Brussels-based Flow Batteries Europe (FBE) puts the highlight on Asia-Pacific, where it said progressive energy policies are boosting the introduction of flow battery chemistries. Flow batteries have rapidly conquered the energy storage market in Asia Pacific and the US.
A new report, first in a series covering North America, the Middle East and Africa, was produced in collaboration with the China National Energy Storage Alliance, VSUN Energy and Sumitomo Electric. Led by countries like China, Australia, Japan and South Korea, the BESS sector including flow batteries is experiencing the fastest growth in the world, the report stated.
China has revealed plans for six projects for flow batteries totalling 3,900MWh, growing 20% annually. In Dalian in the Liaoning province, the world’s largest flow battery, 100MW/400MWh, is in construction phase two. In Japan, currently around 170MWh of flow battery capacity is installed.
The South Korean market for electrochemical energy storage is set to grow almost 30% from 2022 – 27. This follows a slowdown due to a series of fires. Australia has long been the pioneer in the flow battery technology in Asia-Pacific, with e.g. solar-powered vanadium flow BESS, but the installed capacity is low at just 10MWh, according to the report.
Australia and China possess large resources of vanadium, which lays the basis for their flow-battery strategy, it noted.
“There’s much happening in these countries when it comes to energy storage and long-duration storage, as well as flow batteries, regarding market growth, but also policy mechanisms. China, Japan and South Korea are very interesting because they have been frontrunners when it comes to battery and energy storage technology,” Daniela Pohl, junior policy officer at FBE, said in a webinar on the policy landscape on 22 November.
The report said the EU should establish a 2030 target of 200GW of energy storage in Europe. Half should be long-duration energy storage (LDES) to meet future energy needs and drive investment, complemented by a strategy outlining implementation tools. It is also possible to reduce reliance on international suppliers by domestically manufactured flow batteries using raw materials and organic chemistries available within Europe, it said.
Photo: Dalian Hengliu Energy Storage Power Station, the world’s first 100MW/400MWh flow battery storage station. Rongke Power
