Vanadium Redox Flow Battery Presentation From Gildemeister (Exclusive Video)

Batteries

Published on October 20th, 2014 | by Zachary Shahan

October 20th, 2014 by Zachary Shahan 

If you can’t tell, I’ve been catching up and finally getting some videos published that I filmed a long time back. This one is a vanadium redox flow battery presentation from Tom Tipple, Head of Emerging Markets for Gildemeister Energy Solutions, at January’s World Future Energy Summit, part of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week*. Tom discusses what a vanadium redox flow battery is, its key benefits, and (of course) Gildemeister’s product.

Some key points are that vanadium redox flow batteries are very useful for wind curtailment, to store solar power for use later in the day or the next day, in practically any remote situations where a generator is being used for backup power, at EV charging stations, where there’s an unreliable grid, and for peak shaving. Ideal use of vanadium redox flow batteries is when you have a discharge time in the hours, between 10 kW and 10 MW in power capacity, and when a lot of cycling is needed.

Key benefits vanadium redox flow batteries have are that they can be cycled continuously (“unlimited number of cycles”), they have a long lifespan (>20 years easily), power and energy capacity can be sized separately, they have a fairly low LCOE, a large surge capacity is possible (400% over 10 seconds), they have an “almost unlimited lifespan of the energy sources,” they can charge quickly, roundtrip efficiency is ~80%, and they are nontoxic.

Gildemeister’s vanadium redox flow batteries cost about $1000/kWh. Here’s the full presentation and Tom’s answer to a question about price:

*Full Disclosure: My trip to Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week was hosted by Masdar, the host of the event. However, I had full control over the content I produced.

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Tags: Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, flow batteries, Gildemeister, vanadium batteries, Vanadium Flow Batteries, vanadium redox flow batteries

About the Author

Zachary Shahan spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.