With the current worldwide movement towards renewable energy, and industry and government mandates to become carbon neutral in the medium term, energy storage has become a very relevant topic. The battery industry is now at the forefront in these initiatives. On January 26, 2021, Dr. Mianyan Huang, the CEO of VRB Energy Inc. (“VRB”) presented a very positive update VRB’s recent activities in China and a review of its future plans, at the International Flow Battery Forum and Vanitec virtual conference. Sparton retains an approximate 10% ownership in VRB and is responsible for having organized the acquisition of VRB Energy, with majority owner HPX TechCo Inc., a company controlled by Robert Friedland Interests. After introducing VRB’s history and the growth of vanadium flow batteries in the energy storage industry, Dr. Huang provided several key take-aways on VRB’s progress and future:   –  VRB is expected to become vertically integrated and is poised to become completely price competitive with       lithium and other technologies for safe, large scale energy storage; and   –  VRB has several large projects in late-stage negotiation. It is clear that these developments have the potential to add significant value to Sparton’s interest in VRB in the near term.

Click on video to view highlights of Dr. Huang’s presentation (full 34 minute presentation further below)

Dr. Huang’s full presentation:  34 minutes – Please note that there is a delay before the audio begins

8th Vanitec Energy Storage Meeting 第八届国际钒技术委员会储能会议

For the listing of all the presentations at the VANITEC online conference (click here)