China International Vanadium Flow Battery Forum 2025 Successfully Concludes in Hefei, Highlighting Breakthroughs in Long-Duration Energy Storage
Date: 19 Dec 2025 |
The China International Vanadium Flow Battery Forum 2025 was successfully held on 11-12 December 2025 in Hefei, Anhui Province, bringing together leading experts, scholars, and industry representatives from across the vanadium flow battery (VFB) value chain to discuss technological advances, cost reduction pathways, and the market outlook for long-duration energy storage.
Jointly organized by ASIACHEM Consulting, Shanghai Electric Energy Storage Technology Co., Ltd., and the Anhui New Energy Storage Industry Innovation Alliance—and co-organized by the Anhui Association of Automation—the forum was supported by Vanitec. The event focused on global VFB technology and applications, electrolyte preparation and cost control, stack technology, system optimization, and the industry’s development trajectory.
Industry Leaders Share Technical Progress and Commercial Pathways
The forum was hosted by Mr. Xia Lei, General Manager and Chief Industry Researcher of ASIACHEM Consulting. Ms. Yang Linlin, General Manager and Chief Engineer of Shanghai Electric Energy Storage Technology Co., Ltd., delivered opening remarks on behalf of the co-organizer, underscoring the importance of accelerating scalable, safe, and cost-effective long-duration storage solutions under the evolving power system.
A major keynote was delivered by Professor Zhang Huamin, Chief Researcher at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (Chinese Academy of Sciences), who reviewed the development status and challenges of flow battery energy storage. His presentation covered technology characteristics, lifecycle economics, and practical cost-reduction approaches. He highlighted three cost-down pathways:
- Battery materials innovation (materials, stack structure, improved electrolyte utilization)
- Stack structure innovation (high power density with high electrolyte utilization; enhanced sealing and insulation)
- Business model innovation, including the financial attributes of electrolyte and electrolyte leasing
Shanghai Electric Energy Storage Launches Two New Core Products
During the forum, Shanghai Electric Energy Storage Technology Co., Ltd. announced the launch of two new core products aimed at performance improvement and operational reliability:
- High-performance non-fluorinated membrane stack: Developed in collaboration with Suzhou Laboratoryand East China University of Science and Technology, the stack passed third-party testing by Shanghai National Center of Testing and Inspection for Electric Cable and Wire Co., Ltd. Reported performance at a rated power of 45 kW included EE 82.8%, CE 99.0%, and VE 83.7%. The design targets traditional bottlenecks such as membrane incompatibility and capacity decay, reporting <1% decay over 8,000 hours, while leveraging domestic processes and raw materials to reduce membrane costs.
- Flow Battery Intelligent Management Control System (3S System): Built around a “decision–execution–perception” closed loop, the 3S architecture integrates EMS (top-level strategy and optimization), PCS (energy conversion execution), and BMS (battery health management), enabling coordinated dispatch and improved safety, economy, and efficiency across diverse energy storage scenarios.
International Outlook: Supply, Markets, and Global Deployment
The forum featured a strong international perspective on supply-demand dynamics, market mechanisms, and cross-border opportunities:
- Mr. Terry Perles, Vice Chairman of Vanitec and President of TTP Squared, Inc., provided an outlook on the international VFB industry, emphasizing how vanadium supply responsiveness and price volatility can materially affect VFB economics—particularly given vanadium’s substantial contribution to system costs.
- Mr. Tanaka Toshiro, Director of LE SYSTEM Co., Ltd., reviewed Japan’s grid-scale energy storage market and the commercial opportunity for VFBs, highlighting the growing need for regulation capacity and the role of policies intended to reduce project risk for operators.
- Ms. Liu Shengnan, CEO of Chengde Xinxin Vanadium Titanium Energy Storage Technology Co., Ltd., discussed progress in overseas exports of VFB solutions, addressing both advantages in technology and supply chain and challenges such as localization, standards, tariffs, and competitive positioning.
- Professor Maria Skyllas-Kazacos (University of New South Wales), the inventor of VFB technology, joined the forum via video link to share the latest progress in Australia’s vanadium flow battery sector, highlighting the growing maturity of the country’s local industrial ecosystem—particularly in electrolyte production and supply-chain development.
A panel discussion—also joined by Professor Maria via video—brought together experts from leading research and industrial organizations to exchange views on technology development, market challenges, and industrial collaboration.
Focus on Key Components, Industrialization, and Policy Environment
Additional presentations addressed bottlenecks and industrial pathways across membranes, electrodes, bipolar plates, electrolytes, systems integration, and operations. Speakers also covered the investment environment for building a complete flow-battery supply chain cluster and shared policy and commercial models relevant to industrial and commercial energy storage applications in Anhui Province, including revenue mechanisms such as peak-valley arbitrage, demand-side response, and PV-storage integration.
Chaohu Site Visit Showcases Scale-Up Progress
On 12 December, the forum delegation visited Shanghai Electric Energy Storage Technology Co., Ltd.’s Chaohu production base, reviewing the company’s progress in R&D, manufacturing, and delivery capabilities spanning key materials, stacks, electrolytes, and system integration.
Looking Ahead
With robust participation and broad coverage of technology, market, and deployment topics, the China International Vanadium Flow Battery Forum 2025 concluded with a shared focus on advancing VFB innovation, accelerating cost reduction, and supporting the scaled adoption of long-duration energy storage for the new power system.