The dawn of the vanadium battery age in China12 Dec 2022 11:21
September was vanadium month for Chinese power stations
The technology is not new: Vanadium batteries have been in use for years in large-scale utilities, and research on vanadium flow batteries has been conducted in China since the late 1980s. In 1995, the China Academy of Engineering Physics produced China’s first prototype vanadium battery.
In September, however, important developments occurred in China related to the commercialization of vanadium batteries:
On September 20, construction commenced on China’s first gigawatt-hour (GWh) vanadium flow power station in Qapqal Xibe, Xinjiang, with a total installed capacity of a million kilowatts (kW). The project is expected to be fully connected to the grid before the end of 2023.
On September 28, a contract was signed in Jishou, Hunan Province, for the construction of a 400-megawatt (MW) vanadium flow energy storage power station with a total investment of 680 million yuan ($94.46 million), expected to be completed and connected to the grid at full capacity by the end of June 2023.
On September 29, a 100-MW vanadium flow battery energy storage power station and national demonstration project entered the final stage of commissioning in Dalian, Liaoning Province, and is expected to fully enter service in mid-October. The station has a power rating of 100,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) and can store up to 400,000 kWh of electricity. It can meet the daily electricity demand of 200,000 residents.
The vanadium battery companies to watch
These new vanadium power plants are accompanied by developments in downstream battery manufacturing:
On August 2, HBIS ????, China’s second-largest producer of vanadium, announced that it had constructed a 1,000-ton-per-year high-purity vanadium production line, and a 1,000-ton-per-year vanadium electrolyte production line.
On October 11, Pangang Group Vanadium and Titanium Resources ????, China’s leading producer of vanadium, launched a joint venture with battery developer Rongke Power ???? for the construction of a vanadium electrolyte production line in Sichuan Province, and for exploring business models for the commercialization of vanadium battery energy storage.
On October 13, titanium dioxide manufacturer CNNC Hua Yuan ????, which had announced a centralized procurement system for vanadium redox flow battery energy storage in September, announced an investment of 510 million yuan ($70.84 million) for the establishment of a new subsidiary focused on vanadium technology.
In July, CNNC Hua Yuan launched a strategic venture for the development of the entire industry chain of vanadium redox flow batteries.
According to an industry white paper on China’s vanadium battery industry published this year, the scale of vanadium batteries in China will reach 2.3 GW by 2025 and 4.5 GW by 2030, when the cumulative installed capacity of vanadium battery energy storage projects will reach 24 GW with a total market size of 40.5 billion yuan ($5.62 billion).