Invinity Energy brings World's largest solar-powered vanadium flow battery to Australia

• As part of a pioneering project, storage battery firm Invinity Energy Systems will provide the globe's largest solar-powered vanadium flow battery (VFB) in Yadlamalka, South Australia by 2021.

A larger as well as more durable alternative to widely known lithium-ion batteries, this VFB will certainly bill itself from a solar PV array to provide on-demand power to the regional grid while helping to decarbonise global electrical energy systems.

Yadlamalka Energy Trust has created this A$ 20m project, including a 8MWh VFB with a 6MWp solar array, to generate low-priced as well as low-emission energy to the Australian grid, bringing around 10GWh of 'dispatchable' solar energy every year.

This VFB will bill from electrical energy generated by solar energy when the sun is at its peak. The electrical energy can then be provided when it is required, such as at night when grid lots are high from consumer demand, however solar generation is no more readily available.

The capacity of vanadium flow batteries to complete this 'time change' makes solar energy 'dispatchable', implying it can be released to the grid at any moment of day or night.

Yadlamalka Energy Trust owner as well as chairman Andrew Doman said: "Yadlamalka Energy Trust is delighted concerning being the initial in Australia to create a large range dispatchable solar power plant. With utilizing development modern technology in the form of vanadium flow batteries, we can supply solid economic infrastructure benefit to South Australia and also at the same time support a reduced carbon economic climate."

Australia's rapid rise in renewable energy over the last few years has actually driven the demand for financial investment in adaptable energy storage technologies to manage the variable result from those generation sources. Therefore, the Yadlamalka Energy project, which is in line with the government's Low Emissions Technology Statement, has been supported by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) with a A$ 5.7 m grand.

ARENA's CEO Darren Miller claimed: "The strong uptake of variable renewable resource has actually highlighted the need for boosting storage needs and vanadium flow batteries could play a major duty in dealing with the arising demand for medium-duration storage, complementing the role of even more established innovations such as pumped hydro energy storage and lithium-ion batteries in the Australian market."

The VFB will be dispatched by optimisation and also trading system for battery storage space assets Habitat Energy, which collaborates with UK as well as European possessions, in its first major Australian asset optimization project.