Deal charges up North’s vanadium battery future

North and North-West Queensland will be at the heart of a vanadium flow battery manufacturing chain under a new agreement between Vecco Group, Sumitomo Electric and Idemitsu. Their collaboration agreement covers the complete manufacturing supply chain, which is expected to be operational by 2026. Idemitsu plans to sell vanadium flow batteries based on Sumitomo Electric hardware and Vecco’s electrolyte, which will be made in Townsville from vanadium it plans to mine in the Julia Creek region. Final assembly is expected to be completed at customer sites. Vecco Group managing director Tom Northcott with Premier Steven Miles. "Demand for vanadium flow batteries is rapidly increasing to meet the world’s energy storage demands," Vecco Group managing director Tom Northcott said. "Over 7.4GWh of vanadium flow battery projects globally are currently under construction or have been announced in the last 12 months. "The decision for Idemitsu to market and deploy vanadium flow batteries using Sumitomo and Vecco products acknowledges the scale of the opportunity.” Vecco Group is already running Australia’s first vanadium electrolyte manufacturing facility in Townsville, where it has established a 35MWh operation. To cater for the growth expected under this new agreement, Vecco has secured a 3.2ha site at Cleveland Bay Industrial Park (CBIP) for a 300MWh commercial production facility. Townsville Enterprise chief executive officer Claudia Brumme-Smith said it was a testament to the growth opportunity in the region that Vecco and its investment partners were working towards bringing end-to-end manufacturing in critical minerals and battery manufacturing to Townsville. "“The ultimate goal would be to have our batteries branded as 'Made in Townsville' and used in Queensland for storing our renewable energy,” she said. "We know that relationships are the keystone to doing good business and having worked with Vecco over a number of years, and meeting with Sumitomo and Idemitsu in recent visits to Japan last year; now awareness of Townsville is growing exponentially.” Resources Minister and Townsville MP Scott Stewart said there was potentially $500 billion dollars of critical minerals in the North West Minerals Province and vanadium was one of the commodities Queensland could supply to the world. “I have always said if we don’t manufacture our future someone else will, and this announcement puts Townsville on the path to an even more exciting future,” he said. Related: Vecco vision attracts more Idemitsu millions Idemitsu has already thrown its weight behind Vecco Group's plans to develop its Debella critical minerals project near Julia Creek and its vanadium battery electrolyte manufacturing plant. It invested $8.26 million in Vecco Group in a capital raise last year after an initial investment of $4.9 million in 2022.

Deal charges up North’s vanadium battery future

Industry Queensland

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