Vanadium producer Bushveld Minerals has formed a company with Invinity Energy Systems to rent vanadium electrolyte to energy storage system end users.
The new company is part of Bushveld Minerals’ strategy of supplying material, electrolyte and electrolyte rental products to vanadium redox flow battery companies, which it announced last November.
The joint venture, called Vanadium Electrolyte Rental, will serve Invinity’s customers, including a contract to rent electrolyte to Pivot Power, part of EDF Renewables.
Part of the ten-year EDF deal includes renting out electrolyte to Pivot for its 5MWh flow battery—supplied by Invinity— that will deployed at the Energy Superhub Oxford.
Invinity is the result of a merger on 1 April between vanadium redox flow battery firms RedT Energy and Avalon Battery Corporation.
Fortune Mojapelo, CEO of Bushveld Minerals said: “Vanadium’s unique characteristics will give it certain advantages in the energy storage sector. In this case it is the lack of degradation, even after years of charging and discharging cycles, that allows for us to loan the metal into a battery, thereby removing a significant portion of the upfront cost of the battery and ensuring the reusability of its electrolyte.”
