A retrospect to January 5th, when the SMH ran a story featuring the Yadamalka vanadium battery that’s now been connected to the South Australian grid for nine months
disallowed/business/companies/how-t...ring-high-tech-solutions-20231211-p5eqmb.html … Flow batteries
About 38 per cent of energy flowing into the national electricity market now comes from renewables, with coal generating 56 per cent and gas around 4 per cent.
The Australian Energy Market Operator says it will soon face times when the grid is powered almost entirely by renewables, whose variability has implications for the system’s security and strength.
Another company wanting to smooth the load during peaks built Australia’s first commercial vanadium-flow battery earlier this year in Bungama, outside Port Pirie in South Australia.
Vanadium-flow batteries were invented at the University of New South Wales in the mid-1980s. Their main advantage over their grid-scale lithium counterparts is their longevity, large storage capacity, and ability to charge and discharge without limitation, says Michael Rutt, the regional director for UK-based Invinity Energy Systems.
Invinity’s two-megawatt-flow battery is connected to a solar farm at Yadlamalka Energy’s Spencer Energy Project. Unlike solid state lithium-ion batteries, it relies on a liquid electrolyte infused with vanadium, a relatively abundant, conductive metal that can hold electrons, has a long life cycle, and doesn’t degrade over time.
“We use a 20-foot container footprint. Multiples of those are interconnected to create an energy storage system,” Rutt said.
Inside each container sit two tanks – one positive, the other negative – stacked with cell membranes through which the electrolyte circulates, charging or discharging electric current.
The system stores energy from its nearby solar network and dispatches into the grid.
“These batteries can work anywhere from four to 24 hours in terms of storage duration. We’re looking at the Australian market and seeing a very bright future,” Rutt said….
More on the Yadamalka battery here FWIW https://yadlamalkaenergy.com/project/ “The plan is to fully charge and discharge the battery at least once a day and possibly twice, depending on pricing conditions”
cheers
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