Vanadium redox battery provider VRB Energy, which is majority-owned by Canada-based metals exploration company High Power Exploration Inc (HPX), has begun construction on a 100 MW/500 MWh vanadium flow battery in Xiangyang, in China’s Hubei province.
The storage project is being deployed at the Automobile Industrial Park of the Xiangyang high-tech development zone and is expected to come online by the end of next year.
The storage facility will be owned by Hubei Green-Move Zhongvan New Energy Co Ltd (Green Move ZF) which is, in turn, owned 70% by China’s largest energy company, the State Power Investment Corporation (SPIC); 20% by Hubei Pingfan Ruifeng New Energy Co Ltd; and 10% by Chinese real estate developer Wuhan Yuanxing Real Estate Development Co Ltd.
The project is linked to a 1 GW wind and solar project portfolio, 500 MW of solar distributed generation, and the construction of a gigafactory for vanadium redox flow batteries in China.
“VRB Energy has participated, since 2019, in the construction of the first phase of the 3 MW plus 3 MW/12 MWh vanadium redox flow battery energy storage phase of the 10 MW solar and storage project in Hubei Zaoyang, and the project is working well,” said VRB chief executive, Huang Mianyan. “The operation has fully confirmed the huge application value and market prospects of VRB Energy’s storage technology and will promote the grid connection and on-site consumption of renewable energy.”
In mid-July, China’s National Photovoltaic and Energy Demonstration Experimental Center began testing VRB Energy’s vanadium redox flow batteries at its Daqing facility in northeastern China. VRB Energy claims its vanadium redox flow storage systems rely on low-cost ion-exchange membrane and bipole material, and long-life electrolyte formulation. The standard battery power module is rated at 250 kW for megawatt-class systems
www.ferroalloynet.com
