
Vanadium redox battery - fpoling
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanadium_redox_battery
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kumarvvr
These are fascinating batteries. Yes, their energy density is less than Li-Ion
but, are most suitable to cater to intermittent power sources such as Solar
and Wind.

Hopefully, with enough space, a solar or wind generating station can be turned
into a base load station. I guess that's where data analysis and computing
will help.

An intelligent power controller / charger could theoretically turn a single
wind turbine into a miniature base load plant, i.e, a power source that
supplies constant power, buffered by these flow batteries.

I am hopeful that with better materials, not only with the flow batteries be
eco-friendly, but also more energy dense.

Also, in the future, such batteries hopefully could make an individual house
completely grid independent.

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maxerickson
There's no real compelling reason to locate the batteries near the generator.

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throwaway2048
Not next door no, but they are going to have to be in roughly the same region,
because power losses over long distance transmission become significant in
pretty short order.

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Gibbon1
I think you put the batteries near the load point. Transmission losses are
more painful for higher cost energy (battery storage), than low cost (excess
wind power).

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jordz
Vanadium batteries are very promising, however the energy density is the main
issue here. Lead Acid batteries have a better ratio however obviously lead is
toxic and it requires more than just lead. The fact that Vanadium batteries
capacity is limited to just the size of the tank (slight oversimplification)
is a positive for sure, their life span is also a positive factor. It also,
while classed as toxic, is not classed a seriously hazardous.

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dogma1138
Like most redox/flow batteries they have a very big shortcoming and that is a
very limited operating temp range for vanadium it’s 10-40c that means they’ll
need environmental controls installed in almost every case.

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cesarb
Given that these batteries would be used mostly in stationary applications,
where space is less of a problem, the only question is how much extra power
would the heaters and/or coolers need, and how much waste heat the
charge/discharge releases (some of the waste heat could be used instead of the
heaters, but would put more demand on the cooling system). Unless the amount
of waste heat is too high, it doesn't sound like too much of problem to me;
given proper insulation, most of the heat would come from the battery itself.

~~~
dogma1138
Cooling/heating Li-Ion batteries which have a wider range and are mechanically
easier to cool than liquid Redox batteries is a big challenge, this one is a
much bigger one.

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jaclaz
The temperature limits issues can be (in most cases) solved by simply putting
the batteries underground.

If you can go deep enough, temperature is almost constant, check, as an
example, Fig. 4 here:

[https://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Cooling/EarthTemperatu...](https://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Cooling/EarthTemperatures.htm)

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edward
Vanadium is the latest beneficiary of the battery craze

A metal used to harden steel could also help prevent global warming

[https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/21/vanadium-is-
th...](https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/21/vanadium-is-the-latest-
beneficiary-of-the-battery-craze)

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walrus01
One company attempting to make commercial products:

[https://www.google.com/search?q=storen+technologies&oq=store...](https://www.google.com/search?q=storen+technologies&oq=storen+tech&aqs=chrome.4.69i57j69i60l3j0l2.4896j0j4&sourceid=chrome-
mobile&ie=UTF-8)

On a bigger Grid scale:

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/UniEnergy_Technologies](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/UniEnergy_Technologies)

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syntaxing
I'm super confused...a lot of people say that this battery works only between
10-40C but I remember a couple weeks ago and there was a Stanford article on
how they made a mebrane operate at room and high (200C). Is the 10-40C a limit
on Vanadium or the membrane used?! If it is the membrane, does that mean the
article is click bait?!

