A solar-plus-storage microgrid being deployed at an alloys mine in South Africa will feature a vanadium flow battery energy storage system, using locally sourced vanadium electrolyte.
The micro, or mini-grid, will serve close to 10% of total electrical consumption required at the Vametco Alloys integrating vanadium mining and processing plant in the North West Province of South Africa.
Pairing 3.5MW of solar PV generation with the 1MW / 4MWh vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) storage unit, the project will also serve to demonstrate the capabilities and benefits of VRFBs, according to Bushveld Minerals, the company behind the project.
Bushveld owns the Vametco mine and has appointed European infrastructure solutions company Abengoa as engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) partner on the project, with Abengoa also providing its proprietary energy management system technology to operate the microgrid.
Abengoa said it has already commissioned 250MW of power generation projects with energy storage in Africa over the past 10 years, as well as being its fourth such project in South Africa. The Vametco project is, however, the first-ever commercial-scale hybrid project on the African continent to use VRFB technology, Abengoa said. Abengoa will install the Vametco Alloys project’s solar PV as well as integrating the system and providing maintenance after commissioning.
The vanadium flow battery provider to the project will be Enerox, which Bushveld also owns. Enerox produces systems under the brand name CellCube. Enerox CEO Alexander Schoenfeldt said that he expected the hybrid installation to “become a blueprint for many more to come”.
Vametco will provide 25 tonnes of vanadium oxide to be converted for use as electrolyte in the battery system. Bushveld said that the use of “locally mined and beneficiated vanadium” shows how “VRFB energy solutions can create more local value to South Africa than any other storage technology”.
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