Idemitsu Australia is proposing a 108 MW vanadium flow battery with eight hours of storage at a former coal mine site in New South Wales.
The Australian arm of Japanese energy company Idemitsu Kosan is proposing to develop a grid-scale vanadium flow battery as part of a clean energy precinct being advanced at a former coal mine in Muswellbrook, New South Wales.
The flow battery project, planned for the 2022-decommissioned Muswellbrook Coal Mine, will have a storage capacity of at least 108 MW/864 MWh, with up to 200 MW of bidirectional inverter capacity installed to allow for the battery energy storage system to charge or discharge for shorter periods of time where market conditions allow. The project will connect to the grid via Ausgrid’s 132 kV Sandy Creek substation.
Idemitsu said the project will use vanadium redox flow battery technology, noting it offers several advantages over lithium-ion batteries, including “use of a safe and stable non-flammable electrolyte, negligible battery degradation over 30 years, and flexible storage duration with potential to increase capacity by adding electrolyte to extend storage time.”
“Vanadium redox flow batteries are an Australian invention, born at the UNSW in 1984, that provide safe, true long-duration storage that is 99% reusable or recyclable at the end of 30 plus years of project life,” the company said.
