Factory testing marks milestone for AVL value-adding vision

Australian Vanadium Limited has achieved another milestone in its ‘pit to battery’ strategy with the successful deployment of its vanadium electrolyte in a 78 kW / 220 kWh flow battery.

September 16, 2024 David Carroll

Image: Australian Vanadium Limited

Western Australia-based resources company Australian Vanadium Limited (AVL) has announced the successful completion of factory testing of a 220 kWh vanadium flow battery (VFB) containing vanadium electrolyte produced at the company’s manufacturing facility in Perth.

AVL said it has completed factory acceptance testing (FAT) of the battery that will be installed by state government-owned utility Horizon Power at Kununurra in the state’s north as part of a long-duration energy storage pilot.

The battery energy storage system has been supplied by United Kingdom-based manufacturer Invinity Energy Systems which approved the use of AVL’s electrolyte against stringent quality standards.

AVL Chief Executive Officer Graham Arvidson said it is the first time vanadium electrolyte produced by the company at its Perth manufacturing plant has been used in an operational VFB and the first instance of AVL’s electrolyte being approved for use by a leading VFB manufacturer.

“We are pleased to report that the VFB purchased by Horizon Power has now completed the FAT process and is operating successfully,” Arvidson said.

“Over the past months the company’s wholly owned subsidiary, VSUN Energy, has collaborated closely with Horizon Power to successfully integrate its preferred hardware with the battery.”

“This is also a significant milestone for AVL, as it marks the first use of vanadium electrolyte produced at our Perth facility in a functioning battery.”

Arvidson said the successful deployment of AVL’s electrolyte in the battery adds to AVL’s value-adding vision that includes moving from Australia’s traditional role of simply extracting and exporting raw minerals to instead creating products from those materials onshore.

The company, which is developing the Australian Vanadium Project near the mining town of Meekatharra in Western Australia’s mid-west, plans to not only mine vanadium and manufacture high-purity electrolyte but also make and assemble vanadium batteries for use domestically and internationally.

“This is a true testament to our vertical integration strategy, with the ultimate goal of using vanadium oxides processed from the Australian Vanadium Project in our vanadium electrolyte,” Arvidson said.

“We are particularly pleased that leading VFB manufacturer Invinity has approved our electrolyte for use in the battery and confirmed that our electrolyte meets its stringent standards.”

AVL said the 78 kW / 220 kWh flow battery is now being transported to Kununurra for installation, site acceptance testing and commissioning.

Horizon Chief Executive Officer Stephanie Unwin said the project will provide key learnings around how VFBs can be effectively integrated into the utility’s network and test the temperature resilience of the technology in regions with extreme weather conditions.

“This is an exciting trial which supports our focus on exploring technologies which can solve the technical problem of long-duration storage in extreme temperatures, while providing long periods of 100% renewable energy,” she said.

“Vanadium batteries are designed to deliver large amounts of energy over a long period of time and are temperature resilient, a critical benefit for our regional and remote networks.”

“We look forward to learning more about the potential for this technology to be effectively integrated into our network, supporting future battery deployment across our footprint.”

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