Carnegie teams with Sumitomo for grid-scale vanadium flow battery storage in Australia

Energy Made Clean (EMC), Carnegie Wave Energy’s 100% owned subsidiary, is ready to develop and demonstrate a commercial-scale solar and battery storage plant in Australia. EMC has signed a memorandum of understanding with Japanese company Sumitomo Electric Industries and Australian mining company TNG Limited to assess the future applications of VRF batteries in Australia through an initial joint demonstration project. The deal builds on a 2015 MOU between EMC and TNG to establish the feasibility of vanadium redox batteries.

The main role of EMC in the partnership will be to identify commercial project site opportunities, while designing and supplying a compatible balance of plant – most likely to include solar – to integrate with the VRF system being supplied by Sumitomo. To best showcase Sumitomo’s technology, the demonstration will be of commercial size, with each company contributing their core competencies, and then cooperating on the marketing and sales of VRF batteries.

As well as being a key market for battery storage uptake, Australia is noted for its potential to become a top global producer of vanadium, which is found in a range of mineral deposits.

For more information on the EMC, Sumitomo and TNG partnership to develop VRF batteries in Australia, see full article.