A half-owned subsidiary of Perth-based Protean Energy has received a $3 million investment from the South Korean government for a $9.7 million vanadium battery project.
The project is being undertaken by the Korean Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (Ketep) in conjunction with KORID Energy, and aims to demonstrate the most efficient vanadium battery solution, for eventual production in South Korea.
The trial will fund the provision of Protean’s patented V-KOR stack technology for Ketep’s vanadium redox flow battery project, which is anticipated to run for 96 months.
“KORID Energy’s selection for such a nationally significant project in South Korea was further validation of the considerable technological advancements it had made in recent times,” Protean chairman Bevan Tarratt said.
“We are very pleased to have been awarded the role ahead of such a strong field of energy storage competitors, in a country so focused on the sector.”
The KETEP project will measure eight key performance specifications; stack output, stack power density, electrolyte cost, electrolyte temperature range, battery round trip efficiency, battery life cycles, ESS (energy storage systems) substantiation utilisation rate and total ESS footprint.
Other project participants include electrolyte manufacturer Chemtros, and Ekos, which will provide power conditioning.
The project is aiming to double the energy density of vanadium electrolyte, which could reduce the physical footprint of the V-KOR battery solution.
Shares in Protean were up 3.7 per cent at 2.8 cents each today.
