Nusaned Investment, an investment company owned by SABIC (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia), and SCHMID Group (Freudenstadt, Germany) announced that they have successfully closed their JV transaction focusing on manufacturing and technology development in the field of vanadium redox-flow batteries (VRFB) after receiving all required regulatory approvals and satisfying all closing conditions. The agreement to establish Advance Energy Storage System Investment Company (the JV) was initially signed and announced in May 2019. During the next 2 to 3 months, The Riwaq Industrial Development Company will join the JV as additional investors and shareholders.
The JV aims to become a global technology leader and champion in the fast-growing utility-scale energy storage segment, supporting the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 economic diversification objectives. With R&D facilities in Germany and Saudi Arabia, the JV plans to set-up a GW scale manufacturing facility in the Kingdom, expected to be in production in 2021. The JV’s strategy for developing value chain integrated production will allow it to achieve global cost leadership.
Fuad Mosa, CEO of Nusaned Investment said: “The JV marks a milestone for Saudi Arabia in its quest to localize manufacturing for technologies in emerging industries, and marks another major step in SABIC’s NUSANED™ program that seeks to build partnerships and enable local content creation”. Christian Schmid, CEO of the Schmid Group said: “The new JV will aim to establish a leadership position in the rapidly developing energy storage market and both companies are fully committed to realizing our joint vision for the project.”
The JV will produce energy-storage systems for use alongside utility-scale renewables projects, telecom towers, mining sites, remote cities and off-grid locations. The systems will be utilized for renewables capacity grid integration, establishment of mini grids at remote locations, optimization of diesel generator capacity, and power back-up. The JV’s products will be offered under the EVERFLOW brand.
The proposed manufacturing facility and R&D center is going to be developed in Dammam 3rd Industrial City. The facility will be built under a Build-to-Suit lease agreement with MODON. The project site has been identified and construction is expected to start in the first half of 2020. The facility will have an annual production capacity of 3 GWh and will be among the biggest Flow Batteries production facilities worldwide.