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bassguy - put yourself in the position of being able to print as many shares as you like to suppress the price. What do you think YOU would do ?

another good point reteps. Every time a 'brilliant' idea like this comes along you need to ask the question 'why hasn't this been done before ?' or 'what new technology that we have now changes the possibilities for this technology ?'

Sorry but their explanation 'The diamond structure acts as a semiconductor and heat sink, collecting the charge and transporting it out." is not sufficient to convince me.

What happens when a high energy beta particle (i.e. electron) is emitted in a solid is that large numbers of electron hole pairs are created along the path of the particle, however without an electric field to separate these pairs they simply recombine to produce localised heating and then you've lost the opportunity to really extract the most amount of energy as you'd simply be back to a nuclear thermal generator that needs some kind of heat engine to extract useful work from the system. One simple sort of a device like this is called a Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator which was invented in the 50's and first put onto satellites in the 60's - so hardly new.

If you want to do better than this you need to create a structure inside the device similar to that found inside a solar cell namely a junction formed of two differently doped types of semiconductor which at its interface has a thin depletion region in which the intrinsic charges separate and a local electric field is generated - and electron-hole pair generation in that region will produce holes and electrons that are driven apart by the electric field and these can then build up on either side of the junction and drive a current around an external circuit.

Thus they have summarised an exceptionally complex and subtle design into only a few words and the reason why follows.

Such a structure is fine in a situation where it is receiving 1-2 eV in visible photons from the sun, but the Beta decay of C-14 is 156,476 eV in energy so there is much greater potential for the energetic particles to wreck the thin junction structure - introducing gap states in the depletion region that rapidly kill off its semiconductor function. Similar kinds of structures are used in solid state radiation detectors, but these typically only last a decade before they are wrecked. Put the radioactive source INSIDE the detector and the increased flux means you are asking for trouble very quickly, even if you could master the technology of making tiny diamond-based solar-cells.

I agree

Daisydog - I don't believe that the round numbered sells are real.

indeed mogwhy - they also did not have the Karlsruhe 20MWh VRFB at the institute for Chemical Technology, well not before I told them about it. This is just another example of how the energy storage media has a US and a Tesla- centric distorted view of the world, and suggests just how blindsided they will be when the Chinese VRFB megaprojects become widely known about.

Yellowf1 - you fear that VRFB's are a 'lab type technology' - did you not pay attention when I previously explained that China is currently building multiple 100MW scale VRFBs ?

yes it is

that official government Environmental Authorisation is here:-

https://www.eskom.co.za/OurCompany/SustainableDevelopment/EnvironmentalImpactAssessments/SkaapvleiSereBESS/Documents/EA/EA%20-%2014-12-16-3-3-1-2065.pdf

If you consult the final Environmental Authorisation you will see that the area allow for the project is just shy of 20 hectares and contains the statement: "the Capacity of the battery storage containers will be greater than 80 but less than 500 m3".

Note that it does NOT say "the TOTAL capacity of the battery storage containers" - this is a common misinterpretation of much dangerous goods legislation. DG rules for transportation are strongly dependent on the size of the vessel that is being transported - for example I can ship 100x 25ml plastic containers of particular glue via airfreight without anything but cursory paperwork, but increase the vessel size to 100ml and it enters a completely different class where I would have to fill out endless DG paperwork and swear on my grandmothers life that it has all been packed to IATA DG standards.

Thus what they are saying is that the containers cannot be over the particular size of 500m3 (or the sum if they are all joined together with pipes) but it does not say that the total stored volume across the entire site cannot be larger than 500m3.

A good thing too because neither Lithium-ion or VRFB could store more than about 50mWh if the total volume of DG classified materials was restricted to 500m3. Remember that a hectare is 100m x 100m = 10,000m - thus 500m3 spread over 1 hectare would only be 2 inches high. It is an unreasonably low total number, and as I say, could not get you the energy storage capacity that is mooted.

No battery technology can get 20MWh in 500m3 so I suggest that they made a mistake

Bummerd - yes 20MWh on 500m2 footprint area is clearly possible. The VRFB that BMN had on test at Eskom was 450kWh in a single half shipping container (15m2 footprint) - this works out at 30 kWh/m2

If you stack the containers two high, as invinity is doing at the Oxford ESO or Enerox and Sumitomo have been doing for years, then you could get 30MWh of VRFB energy storage on an area of 500m2.

yes 20MWh inside of 500m2 footprint is possible.

For example the VRFB that BMN had on test with Eskom was 450 kWh in a half shipping container - 15m2 - this gives an energy footprint density of 30 kWh per m2. If you stack 2 high as Invinity is doing at Oxford ESO or Enerox or Sumitomo have done for years then you get 60 kWh per m2 - thus 500m2 could yield 30 MWh energy storage.

so that's goodbye the opportunist Stina resources and their attempts at creating an integrated mines-to-batteries business.

Shareashoy - which one by Parsons ?

The all Vanadium Redox Flow battery was patented by the University of New South Wales in the late 80's - patent protection lasted 20 years then expired, at which point lots more VRFB companies started as they could then make VRFBs using the classic electrolyte without having to pay any licensing fees to anyone.

Yep Vanadium is so new it has been out of patent protection for the last 10 years. FFS

Introv and Libero - this looks like just the sort of thing for BigBiteNow to get his teeth into.

https://www.thebushveldperspective.com/blog/public-articles-1/post/bushveld-energy-your-time-is-coming-336

https://www.thebushveldperspective.com/blog/public-articles-1/post/bushveld-energy-eskom-battery-mandate-2018-339

https://www.thebushveldperspective.com/blog/public-articles-1/post/bushveld-energy-your-time-has-now-arrived-355

shhhhh, keep it quiet

is recommending Bushveld Minerals this morning

https://twitter.com/MylesMcNulty/status/1297584510889058306

If you are wondering why then you should read these -

https://www.thebushveldperspective.com/blog/public-articles-1/post/energy-storage-europe-2019-414
https://www.thebushveldperspective.com/blog/public-articles-1/post/energy-storage-europe-2019-415
https://www.thebushveldperspective.com/blog/public-articles-1/post/energy-storage-europe-2019-416

to understand how big the VRFB battery market is going to be in the next 10 years.