Featured in Trade barriers spoil solar's party – 09-2019

Flow batteries scale up to GW production

Plans for a gigawatt factory in Saudi Arabia, bullet-proof warranties and an international vanadium rental service are propelling a new generation of batteries into the energy storage big league. Pioneers of redox flow technology claim that they can put an end to the degradation and safety issues afflicting lithium-ion batteries. They also expect imminent economies of scale to reduce the cost of bulk energy storage and unlock new markets for solar power.

By

benedictodonnell

16 Sep 2019

Image: Avalon Battery

A new cavern of wonders is rising from the sands of Saudi Arabia. A century after transforming the global energy sector with cheap, abundant oil, the Kingdom is now building the first gigawatt-scale factory for redox flow batteries, a technology that proponents argue will slash the price of storing solar energy.Since the basic patent protecting …

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