A German-Saudi partnership has been formed to develop and manufacture vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFB) in Saudi Arabia.
The joint venture— formed by German technology firm the Schmid Group, Saudi government-backed Nusaned Investment and the kingdom’s RIWAQ Industrial Development Company— expects to have a “gigawatt-scale manufacturing facility” producing VRFB systems in Saudi Arabia in 2020.
The partners have not revealed the location of the VFRB project or financial details, but said supporting R&D facilities would be established in Saudi Arabia and Germany. The new business also intends to sell VRFB products internationally.
Saudi Arabia has announced plans to install 57.5GW of renewable energy generating capacity in the kingdom by 2030. Schmid, whose group includes a renewables and energy storage division, said utility-scale stationary energy storage systems “will be critical to ensure that the new renewable capacity is stabilised and connected reliably to the grid”.
Schmid said Saudi Arabia could also develop energy storage to support major infrastructure ventures such as the Red Sea Project— to promote tourism along the Saudi western coast.
Earlier this year, Japan-based battery developer NGK Insulators supplied sodium-sulfur (NaS) batteries for a pilot energy storage project in Dubai.
