Invinity quadruples its vanadium-flow battery manufacturing in UK

After years of talk about the necessity of LDES for stabilizing and decarbonizing the grid, demand for this type of storage is on the rise. Thus far, flow batteries and compressed air technologies have had the most commercial success, whereas several other LDES concepts have garnered limited attention.

The latest signal of the market’s awakening comes from UK-based vanadium redox flow specialist Invinity Energy Systems. This week, the company has revealed plans to set up a new manufacturing facility in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, Scotland.

It has leased a 26,000 square foot (2,415 square meter) facility which will be primarily focused on battery assembly. The new production site is expected to become operational in the third quarter of 2024 and increase the company’s long-duration energy storage (LDES) manufacturing capacity to 500 MWh per year.

Invinity already has one manufacturing site in Bathgate, Scotland, which will be able to focus on the production of the company’s patented cell stack when the Motherwell factory is launched.

The company also plans to undertake upgrades to its Bathgate facility later this year, including the installation of a semi-automated production line, anticipated to further boost manufacturing capacity and contribute to a greater reduction in unit production costs.

Inivity says it aims to bolsters its delivery capability to match expected future commercial activity.

“We are seeing the market for LDES in the UK expanding dramatically alongside increasing dependence on renewable energy,” Larry Zulch, Chief Executive Officer at Invinity. “As the UK’s leading domestic energy storage manufacturer, we are looking forward to serving the country’s energy storage requirements with batteries made in Britain. Quadrupling our UK manufacturing footprint is a big step forward in this direction.”

Vanadium flow batteries for large-scale, high-throughput energy storage requirements

Founded in 2020, Invinity Energy Systems manufactures vanadium flow batteries for large-scale, high-throughput energy storage requirements of business, industry, and electrical networks.

Its flow batteries range in size from less than 250 kWh to tens of megawatt-hours and can run continually with no degradation for over 25 years. The company has 75 MWh of systems already deployed or contracted for delivery across 82 sites in 15 countries.

Last week, Invinity raised GBP 57.38 million ($72.9 million) gross from a share offering, including a GBP 25 million investment into Invinity by UK Infrastructure Bank. The company plans to use the proceeds for both organic and inorganic growth investments.