Redox flow batteries (RFBs) are a promising electrochemical storage solution for power sector decarbonization, particularly emerging long-duration needs. While the battery architecture can host many different redox chemistries, the vanadium RFB (VRFB) represents the current state-of-the-art due to its favorable combination of performance and longevity. However, the relatively high and volatile price of vanadium has hindered VRFB financing and. Redox flow batteries (RFBs) are a promising electrochemical storage solution for power sector decarbonization, particularly emerging long-duration needs. While the battery architecture can host many different redox chemistries, the vanadium RFB (VRFB) represents the current state-of-the-art due to its favorable combination of performance and longevity. However, the relatively high and volatile price of vanadium has hindered VRFB financing and deployment opportunities. Here we evaluate the vanadium supply chain to understand how it enables or constrains VRFB advancement and assess opportunities for accelerated growth. We find that – while vanadium may not be scarce – its abundance is confounded by highly concentrated production coupled with the disperse nature of sources suitable for potential supply increase. These factors challenge rapid growth, limiting deployment rate and magnitude. We estimate gigawatt-hour deployment scales are feasible over the next decade, which would represent marked expansion of the RFB industry and drive down system costs substantially, though this would require growth rates to vanadium production above historical averages. Accordingly, we review opportunities to accelerate supply chain growth and economic strategies to stabilize the market. Finally, we posit terawatt-hour deployment scales will be challenged by vanadium market conditions and resource availability, motivating the continued efforts developing next-generation RFB chemistries.••Vanadium flow batteries show technical promise for decarbonizing the power sector.••High and volatile vanadium prices limit deployment of vanadium flow batteries.••Vanadium is globally abundant but in low grades, hindering economic extraction.••Vanadium's supply is highly concentrated as co-/by-product production.••Opportunities. Vanadium supply chainVanadium redox flow batteryLong-duration energy storageCompound annual growth rateHuman activities such as agriculture, transportation, industry, residential and commercial operation, etc., all require energy, and global economic growth is only expanding the demand. While the power sector that procures, converts, and distributes energy to these critical markets was historically built on fossil-fuel burning technologies, the desire to prevent climate change is driving the decarbonization and, as a method of achieving this, electrification of the grid. To this end, considerable progress has been made in the development of renewable energy technologies; however, their significant penetration in the grid (>60%) will be unsuccessful without complementary strategies to ameliorate their inherent intermittency that can misalign supply and demand. There are many approaches to overcome this mismatch, including upgraded transmission and distribution networks, demand-side energy management, overbuilding renewable capacity, and, the focus of this work, energy storage [1,2]. Since the grid hosts an array of services that vary in their operational characteristics and requirements, a diverse portfolio of storage solutions – varying in performance, frequency of use, cost, and scale – is needed [3,4].Redox flow batteries (RFBs) are one promising storage solution, particularly attractive for emerging longer duration (i.e., >5 h) applications such as baseload renewable support (e.g., time-shifting supply and meeting peak power deman. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) provides insight into the global production and resource levels for vanadium and other elements utilized in various battery technologies (Fig. 2) [49,50]. Here, “global resources” are defined as concentrations of a geologic commodity in both discovered and undiscovered deposits (i.e., a “best guess”) “in such form and amount that economic extraction. from the concentration is currently or potentially feasible”, though this value is generally an underestimation and typically grows with demand for a particular material (as demonstrated by the correlation between resources and production quantities across the minerals shown in Fig. 2). Vanadium is considered relatively abundant and has many orders of magnitude greater global resources than scarce materials such as platinum group metals (PGMs, common catalysts in clean energy conversion and storage technologies). The world production and resources of vanadium are similar to those for critical LIB materials (i.e., lithium, cobalt, and, to a lesser extent, nickel), though these elements are one or more orders of magnitude less abundant than elements like sulfur, iron, zinc, copper, and manganese, which are the focus of many next-generation battery chemistries [40,51,52].While vanadium may not be scarce, its abundance is confounded by highly concentrated production coupled with the dispersion of sources of potential su.
