The Western Australia state government has promised to build a 50 MW, 10 hour vanadium flow battery to support the grid around the mining town of Kalgoorlie, in a new election pledge that would deliver the biggest battery of its type in the country.
The pledge was made on Thursday by state premier Roger Cook, one of a number made in the lead up to the state poll on March 8. He said a re-elected Labor government would provide $150 million to the project, which it expects to be built by 2029.
Cook cited the need for reinforcement in the local Kalgoorlie grid, which has been crippled by blackouts and failed generators over the past two years, and he says it will support local battery manufacturing, and the emerging vanadium mining industry in the state.’
Flow batteries differ from the lithium-ion battery chemistries that currently dominate the market, and generally provide longer storage with no fire risk. Some flow batteries feature zinc bromine or other minerals, but all have struggled to compete with lithium ion on costs.
The world biggest vanadium flow battery was recently completed in China, with a capacity rating of 175 MW and 700 MWh. The Kalgoorlie battery will have a rating of 50 MW and 500 MWh.
Western Australia – whose main grid is the biggest isolated network in the world – is building a number of big batteries, some among the world’s largest, as it races to provide enough storage and dispatchable capacity to support rooftop solar, large scale renewables and the planned exit from coal power by the end of the decade.
“We have work well underway to replace West Kalgoorlie Power Station by 2026, secured additional gas back up from the mining industry last year, and invested millions in improvements to the transmission network,” Cook said in a statement.
“This project will provide further back up, with 10 hours of supply able to be dispersed when it is needed. This will really help if weather events or other disruptions hit the region.
“In addition to the 150 local jobs created during construction, I want to work with industry to develop a local vanadium battery manufacturing industry here in Kalgoorlie to support more local jobs.
“I want this project to be a catalyst to drive a new vanadium mining, processing and export industry for WA – to make more things here, diversify the economy and create the jobs of the future.”
It is not the first time a grand energy plan has been unveiled for the famous mining town, with the promise of a giant solar tower going back a decade, and a number of other solar and solar and battery hybrid projects unveiled before and after that also failed to see the light of day.
More recently, the closure of BHP’s nickel operations in the area resulted in 150MW of emergency gas-fired generation from the TransAlta electricity plant at the Nickel West Kalgoorlie smelter being redirected into the local grid.
That appeared to delay a tender for up to 150 MW of other capacity, including battery storage, that had been called for to help give the local grid more resilience.
The Cook announcement was welcomed by the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies, which noted that W.A. had one of the largest vanadium deposits in the world, south of Meekatharra, and the opportunity to gain market share from the current big players Russia, China, South Africa and Brazil.
“The science shows that vanadium flow batteries provide long duration energy storage. Adding these to our energy grid can only help appease our ongoing thirst for energy,” CEO Neil van Drunen said in a statement.
