A firm in China has announced the successful completion of world’s largest vanadium flow battery project – a 175 megawatt (MW) / 700 megawatt-hour (MWh) energy storage system. The Xinhua Ushi ESS vanadium flow battery project is located in Ushi, China.
The use of vanadium in the battery energy storage sector is expected to experience disruptive growth this decade on the back of unprecedented vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) deployments.
A press release by the company states that the vanadium flow battery project has the ability to store and release 700MWh of energy. This system ensures extended energy storage capabilities for various applications. It is designed with scalability in mind, and is poised to support evolving energy demands with unmatched performance.
“The penetration rate of the vanadium battery may increase to 5% by 2025 and 10% by 2030, but the majority will still be lithium batteries,” the battery raw-material analyst said. Steel-making will remain the main use for vanadium, the analyst said. Currently, more than 90% of vanadium is used in making steel, he said.
Australian Vanadium (ASX: AVL) is also vying to become a commercial supplier of vanadium flow batteries in Australia, developing the strategy through its subsidiary company VSUN. Funnily, VSUN has been supplying VRFBs through its battery manufacturing partner (surprise surprise) V-Flow Tech for some time.
Vanadium flow batteries provide continuous energy storage for up to 10+ hours, ideal for balancing renewable energy supply and demand. As per the company, they are highly recyclable and adaptable, and can support projects of all sizes, from utility-scale to commercial applications.