Australia’s Yellow Rock Resources has launched a Vanadium Redox Flow Battery (VRFB) integration strategy.
The Company is developing the Gabanintha Vanadium Project near Meekatharra, a town in the Mid West region of Western Australia, which it states is among the highest grade vanadium projects in the world.
In July, Yellow Rock announced a new high-grade vanadium discovery at Gabanintha after a reverse-circulation (RC) drilling program returned intersections of up to 2.15 percent V2O5 (Vanadium Oxide); the highest grade ever witnessed at the project. The Gabanintha Vanadium Project is currently undergoing feasibility studies, with view to more definitive economic studies in 2016.
In August, the company said it had already commenced a detailed analysis of the power supply required for the project and it has begun planning a MW scale solar-diesel-vanadium battery hybrid power plant.
Yesterday, the miner announced it had created a subsidiary company, VSUN Pty Ltd, which will focus on opportunities in the distribution of vanadium batteries. Yellow Rock states it has secured distribution rights with
two German vanadium battery makers so far and is negotiating with other major players in the sector.
“As we develop this project we are seeing the rapid development of commercial grid storage technologies, such as the scalable Vanadium Redox Flow Battery. The VRFB is very well suited to the commercial and grid
solutions being called for in this exciting space,” said Yellow Rock CEO, Vincent Algar.
“Our step into the battery and vanadium electrolyte distribution market is designed to build a significant market share as an integrated company, benefiting shareholders with early cash flows.”
Yellow Rock says the energy storage revolution will lead to demand for an additional 300,000 tonnes of vanadium soon – triple the current vanadium consumption in the global steel industry. It believes up to 30 per cent of energy storage demand will be met by vanadium flow batteries in the years ahead.
Vanadium flow batteries are already gaining popularity for commercial and utility scale energy storage applications. Earlier this year, SunEdison, the world’s largest renewable energy developer, announced its intentions to purchase up to 1,000 vanadium flow batteries for use in the company’s rural electrification and solar powered minigrid projects in India.
