Aluminium giant eyes long duration vanadium flow battery for Australian alumina refinery

An Australian developer of vanadium flow batteries says it has signed a memorandum of understanding with global aluminium giant Alcoa to study the use of the technology at its major alumina refinery operations in Western Australia.

Australian Vanadium Limited and its energy storage subsidiary VSUN Energy said this week the study will assess both the financial and technical merits of deploying a vanadium flow battery system with a capacity somewhere in the range of 50 to 80 megawatts (MW) and storage duration of between 6 to 8 hours, or possibly longer.

AVL and VSUN are already bidding for a state government contract to deliver a 50 MW, 500 MWh vanadium flow battery for the goldfields city of Kalgoorlie and surroundings, in a move designed to both boost grid reliability and underpin the development of the vanadium mining industry in the state.

AVL and VSUN Energy will be doing the heavy lifting on the 18-month Alcoa study, and will be responsible for the battery system design, technical specifications, costings, electrolyte supply considerations, development of project financing options, and assessment of potential government funding opportunities.

Alternative storage technologies to lithium ion are starting to emerge, particularly in those industries where lithium is considered an unacceptably high fire risk.

Vanadium electrolyte is a liquid energy-storage medium used in vanadium flow batteries (VFBs), also known as vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs).

In a presentation at the Diggers and Dealers conference in Kalgoorlie on Wednesday, AVL said vanadium flow batteries feature long duration, no thermal runaway risk, minimal degradation and full depth of discharge.

It said the technology could be particularly attractive to data centres, remote mining sites and hot climates.

“This MoU with Alcoa represents an important opportunity to demonstrate the value of vanadium flow batteries in utility-scale industrial applications,” Graham Arvidson, AVL’s CEO, said in a statement earlier this week.

“Long-duration energy storage will play a critical role in enabling industrial electrification and increasing the utilisation of renewable energy, and VFB technology is particularly well suited to these applications.

“Working with a globally recognised industrial operator such as Alcoa provides an opportunity to evaluate how long-duration energy storage can support operational flexibility, energy cost management and decarbonisation objectives.”

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