Flow batteries to create $190 million market by 2020

Share

Growing renewable penetration will lead to an increased demand for grid-level storage systems. Lux Research says redox flow look likely to fill a part of this niche, with vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFB) gaining the most “commercial traction,” as it is the most mature technology. VRFB currently account for 75 MWh of deployed storage.

“VRFBs will remain the dominant system for the medium-term but bromine-based systems are cheaper and will eventually be better-performing on a 10-year horizon,” said Dean Frankel, Lux Research Associate

Lux has presented its findings in its report: Flow Battery Cost Reduction: Exploring Strategies to Improve Market Adoption.

The analyst report has investigated a range of flow battery technologies and market strategies and found that improving power density will be a key factor in the technology coming down in cost. However Lux notes that reduced vanadium costs “will not be a panacea.”

“VRFB developers are claiming that sourcing vanadium from flyash will reduce costs from over $500/kWh today to $300/kWh at scale,” writes Lux Research’s Frankel. “However, Lux finds that even in the unrealistic scenario of a free vanadium electrolyte, VRFB system costs will be $324/kWh in 2024.”

ZnBr redox flow technology is the cheapest flow battery technology, likely to achieve $391/kWh by 2024 putting it below the forecast of $516/kWh for VRFB, however the report’s authors say doubts remain regarding ZnBr technology lifetime and operating costs.

Somewhat of a wildcard is lithium-ion-based technologies, such as batteries used in mobile computing devices and e-mobility solutions.

“Flow batteries will remain limited to longer-duration applications, and are competing directly with fast-moving targets in Li-ion and other next-generation storage technologies,” said Frankel.

The January 2015 edition of pv magazine will feature an exclusive insight into the ambitious plans of Chinese manufacturer BYD, with its lithium-ion-phosphate technology.

This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.

Popular content

Chinese developer switches on world’s largest perovskite-based PV plant

09 December 2024 MicroQuanta, a Chinese perovskite solar specialist, has commissioned a 8.2 MW PV facility based on its 90 W perovskite panels in eastern China.

Share

Leave a Reply

Please be mindful of our community standards.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.

Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.

You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.

Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.

This website uses cookies to anonymously count visitor numbers. View our privacy policy.

The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.

Close