Limited subsidiary VSUN Energy Pty Ltd has signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the potential installation of a vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) and solar PV system in a school in Western Australia’s remote outback.
The MOU has been signed with the Nomads Charitable & Education Foundation and is for a period of 12 months with VSUN Energy applying for a grant from the WA State Government to fund the installation of a solar photovoltaic (PV) and VRFB solution at the Strelley Community School in the Pilbara region on behalf of Nomads.
