UK-based RedT energy and US-based Avalon Battery Corporation are to merge with the aim of becoming a world leader in vanadium flow batteries.The new company will be known as Invinity Energy Systems (Invinity).
Vanadium flow batteries supply heavy-duty, stationary energy storage, and may be coupled with industrial scale solar generation for distributed, low-carbon energy projects. The company believes applications with heavy daily use are well-suited to flow battey technology, which it says couldbecome a £3.5bn market by 2028.
Larry Zulch, to be chief executive of Invinity said: “This gives us the platform to compete head-to-head against incumbent lithium-ion giants, and in so doing prove that our robust, safe, non-degrading energy storage solutions are the best solution for delivering the world’s ambitious decarbonisation targets.
Invinity’s flow batteries store energy in a non-flammable, liquid electrolyte, held in tanks within a self-contained module. Flow batteries do not degrade with use like conventional batteries and have a 20-25 year lifetime.
The company said the merger would combine the engineering advancements of Avalon’s technology with redT’s sophisticated commercial business models. It will be headquartered in the UK and Canada, with regional presence in the USA, South Africa and China.
On launch, Invinity will be active primarily across the UK, mainland Europe, North America, Asia, Australasia and sub-Saharan Africa.
Alongside an existing portfolio of more than 40 flow battery energy storage projects worldwide, the merged company has a development pipeline that includes supplying vanadium flow batteries for the £41 million Energy Superhub Oxford.
Last year RedT announced a partnership with Statkraft to provide a fully financed ‘solar plus storage’ solution to UK commercial and industrial customers, the first time that a product of this type had been financed under a Power Purchase Agreement model for the UK market. It also announced that its flow batteries had achieved pre-qualification from National Grid to provide dynamic firm frequency response services to the UK electricity transmission grid.