NEW YORK: American Vanadium Corporation announced this week a deal with Gildemeister AG to market and sell the German company’s vanadium energy storage battery and create a new power storage market in North America.
The CellCube redox flow battery, which is manufactured by Germany’s Gildemeister and uses the little-known metal vanadium, can recharge electric vehicles, store wind and solar power for electric power grids, and set up micro grids where main power sources fail to reach in commercial, industrial and military applications, according to Reuters.
The vanadium redox flow battery captures energy as it is generated, storing it and releasing it as needed. While the technology behind vanadium batteries has been around for over 20 years, it had remained in the development phase until now.
The storage batteries last for 20 years and the vanadium used to power the batteries never degrades, American Vanadium said in a statement.
The batteries can be small enough to work with a single solar panel, yet large enough to support a power grid. At auto charging stations, they work fast to recharge electric vehicle batteries.
American Vanadium is developing the only vanadium mine in the United States. Its Gibellini Project in Nevada produces vanadium electrolyte for the energy storage industry, as well as vanadium products for steel and alloying industries.
It has already completed feasibility studies at the mine and expects to begin producing vanadium in the second half of 2015.
Over 50 CellCube redox flow battery systems have been installed globally since the beginning of this year.
