Flow battery company Invinity Energy Systems has received the first commercial order for its new battery, which it has dubbed “Mistral”.
The order, announced on Thursday for an undisclosed value, is from its Taiwanese strategic partner, Everdura Technology Company. It has decided to vary the terms of its initial 15 MWh order, announced in December 2022. It now wants it to be fulfilled by Invinity’s Mistral.
Everdura will install a 14.4 MWh vanadium flow battery, comprising a single Mistral array, at a site in central Taiwan, the company said. It will be used to balance the island’s electric grid through the provision of Enhanced Dynamic Regulation (E-dReg) services.
Invinity expects to ship the order in late 2024. Once operational, the project is due to be the largest of its kind in Taiwan and the first time a vanadium flow battery has provided regulation services for the Taiwanese grid, the company said in a statement.
The order triggers a further payment which will be used to purchase long-lead-time components and allow manufacturing to commence.
Invinity CEO Larry Zulch unveiled Mistral at this year’s International Flow Battery Forum in Prague. It will be some 60% more energy dense than the current battery line-up, significantly more efficient and have a levelised cost of energy of $0.06–7 per KWh.
The companies signed a Memorandum of Understanding under which Everdura and Invinity enter into a strategic manufacturing partnership for Invinity products in Taiwan. They expect to convert this MoU into a definitive, binding commitment.
It should lead to a significant expansion of Invinity’s total global manufacturing capacity and greater access to Asian energy storage markets for both companies, according to the statement.
Darren Yen, Chairman of Everdura said: “We are pleased to be the first launch customer for Mistral, Invinity’s next-generation product. The need for large-scale, non-lithium energy storage in Taiwan and the broader Asian region has never been clearer. Our confidence in Invinity’s products to meet the requirements of this growing market is demonstrated by our intention to develop a manufacturing partnership with them.”
Zulch said Mistral represents the future of grid-connected energy storage with market-leading scalability and economics.
