Invinty to supply VRFB for the solar-plus-storage project in Alberta, Canada

Invinity Energy Systems has announced that it will supply vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) technology to a solar-plus-storage project in Alberta, Canada.

The project, Chappice Lake solar-plus-storage, will combine a 21MWp solar array with a 2.8MW/8.4MWh battery storage system, Anglo-American flow battery company Invinity said, together with the project's developer, owner, and operator, Elemental Energy.

Alberta is largely synonymous with fossil fuels; it hosts crude oil production from sites including its northern tar sands, produces a large portion of Canada's natural gas, and is largely reliant on the country's largest coal fleet for electricity.

One of the province's key climate and pollution pledges is now phasing out emissions equivalent to 50 percent of that coal fleet by 2030.

The Chappice Lake project was one of several 'shovel-ready' projects awarded funding late last year through the provincial government's Emissions Reduction Alberta (ERA) scheme.

Invinity's flow battery will be directly DC-coupled with the solar array, improving the project's efficiency, operational flexibility, and costs. Charging from the solar PV modules, it will store and send out low-carbon, low-cost energy.

Being able to deliver power on demand will also help alleviate constraints to deploying more renewable energy on the grid, eliminating bottlenecks in power flow, Invinity said.

The project is expected to go into service later this year.

Developer Elemental Energy is also partnering with local indigenous group Cold Lake First Nations, which will hold an equity interest in the Chappice Lake project and the community will also benefit from the new electricity capacity addition as well as employment opportunities the clean energy industry can bring to the area, Elemental claimed.

"Alberta has a long history of leadership in energy; the fact that this shovel-ready project will expand that leadership in new directions while creating great new jobs is a testament to how Alberta can innovate and build," Invinity Energy Systems' chief commercial officer Matt Harper said.

"Clean energy on demand is becoming an increasingly valuable commodity; in delivering solar and storage together at Chappice Lake, we will prove that solar generation plus Invinity's utility-grade vanadium flow batteries can make Alberta a powerhouse for the North American grid."

Vanadium flow batteries have been touted as a long-duration, long-life energy infrastructure asset. Capable of being scaled up in energy capacity by increasing the size of their electrolyte tanks, the systems are expected to last decades in services without degradation or fading of battery capacity.