Vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) can effectively solve the intermittent renewable energy issues and gradually become the most attractive candidate for large-scale stationary energy storage. However, their low energy density and high cost still bring challenges to the widespread use of VRFBs. For this reason, performance improvement and cost reduction of VRFBs are the keys to their commercialization and large-scale energy storage applications. On the basis of this, this perspective briefly describes the development status of renewable energy and energy storage technology and summarizes the existing bottlenecks that affect the development of VRFBs. Meanwhile, the critical technologies of VRFBs are reviewed, and the research progress in recent years and the challenges that need to be overcome are introduced. This perspective focuses on four aspects, including core component material, system modeling, optimization operations, and future business challenges. Then, a comprehensive analysis of critical issues and solutions for VRFB development are discussed, which can effectively guide battery performance optimization and innovation. The views in this perspective are expected to provide effective and extensive understanding of the current research and future development of vanadium redox flow batteries.