China spins up giant battery built with US-patented tech
Brandon Vigliarolo - Yesterday 5:36 amhttps://www.msn.com/en-au/money/new...sedgntp&cvid=8a77e7667fc84328914db7be579c6bc3
The world's largest vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) has been connected to the grid in Dalian, China, where it was built using technology patented in the United States.…
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As reported in August, the VRFB built in Dalian appears to be one designed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) that cost US taxpayers $15 million dollars to develop, and for which the US government owns the patent.
Other VRFBs lack PNNL's special acid/electrolyte mixture, which the lab said was twice as powerful as other vanadium formulae and could last 30 years without losing capacity, hence their far smaller capacities.
PNNL's recipe isn't being manufactured anywhere in the US, and through a series of moves ended up in the hands of Dalian Rongke Power Co. Ltd, which stepped in when PNNL's lead VRFB scientist Gary Yang claimed to not be able to find a US company to invest in the technology's production.
Yang granted a sublicense to Rongke to manufacture PNNL VRFBs in China, which has since been transferred to Dutch company Vanadis Power, which manufactures PNNL's batteries, dubbed ReFlex, in China. Vanadis partner Bolong New Materials, also based in Dalian, is described as the exclusive producer of ReFlex acid-electrolyte material – the secret sauce cooked up at PNNL.
Well, if they are licensing the tech, maybe Vince should be visiting Oregon