Charged Up | Largo Resources Expands into the Vanadium Redox Flow Battery Business

Largo Resources (TSX: LGO) (OTCQX: LGORF) has launched Largo Clean Energy, a newly formed company that will provide vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) systems to the global renewable energy storage market.

Their VRFB processing technology was acquired through 12 patent families previously owned by VionX Energy Corp, a company involved in the green energy storage market since 2002. VionX Energy has invested over US$150 million in commercially proven VRFB technology and operational optimizations.

The global energy storage capacity market is estimated to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 31% to 741 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of cumulative capacity by 2030. Therefore it is a logical play for Largo to make a strong expansion in VRFB vertical:

“Largo’s revenues will continue to be largely driven by sales in the global steel industry and high purity aerospace and chemical markets – but as vanadium demand from global VRFB deployments expands in the coming years, we expect significant growth in the VFRB sector.”

–  Paulo Misk, CEO, Largo Resources

Largo Clean Energy’s VCHARGE± System

Largo Clean Energy will deploy VioX Energy’s VRFB systems under the Largo Clean Energy’s VCHARGE± branding. The highlights of the system include:

• Long life, continuous storage energy over a 20+ year life cycle with limited degradation. VCHARGE batteries have undergone significant durability testing demonstrating up to 50 years of stack life.
• Battery systems that can be comprised of 4,6,8,10 and 20 megawatt-hour (MWh) modular energy storage options
• 3 times higher power density that most grid-scale competitors
• High degree of safety that can be used in urban settings as the VRFB systems are inherently non-flammable.

Capital 10X will present a brief primer on VFRBs in the near future, for our readers unfamiliar with the technology.  In short – the main strength of VFRBs are their longevity, lack of degradation and performance over time.

They can cycle thousands of times and discharge with out any damage to the battery system.  Potentially highly economical, a VFRB can be deployed and used by a provider for up to 20 years, depending on the energy demands to the system.

VRBs can be employed in utility-scale energy storage projects (e.g. schools, airports, hospitals etc.), micro-grids, renewable energy generation integration, grid smoothing, backup power and in remote and off-grid power applications.  One of the issues with the majority of VFRB deployments is access to a reliable and pure of the source of vanadium.

So, the launch of Largo Clean Energy also provides the company with more flexibility to deploy its vanadium production into energy storage products. Moving down the supply chain diversifies their product line and customer base, as well as shore-ups their revenue streams for profit in any vanadium price environment.

Largo Inc. is a market awareness client of Capital 10X.