The world’s biggest vanadium flow battery is being installed in China following a strategic partnership between UniEnergy Technologies (UET)’s and Rongke Power
The 800MWh vanadium flow battery (VRB) will provide peak-shaving and grid stabilisation on the Dalian peninsula in northern China.
US company UET and China’s Rongke Power have worked together since 2012 to develop the system, which will have its capacity increased as additional renewable energy generation is deployed in the region.
The battery will include ten 20MW/80MWh VFB systems, which, after full commissioning, will be able to peak-shave around 8% of Dalian’s expected load by 2020.
The battery will be built at Rongke Power’s new GigaFactory to be opened in the fall of 2016. The factory is due to have a phase 1 capacity of 300MW of VFB electrode stacks, a phase 2 capacity of 1GW, and a phase 3 capacity of 3GW.
Both Rongke Power and UET’s deployments of VFB systems will be supported by production from Rongke Power’s GigaFactory.
UET President and COO Rick Winter said: “This visionary project is a watershed moment for the energy storage industry, vaulting China’s electric grid into the 21st century, supplying tremendous resilience and enabling seamless deep penetration of renewables.
