World’s largest vanadium redox flow project completed

Rongke Power has announced the completion of the 175 MW/700 MWh Xinhua Ushi Energy Storage Project in the Xinjiang region, northwest China.

The project will help improve grid stability, manage peak loads and integrate renewable energy, providing support for grid formation, peak load regulation, frequency regulation and renewable energy integration.

Previously, Rongke built the 100 MW/400 MWh Dalian system, which at the time of its commissioning in 2022 was the world’s largest vanadium redox flow project. This facility represents the first phase of the project which is eventually expected to double in size and have a power output of 200 MW and storage capacity of 800 MWh.

According to the Dalian-headquartered vanadium redox flow specialist, the latest project has brought its cumulative global fleet to more than 2 GWh. “This achievement represents the largest installation capacity in the VFB sector to date,” the company said in a press release on Monday.

The Xinhua Ushi represents the world’s largest completed flow battery at this stage. However, many bigger ones are on the horizon, such as the 250 MW/1 GWh project in Chabuchar, Xinjiang, by China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Group, or the 200 MW/1 GWh project in Jimusaer, Xinjiang, by China Three Gorges Corporation.

Flow battery energy storage technology is also increasingly being integrated with other storage technologies at scale, such as lithium-ion, sodium-ion, flywheel and compressed air storage.

For instance, on November 8, the first phase of the 500 MW/2 GWh Xinhua Wushi grid-forming lithium iron phosphate and vanadium flow energy storage project was connected to the grid and commissioned. This project represents the largest such hybrid energy storage project in China and the world’s largest grid-forming vanadium redox flow battery, which will have a capacity of 250 MWh/1 GWh and be delivered in the second phase.