Western Australia’s 500MWh vanadium battery in Kalgoorlie shows how long-duration storage, local minerals, and green technology strategy can work together for real impact.
Why a 500MWh Vanadium Battery in Kalgoorlie Matters
A single mining region in Western Australia pumps roughly AU$19 billion into the state economy every year – and until recently, it’s been running on a power system that can’t always keep up. Long outages, stressed backup generators, and growing renewable penetration have pushed the Goldfields to a breaking point.
The response isn’t another gas peaker. It’s a 50MW / 500MWh vanadium flow battery in Kalgoorlie, designed for 10 hours of discharge and built around Western Australia’s own critical mineral: vanadium.
This project sits right at the intersection of green technology, long-duration energy storage (LDES) and local industrial strategy. If you’re working in energy, mining, infrastructure, or climate-tech, this isn’t just an interesting headline from Perth – it’s a template for how regions can hard-wire resilience, decarbonisation, and jobs into a single storage project.
In this post, I’ll break down what Western Australia is actually doing, why vanadium flow batteries are getting serious attention, and how this kind of project can inform your own storage or decarbonisation roadmap.
Inside the Kalgoorlie 50MW/500MWh Vanadium Flow Battery
The Kalgoorlie VBESS (vanadium battery energy storage system) is a grid-scale, long-duration battery backed by AU$150 million from the Cook Labor government. The core specs:
- Power: 50MW
- Energy: 500MWh
- Duration: 10 hours
- Technology: Vanadium redox flow battery
- Location: Kalgoorlie, Eastern Goldfields, Western Australia
- Target completion: 2029
This isn’t a short-duration, 2-hour lithium system designed just for peak shaving. A 10‑hour battery is built to shift whole blocks of renewable generation, stabilise an isolated grid, and provide backup when transmission assets fail.
The project’s primary purpose is simple: replace fragile backup generation with resilient long-duration storage that supports the clean energy transition.
The battery will sit within the broader South West Interconnected System (SWIS) context – often described as the world’s largest isolated power system – which is rapidly phasing down coal in favour of renewables supported by gas and storage. A long-duration asset in Kalgoorlie directly helps smooth that transition.
From a systems perspective, this VBESS can:
- Store surplus solar and wind output during low-demand periods
- Cover extended evening peaks (not just a 2–3 hour window)
- Support grid stability when transmission faults cut off supply
- Reduce reliance on diesel and gas in backup and peaking roles
For businesses operating in the Eastern Goldfields, this translates into fewer outages, more predictable energy costs, and a lower emissions profile – all critical to remain competitive as global supply chains start pricing in carbon intensity.
Why Vanadium Flow Batteries Are a Strong Fit for Australia’s Grid
Here’s the thing about vanadium flow batteries: they’re not trying to be a drop‑in replacement for lithium-ion. They’re optimised for long-duration, high-cycle, harsh-environment use where traditional chemistries start to struggle.
Core technical advantages
Vanadium flow batteries store energy in liquid electrolyte tanks, rather than in solid electrodes. That design leads to some very specific strengths:
- Long-duration capability: Scaling energy is mostly about adding larger electrolyte tanks. Need 10 hours instead of 4? You increase tank volume, not stack count.
- High cycle life: 20,000+ cycles with minimal degradation is realistic, especially when operated within design envelopes. That’s ideal for daily cycling in utility applications.
- Thermal tolerance: They operate well in high-temperature environments like the Goldfields, where lithium systems need expensive cooling and carry higher degradation risk.
- Low fire risk: Non-flammable aqueous electrolytes reduce fire and thermal runaway concerns – a major safety and insurance advantage for utility owners.
- Recyclable electrolyte: Vanadium electrolyte can be reclaimed and reused, allowing for circular-economy models and lease structures.
For Western Australia specifically, two aspects are particularly important:
- Harsh climate – high temperatures, dust, and remote conditions make robust, low‑degradation technologies attractive.
- Long outages – when backup generators underperform, a 2‑hour battery doesn’t cut it. A 10‑hour asset meaningfully covers prolonged disruptions.
How this compares to lithium-ion
Lithium-ion is still the workhorse of battery storage, but it shines in different roles:
- 1–4 hour duration
- High power density and compact footprint
- Fast‑response ancillary services
Where you need 8–12 hours of firm capacity and ultra-long lifetime with daily cycling, flow batteries are often more cost-effective over the asset life – even if capex per installed kWh looks higher on day one.
The Kalgoorlie project is basically Western Australia saying: for this use case, we’re optimising for duration, resilience, and lifecycle economics, not just lowest upfront cost.
Local Vanadium, Local Manufacturing, Local Jobs
Most countries talk about “green industrial strategy”; Western Australia is executing one around a single project.
The VBESS comes with a firm requirement:
- Vanadium flow battery technology must be manufactured in Western Australia
- Vanadium must be locally sourced and processed
This aligns with the state’s Battery and Critical Minerals Strategy 2024–30, which identifies vanadium as a priority sector. WA already holds some of the world’s largest vanadium deposits, and the government has:
- Cut royalties on vanadium products from 5% to 2.5%, improving project economics
- Backed pilot projects like Horizon Power’s vanadium flow battery in Kununurra
From a green technology perspective, this is significant for three reasons.
1. Shorter, cleaner supply chains
Building a battery in the same region where its critical mineral is mined and processed:
- Shrinks logistics emissions
- Reduces geopolitical risk and shipping bottlenecks
- Simplifies traceability for ESG reporting
For mining majors and industrial offtakers under pressure to decarbonise, being able to say your backup power comes from locally produced, traceable, recyclable vanadium technology is a genuine competitive advantage.
2. Industrial capability, not just energy output
The government isn’t just buying electrons. It’s deliberately seeding a vanadium battery supply chain, encouraging:
- Electrolyte production and processing
- Stack and balance‑of‑plant manufacturing
- Integration, operations, and maintenance capability
Respondents to the EOI are explicitly encouraged to detail their:
- Local industry participation plans
- Partnerships with WA businesses
- Investments in manufacturing and skills
I like this approach because it treats green technology as industrial infrastructure, not just climate infrastructure. The jobs and expertise created don’t disappear when the battery is commissioned; they compound across future projects.
3. Exportable know‑how
If Western Australia proves that utility‑scale vanadium flow batteries can be profitable, reliable, and locally manufactured, it’s not just serving the SWIS. It’s creating:
- A reference model for other isolated grids
- An export platform for vanadium technology and services
- A launchpad for AI‑driven optimisation, remote monitoring, and predictive maintenance tailored to flow batteries
That last point is important for this Green Technology series: AI thrives on fleets of similar assets. A growing WA vanadium ecosystem would create exactly the operational data and repetition that modern AI tools feed on.
How the Project Will Be Procured – and What It Signals to Investors
The Kalgoorlie VBESS isn’t a turnkey government build. It’s being structured through a two‑stage Expression of Interest (EOI) process managed by the Department of Energy and Economic Diversification (DEED).
Stage one: capability and ideas (late 2025 – early 2026)
Stage one, open until 30 January 2026, is about mapping the market:
- Who can supply or integrate vanadium flow batteries at this scale?
- Who can build manufacturing capacity in WA?
- How will proponents structure ownership, financing, and risk?
Respondents are asked for:
- Organisational structure and track record in vanadium and energy
- Approach to delivering the VBESS (build, own, operate model)
- Plans to support a local vanadium flow battery supply chain
This stage is advisory and qualifying rather than a formal tender. It’s about testing depth of capability and shaping realistic criteria for the final selection.
Stage two: business case and selection (March–July 2026)
Stage two, slated for March–April 2026, goes deeper:
- Detailed business cases
- Financial and technical proposals
- Risk allocation
- Timelines to 2029 completion
Assessment is planned for May 2026, followed by negotiations with a preferred proponent from June or July.
Financial support from the state will be milestone-based, which:
- De‑risks early project phases for developers
- Attracts additional private capital into vanadium supply chains
- Keeps public exposure tied to actual delivery
For investors, the message is clear: WA is serious about LDES, and it’s willing to co‑invest – but only where private players bring capability, capital, and local content.
What This Means for Businesses and Green Tech Strategists
If you’re running an energy‑intensive business, advising on decarbonisation, or building green technology products, projects like Kalgoorlie are more than regional news. They’re signals.
1. Long-duration storage is moving from talk to steel in the ground
A 500MWh, 10‑hour project with a 2029 completion target tells you:
- LDES is now seen as essential grid infrastructure, not an experiment
- Governments are prepared to back non‑lithium chemistries where they fit the use case
- Early movers in LDES (development, financing, operations, AI optimisation) will get valuable experience before the market crowds in
If your energy strategy assumes “we’ll just add more 2‑hour lithium later,” you’re underestimating how quickly policy and reliability concerns are pulling longer‑duration tech forward.
2. Supply chain and ESG pressures favour local, traceable solutions
Global buyers are increasingly asking:
- What’s the embodied carbon in this product?
- Where did the critical minerals come from?
- How recyclable is the technology?
A locally manufactured vanadium flow battery with recyclable electrolyte answers those questions more credibly than a black‑box import with opaque sourcing. If you’re designing net-zero pathways or ESG strategies, procurement choices like these materially shift your footprint and risk profile.
3. AI and digital layers turn storage into a smarter asset
Across this Green Technology series, one pattern keeps showing up: AI is the multiplier, not the headline.
For a project like Kalgoorlie, AI and advanced analytics can:
- Optimise charge/discharge schedules to match price signals, outages, and renewable output
- Predict maintenance needs for pumps, stacks, and valves in the flow system
- Extend effective asset life by avoiding harmful operating regimes
- Provide more accurate revenue forecasting for investors
If you’re developing green-tech products, there’s real opportunity in building software, controls, and AI services specifically tuned to long‑duration and flow battery systems, not just lithium.
Where This Fits in the Bigger Green Technology Story
The Kalgoorlie VBESS is a clear example of how green technology, critical minerals, and digital tools can be aligned in one project:
- A vanadium flow battery that fits the climate and operational profile
- A local supply chain that builds economic resilience and skills
- A policy framework that attracts private investment without handing over blank cheques
- A platform where AI and software can materially boost performance and returns
Most companies get one of these pieces right and ignore the others. Western Australia is trying to line them up from day one.
If you’re planning your own storage or decarbonisation strategy, ask three blunt questions:
- Are we selecting energy technologies that fit our real operating environment and risk profile – or just following the default?
- Are we treating storage as a strategic asset (with local content, digital optimisation, and lifecycle economics), or just a capex line item?
- Where can we plug into emerging ecosystems like WA’s vanadium push instead of going it alone?
Projects like Kalgoorlie will shape how green technology is financed, built, and operated across the next decade. The organisations that engage early – whether as suppliers, offtakers, or innovators – will be the ones setting the standards, not reacting to them.