The UK Energy Minister Michael Shanks MP visited a manufacturing facility of Invinity Energy, the vanadium flow battery maker, in Bathgate.
The visit included a guided tour of the facility, which involved the minister charging and discharging a battery system owned by the firm connected to the Scottish electricity grid.
The firm, which is due to submit project bids with multiple developers across UK-based sites, showed the Minister its plans and work in progress to expand the facilities’ output.
This included its newly manufactured components for a battery energy storage system (BESS) facility that would be part of the longer distance energy storage (LoDES) project partly funded by the UK Government.
This scheme is said to see 20.7MWh of the company’s vanadium flow batteries installed at a UK-based site.
The company’s plans to deploy up to 7.7GW of long duration energy storage by 2035 under the UK LDES cap and floor investment support scheme- which would provide guaranteed revenue for developers- were also discussed at this meeting. Kirsteen Sullivan, the local MP for Bathgate & Linlithgow, was also present.
Michael Shanks MP, Energy Minister, said: “Invinity’s state-of-the-art battery facility shows how Scotland is leading the way in the UK’s clean power mission, innovating to ensure renewable energy can be stored for longer periods of time to power homes and businesses across the country.”
Jonathan Marren, chief executive officer, Invinity, said: “We are delighted to have hosted Energy Minister Michael Shanks MP and his parliamentary colleague Kirsteen Sullivan MP at our Bathgate facility and demonstrate the capabilities of our team and our long duration vanadium flow battery (VFB) technology which is proudly made in Britain.”
Image: Michael Shanks MP, Energy Minister, (right) being shown a fire safety demonstration in the Company’s R&D lab. Credit: Invinity.
