Flow batteries provide a cost-effective, reliable, and safe energy storage solution
American Vanadium announced that it has entered into a Letter of Intent (LOI) with DMG MORI to acquire DMG MORI's wholly owned subsidiary, GILDEMEISTER energy storage manufacturer of the CellCube vanadium flow energy storage system. The LOI provides American Vanadium with the exclusive right to enter into a share purchase agreement (SPA) on or before February 29, 2016.
"With 15 years since R&D began, seven years since the commercial launch of its first system and now having installed more than 100 units, the CellCube has successfully been established as the world's most commercially advanced flow battery. With our plan to provide a CellCube finance program, as well as invest in scaling manufacturing and further reduce CellCube production cost, we look forward to building the business into a global energy storage leader," stated Bill Radvak, President & CEO of American Vanadium. "Our vertical integration strategy of combining the "best in class" CellCube system and American Vanadium's future development of high purity vanadium electrolyte from the Gibellini Vanadium Deposit located in Nevada presents a unique opportunity to create a global leader at an opportune time."
An aging utility infrastructure combined with the dramatic growth of renewable energy are strong market drivers towards long duration storage where flow batteries are expected to dominate. Applications of four to twelve hours —such as integrating increasing amount of renewable energy into the grid, enabling microgrids and offgrid power supply solutions, demand charge reduction as well as utility scale grid balancing and transmission & distribution upgrade deferral - are where flow batteries provide the most cost-effective, reliable and safe solution.
Importantly, the energy storage market is acknowledging that flow batteries are a better solution for large capacity, long duration energy storage than lithium ion and other batteries. This was recently supported by a comment from Bill Gates in his white paper entitled "Energy Innovation" which he presented at the recent Paris Climate Control Conference COP21 where he announced his Breakthrough Energy Coalition. In this paper, Gates made a compelling case for investing in energy innovations and examined three innovations that will help achieve an "energy miracle" including: Flow-batteries that could last longer and hold more energy than lithium ion batteries and that could be used to help store energy created by solar cell and wind power.
Business to be Acquired
With numerous international, successfully realized and independent reference projects, GES is a leading supplier of proven and commercially available vanadium flow battery systems. Thus far, GES's installed base of CellCube energy storage systems have accumulated almost two million hours of continuous operation.
CellCube's patented flow battery technology delivers major benefits to the modern energy market place resulting from a lifetime of 20+ years and unlimited cycles, achieving a low levelized cost of electricity and total cost of ownership compared to other storage technologies. The battery systems are specifically designed for delivering reliable power up to 10 MW with stable energy capacity for long storage durations of 2 to 12 hours. As vanadium flow batteries are not a fire hazard and do not explode, and its vanadium electrolyte is reusable, the vanadium flow battery is a true clean and green technology.
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