A new deal has been signed for the construction of a 50MW/200MWh battery storage system alongside a solar farm in South Australia.

Pangea Energy - part of a multinational renewable energy project developer Sen Tek Energy Solutions - has signed the letter of intent Canadian energy storage systems manufacturer CellCube.

The AU$290 million project will cover 79ha in the former coal city of Port Augusta.

CellCube offers ‘vanadium redox flow technology’ energy storage systems, which it says can maintain 99 per cent residual energy capacity even after 11,000 cycles.

CellCube CEO Stefan Schauss said the battery would help with voltage compensation, reactive power and frequency regulation services and renewable baseload to the Australian market, coupled with a 50MW solar project on the same site.

He said the project showed renewable energy generation combined with “safe, reliable and sustainable energy storage technology such as the vanadium redox-flow battery” is a solution for renewable baseload energy.

“Our new high performing CellCube is three times more efficient than any power-2-X or hydrogen technology which will not be available at this scale in the next three years,” Mr Schauss said.

“CellCube also offers a lifetime support of 25 years with no degradation or augmentation like needed for lithium. This is real true value for money.”

Pangea CEO Leo Chiang Lin said it is a good match.

“Choosing vanadium and working with CellCube as market leader in the vanadium related storage industry is a perfect match for our project,” he said.

“Australia has massive vanadium resources and the exploration of vanadium is pretty simple, cheap and does not have the impact on nature and labour conditions such as cobalt or other rare earths in the lithium industry.”

Construction should begin before the end of the year and be operational in 2020.