Siemens is taking a stake in the long term battery storage industry, signing a joint development and commercialisation agreement with Invinity for the latter’s flow battery technology and taking options on a stake in the company.

The agreement, between Invinity Energy Nexus and Gamesa Electric, sets out a detailed development programme for a grid-scale vanadium flow battery (VFB) that is expected to take two years to reach commercialisation.

Over this period, Gamesa Electric has agreed to fund US$4.62 million of Invinity’s activities within the joint development programme, payable as development milestones are met. The JDCA may be terminated by Gamesa Electric should there be a failure to advance through development stages. The new design will incorporate Gamesa Electric’s advanced power conversion systems and in addition to the joint activities, each company will independently advance their core technology.

The agreement also says the two companies will cooperatively manufacture the VFB upon achieving a jointly validated design; and commericalise the VFB through each company’s sales channels.

Invinity and Gamesa Electric have also entered into an Option Agreement granting Gamesa Electric an option for 9.99 per cent. of Invinity’s issued share capital at £1.75 per share, the same as Invinity’s most recent placing in December 2020.

“We are delighted to enter into this JDCA with Gamesa Electric,” said Larry Zulch, chief executive of Invinity. “Delivering a next-generation VFB to meet the need for safe, dependable and economical energy storage requires deep expertise in both energy technology development and commercialization, making Gamesa Electric an ideal partner for us in that effort. We appreciate this validation of VFB’s potential and the implications for our existing products.”

Invinity said it will continue to “vigorously pursue development and commercialisation of its current VFB products”.  The company was created in April 2020 through the merger of flow battery companies  redT energy plc and Avalon Battery Corporation. It has 10MWh of systems deployed to date across 40 sites in 14 countries.