VSUN Energy, the vanadium redox flow battery storage offshoot of mining group Australian Vanadium, has firmed up plans to target Australia’s nascent home energy storage market – most likely with a base model of 15kWh – and to set up a local manufacturing base as it works to drive down battery costs and catch the wave of home solar and storage.
Australian Vanadium managing director Vincent Algar said on Friday that the company was “very well advanced” in negotiations with a number of international manufacturers of vanadium redox flow batteries, including the German based outfit, Schmid, which already makes a residential VRB system for the European market.
Algar said that the company was also working on meeting certain technical “tick the box” inverter compatibility requirements, necessary to the introduction of domestic-scale VRB into the the Australian market.
Australian Vandium this week revealed that it had terminated its exclusive dealership agreement with German vanadium flow battery maker, Gildemeister, on the basis it was too restrictive to VSUN Energy’s growth plans.
It will, however, continue to market the company’s CellCube battery stacks, on a non-exclusive basis, while it continues negotiations with a number of VRB makers.
In an interview with RenewEconomy on Friday, Algar said he was excited about the technology’s prospects in the Australian residential energy storage market, despite differences in cost, and a yet-to-take-off market already crowded with competitive li-ion options.
Currently, a 15kWh VRB system sits somewhere at the $25,000 mark, he said, but – as has happened with lithium-ion – he says projections are that VRB will start to come down the cost curve as the money and focus of the clean tech market turns more and more towards innovative stationery storage solutions.
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