You are right, Patterson, the vanadium flow batteries were originally developed at UNSW. I remember sitting in occasional seminars. Early models seemed somewhat clumsy (prototypes usually are) and energy densities low. Later vanadium bromide solutions allowed higher energy densities. That was over 20 years ago. It seems that Sumitomo bought and refined a large scale V battery. In principle it is not new technology, which means it should now be well understood, modified to a working system, and now only requires commercial demonstration. That appears to be the thrust of the ASX ann.
I am relieved that flow batteries have entered into CWE /EMC considerations since these have utility scale advantages over the Li. EMC have delivered several projects with Li batteries and should therefore be in the front line for meaningful comparison of the two classes. Clearly, they are aiming at this.
While as a selling point EMC will always claim that every project is different, in practice their spread sheet for reliable power provision will require only slight adaption. After feeding in the appropriate change in parameters for different projects their master plan can reasonably quickly determine a project solution. This becomes a business model of considerable strength.
The means of financing such commercial projects we have yet to hear. This is now MO's problem rather than John Davidson's. I hope JD sticks around awhile.
Juke
CWE Price at posting:
4.2¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
