Australian Vanadium Limited (AVL) has announced the successful completion of factory acceptance testing (FAT) of a vanadium flow battery (VFB) to be installed at a Horizon Power site in Kununurra, Western Australia.
The 220kWh VFB, which can deliver up to 78kW of power, was purchased by Horizon Power for a long duration energy storage project. The battery contains vanadium electrolyte manufactured by AVL at the company’s electrolyte manufacturing facility in Perth.
This marks the first instance of AVL’s vanadium electrolyte being used in an operational VFB and the first instance of AVL’s electrolyte being approved for use by a leading VFB manufacturer, Invinity Energy Systems, meeting stringent quality standards.
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AVL CEO Graham Arvidson said, “We are pleased to report that the VFB purchased by Horizon Power has now completed the FAT process and is operating successfully. Over the past months the company’s wholly owned subsidiary, VSUN Energy, has collaborated closely with Horizon Power to successfully integrate its preferred hardware with the battery.
“This is also a significant milestone for AVL, as it marks the first use of vanadium electrolyte produced at our Perth facility in a functioning battery. This is a true testament to our vertical integration strategy, with the ultimate goal of using vanadium oxides processed from the Australian Vanadium Project in our vanadium electrolyte.
“We are particularly pleased that leading VFB manufacturer Invinity has approved our electrolyte for use in the battery and confirmed that our electrolyte meets its stringent standards. We look forward to the successful commissioning and operation of the battery as part of Horizon’s project in regional Western Australia.”
With the completion of FAT, the VSUN Energy team welcomed staff from Horizon Power to view the battery and learn about its potential to address the significant demand for long duration energy storage, which provides support to electricity grids increasingly powered by variable renewable energy such as solar and wind.
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Horizon Power CEO Stephanie Unwin said, “It’s great news the vanadium redox flow battery is on its way to Kununurra, for our long duration energy storage pilot.
“This is an exciting trial which supports our focus on exploring technologies which can solve the technical problem of long duration storage in extreme temperatures, while providing long periods of 100% renewable energy.
“Vanadium batteries are designed to deliver large amounts of energy over a long period of time and are temperature resilient, a critical benefit for our regional and remote networks.
We look forward to learning more about the potential for this technology to be effectively integrated into our network, supporting future battery deployment across our footprint.”
