New milestone for Australia’s 100 MW vanadium flow battery Project Lumina

Australian Vanadium Limited’s (AVLs) subsidiary, Perth-based VSUN Energy has announced significant progress in the next phase of Project Lumina with the appointment of engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractors, GenusPlus Group and Sedgman.

Genus will develop the electrical connection of the Project Lumina vanadium flow battery (VFB) energy storage system (ESS); Sedgman will provide balance-of-plant design services; and Austrian VFB manufacturer Enerox, trading as CellCube, has been appointed as VFB technology provider.

AVL’s Chief Executive Officer Graham Arvidson said VSUN Energy is rapidly progressing the next phase of Project Lumina, which incorporates the detailed design of a 100 MW four- and eight-hour battery energy storage system (BESS) using VFBs.

“We are pleased to be working with highly credible parties such as Genus, Sedgman, and CellCube and look forward to working together to develop energy storage solutions for utility-scale use across the country,” Arvidson said.

VSUN Energy recently completed Phase 1 of Project Lumina, an analysis to assess whether a VFB BESS solution is competitive in the energy storage market, and found the merits of a 100 MW VFB BESS solution is capable of delivering levelized cost of storage (LCOS) of AUD 274 ($176)/MWh for a four-hour VFB BESS and LCOS of AUD 251/MWh for an eight-hour VFB BESS.

Phase 2 of Project Lumina is the delivery of the detailed design of a VFB BESS solution, which is expected to refine the Phase 1 assumptions and develop an executable delivery strategy.

A key aim of Phase 2 is exploration of the option of a “deconstructed” VFB BESS to potentially extend operational life to 40 years and beyond.

Discussions with potential energy offtakers for deployment, talks on land access arrangements for future deployment, and the development of a funding strategy are ongoing.

Australian Vanadium recently hosted Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Federal Minister for Resources and Northern Australia Madeleine King, and federal member for the Canberra suburb of Pearce, Tracey Roberts, to its vanadium electrolyte manufacturing facility in Wangara, Western Australia.

Albanese reiterated he wants a future that is made in Australia, by Australian workers and Australian businesses.

“This is an example, the sort of investment in batteries that we see isn’t a technology where we’re talking about Australia’s energy future in the 2040s. This is technology that’s here right now and a technology in which Australia has an enormous advantage,” Albanese said. We have the third largest vanadium resources in the world and we have everything, therefore, that can go into a battery that can make sure that during those hours when it’s needed, solar energy can be stored from rooftop solar and can feed into the grid here in Western Australia.”

Albanese added such batteries can also be a part of the future on the east coast and throughout Australia and have enormous potential for exports and to produce revenue for the nation.

From pv magazine Australia.