22 August 2022
There needs to be a clear pipeline of bankable and investment-ready projects in three critical areas: energy transitions and related investments in sustainable infrastructure; investments in climate change adaptation and resilience; and restoration of natural capital (through agriculture, food and land use practices) and biodiversity. This is to deal with suggestions that African countries do not have a pipeline of bankable and investor-ready projects.………
https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/august-2022/calling-just-well-financed-climate-action-africa
September 8, 2022
The iron ore price rose on Thursday after the Chinese city of Zhengzhou said it would start building stalled housing projects.
The most-traded January iron ore on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange ended daytime trading 3.1% higher at 706 yuan ($101.54) a tonne, after hitting its strongest level since August 30 at 708.50 yuan.
Steel futures in Shanghai also advanced, despite concerns about intensifying covid-19 restrictions in the world’s biggest steel producer and iron ore consumer.
Zhengzhou city vowed to start building all stalled housing projects within 30 days, by making good use of special loans, asking developers to return misappropriated funds, and encouraging some real estate firms to file for bankruptcy, Reuters reported, citing three sources.
Homebuyers in at least 80 cities in China have threatened to halt making mortgage payments as liquidity problems or covid-19 restrictions hampered projects, adding to worries about an ailing property market.
“The market is cautiously looking forward to September and October demand,” Zhongzhou Futures analysts said in a note, referring to China’s peak construction season.
China’s imports of iron ore in August rose 5.5% from the prior month, customs data showed on Wednesday, even as operating rates at blast furnaces only slightly improved.
The country brought in 96.21 million tonnes of the steelmaking raw material last month, up from July’s 91.24 million tonnes, the General Administration of Customs said.
According to Fastmarkets MB, benchmark 62% Fe fines imported into Northern China were changing hands for $100.62 a tonne Thursday morning, up 4.4%.
https://www.mining.com/iron-ore-price-back-above-100-as-chinese-city-vows-to-rescue-stalled-home-projects/
Jun 7, 2022
The use of vanadium in the battery energy storage sector is expected to experience disruptive growth this decade on the back of unprecedented vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) deployments.
According to an independent analysis by market intelligence and advisory firm, Guidehouse Insights, global annual deployments of vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) are expected to reach approximately 32.8 GWh per annum by 2031. This represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 41% over the forecasted period.
The VRFB deployment forecast by Guidehouse Insights would equate to between 127,500 and 173,800 tons of new vanadium demand per year by 2031, according to Vanitec calculations based off Guidehouse’s projection. That would be more than twice as much vanadium as is currently produced annually.
In a report on the metals required for clean energy commissioned by Eurometaux – Europe’s metals association – VRFBs were identified as one of the alternative energy storage technologies that may grow in importance and might reach penetration rates of 20% of the market.
These findings point towards significant vanadium demand increases equivalent to +110% of current demand, and echo Guidehouse Insights’ demand forecast. Vanitec, the not-for-profit international global member organisation whose objective it is to promote the use of vanadium-bearing materials, says that while vanadium is mainly used within the steel industry, vanadium is increasingly being recognised for its use in VRFBs. These long duration batteries can store large amounts of electrical energy produced by solar and wind power generators on a daily basis as a means to drive the deep decarbonization of electric power systems……………..
https://www.miningreview.com/battery-metals/vanadium-set-for-disruptive-growth-as-battery-energy-storage-gains-momentum/
Battery deployment in the U.S. faces non-technical barriers
Long Read……………
https://sciencepolicyreview.org/wp-content/uploads/securepdfs/2022/08/MITSPR-v3-191618003005.pdf
Aug 31, 2022
The international imperative to shift towards renewable energy along with, locally, South Africa’s energy security challenges, promises a growing demand for Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries (VRFBs) as a sustainable and long-term solution to the energy crisis faced by many, on a national and global scale.
VRFBs are a fundamental part of renewable energy as most renewable energy sources require battery energy storage systems to operate in the absence of their primary source of energy – particularly wind and sun. VRFBs have rechargeable properties which recharge without any loss of performance.
As Frank Spencer, Head of Deployment at Bushveld Minerals, told the recent Power and Electricity World conference at the Sandton Convention Centre: “Battery energy storage is a whole new ball game”.
RELATED:
Bushveld Energy achieves financial close on the Vametco hybrid mini-grid
Go-ahead for Bushveld Minerals’ Vametco acquisiton given
According to the World Bank, by 2025, the vanadium demand from energy storage alone will be nearly twice the current market for the mineral. Battery energy storage is indeed a whole new ball game, but it is also a lucrative one, with sustainable and long-term benefits.
Vanadium is a key component of VRFBs and 25% of the world’s vanadium reserves are found in South Africa. VFRBs are not only used for storing renewable energy sources, but they can also potentially support the existing grid. Frank Spencer says this is possible as VRFBs “allow for more renewable power plants to be built, by smoothing out the variability of the production from the sun and wind. VRFBs delay the need for transmission upgrades by balancing the supply and demand on the power lines, and they provide ancillary services that help keep the grid balanced.”
Bushveld Minerals is a local leading vanadium producer, and one of the world’s top three. The US and Australian governments have deemed vanadium to be a critical mineral.
Vanadium, and essentially VRFBs, provide extensive opportunities for South Africa to create jobs, reduce imports, increase exports, and will yield economic and environmental benefits.
As a leading vanadium producer, Bushveld Minerals is a key component is developing the local value chain in the production of VRFBs and working towards assisting the overall stability of the national grid. VFRBs and battery electricity energy storage systems are the future – and through investment, pilot projects and success stories, the future is becoming the present…………..
https://www.miningreview.com/battery-metals/battery-energy-storage-is-a-whole-new-ball-game/
August 31, 2022
Advanced battery energy storage solutions can improve the efficiency of renewable energy, and the need is increasing exponentially. In 2021, about 20 percent of electricity generation came from renewable energy sources. According to the International Energy Agency, that number needs to increase to two-thirds by 2030 in order to achieve net-zero goals. To truly unlock the potential of renewables, we need larger energy storage systems, and it will take a wide variety of battery chemistries to meet that demand.
The three battery technologies being widely utilized are lead, lithium and vanadium redox flow. There are a number of factors to consider when selecting the most appropriate battery chemistry to meet your energy storage needs.
Commercial Maturity
Like other technologies, batteries have evolved in design and manufacturing. Because of the ambitious goals to transition to clean energy, there needs to be a combined effort from the public and private sectors to accelerate innovation from research and development into the prototype and early adoption stages.
Invented in 1859, lead is the most commercially mature of the three battery technologies and has been the primary energy storage solution for many years. Regardless of its longevity, there are still areas where additional research could uncover even more potential capacity. Lead is also relatively inexpensive compared to other battery chemistries.
Lithium is another commercially mature technology in the scale necessary at this time. It was originally used for consumer products in the early 1990s. With its high energy density, lithium is currently the dominant battery technology for energy storage. Lithium comes in a wide variety of chemistry combinations, which can be somewhat daunting to choose from, with Nickel Manganese Cobalt (NMC) and Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) having the highest levels of maturity.
While vanadium redox flow battery technology has been around for over 50 years, it is the least commercially mature of the three chemistries. The concept of vanadium flow batteries was developed by NASA to power satellites. This chemistry has the potential to become a leading solution for long-duration energy storage.
Sustainability ……………..
https://cleantechnica.com/2022/08/31/comparing-battery-chemistries-for-energy-storage-solutions/
Link :
https://www.energy-storage.news/us-needs-to-leapfrog-to-next-gen-technologies-for-energy-storage/
Ok, I’m prepared to give it one more go, but if these types of background posts https://www.energy-storage.news/us-needs-to-leapfrog-to-next-gen-technologies-for-energy-storage/ get drowned out again by troll a feeder using a trolls ‘click bait’ in order to continually push his own ‘opinions’ there will be no more from me!
September 7, 2022
For the US to succeed in creating a domestic energy storage manufacturing industry that can compete globally, it needs to look beyond today’s dominant lithium-ion technologies.
That was the view of directors from three Department of Energy National Laboratories that Energy-Storage.news spoke with recently.
Based in the Bay Area of California, the three labs: Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (Berkeley Lab), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory are currently collaborating to support companies along the battery supply chain, offering their facilities for testing, modelling, optimisation and other aspects of R&D.
Today, China leads the way in energy storage manufacturing, from raw materials extraction and processing to designing and building components and complete systems. South Korea and Japan also have some market share.
Meanwhile Europe and the US, as late entrants to the game, are working to catch up but face an uphill and probably impossible task to overtake China. According to market intelligence firm Clean Energy Associates, more than 200GWh of annual ESS-specific battery production capacity will be added by Chinese manufacturers by 2025.
Nonetheless, both Europe and the US have begun establishing their own battery development and manufacturing hubs.
President Joe Biden and Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm’s Department of Energy (DOE) have explicitly stated their aim of fostering that US-based industry, describing it as a priority on several fronts, including decarbonisation, energy security, national industrial competitiveness and economic growth.
As regular readers of Energy-Storage.news will know, this has translated into billions of dollars being committed to the cause, including a US$335 million programme for battery recycling launched recently from funds unlocked by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The US’ other major recent climate legislation, included in the Inflation Reduction Act, offers manufacturers incentives for clean energy tech including batteries.
‘US is very good at innovation’
“It’s pretty clear that from the Department of Energy, and these investments, that one of the underpinning principles is to bring the battery manufacturing capability back to the United States,” Tony Van Buuren, deputy associate director for science and technology at LLNL said.
“[But] if you invest in technologies that are already going, [in other words] lithium-ion technologies that are primarily in Asia right now, that is no way to repatriate……………..
https://www.energy-storag
Quite right, got even worse, and after today … that’s it for me, feck all about the company, I’ve tried to stick to just posting news articles and related info about BMN, but it just constantly gets drown out by the troll feeders. This bb is now 99% about them, the trolls with their click baiting of the feeders have won and I hope the feeders are happy.
No more from me, im joining the rest who have become utterly p|ssed off the constant arguments, I’m out.
Use South Africa’s 5 000 MW energy storage need to create new industry – Bushveld.
20TH JULY 2022
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South Africa’s 5 000 MW renewable energy storage requirement is seen as providing the critical mass for the creation of a new local energy storage industry that will have the potential to export into the growing global market for energy storage solutions.
A new own-value-chain local industry is feasible owing to South Africa’s resource base, processing infrastructure and high upcoming local demand.
That is the view of Bushveld Minerals CEO Fortune Mojapelo, who spoke to Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)
The head of the London Aim-listed Bushveld sees a mix of short- and long-duration energy storage viably meeting the 5 000-MW-in-three-years challenge set by the National Planning Commission – and highlights vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) as being ideal for long-duration electricity storage.
Long-duration batteries support the integration of renewable energy into electricity grids and Mojapelo sees upcoming energy storage demand as providing a generational opportunity that South Africa should not miss.
On energy storage being the flexible renewable energy enabler, he notes that sun shines at its brightest during off-peak periods “and, ideally, you want to be storing that energy and using it during peak periods when you're running those diesel generators, which are quite expensive.
“Similarly, if you look at wind generation, its peak generation capacity is during off-peak windows from a demand perspective.
“Pair that with long-duration energy storage, and you can deploy this power flexibly into the time zones when you need it the most.
“Overall, by doing that, you're improving the efficiency of the grid and enhancing the contribution of renewable energy to the grid,” Mojapelo points out………………
www.miningweekly.com/article/use-south-africas-5-000-mw-energy-storage-need-to-create-new-industry-bushveld-2022-07-20
Ferro Vanadium 80%Min United States Spot - ()
39.25 -0.50.(-1.26%)
https://www.investing.com/commodities/ferro-vanadium-80-min-united-states-futures
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V205 Vanadium Pentoxide Flake 98% USD / lb
*Europe : US$8.10/lb ?(-2.41%)
??Ferro Vanadium 80% USD / kg
*China : US$37.00/kg ?(-1.33%)
*?Europe : US$35.25/kg (0.00
WWW.VANADIUMPRICE.COM
@SquirtyFlower, I doubt it, imo they have a well structured, very long standing roadmap, know exactly where they want to get too in conjunction with other various members of their consortiums, have far reaching long term views …and not in the least bit interested in the current sp levels.
Share buybacks are done by a company appointed nominee (broker) not by the company themselves. They are also done as normal buys, sometimes several times a day at opportune moments …on the open market.
As with all buyers they can only whatever is being sold into the open market BY whoever … at any given time. The company are apparently on the brink of carving off BE in order to raise funds for more growth(/investmet.
There is, imo, no-way they are gonna spend £millions on buying back their own shares at this time.
Share buy backs are for times when a company has run out of investment/growth ideas/plans and have nothing better going forward on which to spend their cash on.
CELLCUBE AND G&W ELECTRIC ARE JOINING FORCES TO BRING MICROGRIDS TO THE NEXT LEVEL.
Wiener Neudorf, Austria, Bolingbrook, Illinois, July 14, 2022.
Enerox GmbH, better known as ‘CellCube’, and G&W Electric, a US headquartered power grid solutions provider, have signed a partnership agreement to offer a new and integrated microgrid solution to the US-market. G&W Electric adds CellCube’s Vanadium Redox Flow Battery (VRFBs) as a key technology to their microgrid solution portfolio and becomes a ‘Value Added Reseller’ for CellCube’s energy storage systems.
The partnership was initiated through G&W Electric’s construction of its own state of the art microgrid located in Bolingbrook, Illinois, U.S. with solar coupled to CellCube’s latest battery technology. CellCube’s Release 4 VRFB will provide more reliable and resilient power during seasonal peak demands, power quality issues and potential outages.
“After having recently established a 100% wholly owned subsidiary in Denver, Colorado, CellCube’s next preeminent project in North America is being realized”, says Alexander Schoenfeldt, CEO of CellCube Austria and USA. “We are extremely pleased to cooperate with G&W Electric after having won them not only as a customer but also getting engaged in the fast-growing microgrid business. There is no better way to start a partnership and go-to-market than through such a large-scale real-life project.”
G&W Electric’s microgrid will cover multiple use cases including the capability of islanding, peak load shaving for energy savings and sub cycle backup power for critical asset protection. It will integrate roof top solar, support their facility’s continuous operation, and actively participate in ComEd’s demand response program by isolating itself from the grid to help reduce peak load demand.
G&W Electric’s microgrid will eliminate its energy dependency during times when prices are high, and it will provide more reliable and resilient power during seasonal peak demands and power outages.
The 2MW-8MWh CellCube VRFB will operate at up to 150 percent of its nominal power to catch attractive power prices in the PJM market. The system has been designed to provide the overrated power up to 3MW for nearly two hours and at 100% load for up to four hours.
“We see the microgrid market is entering a new stage where energy applications that allow for storing electricity from renewables over longer periods of time is gaining more importance”, points out John Mueller, chairman and owner of G&W Electric. “CellCube’s long duration battery technology unlocks huge value for G&W Electric with the lowest total lifecycle cost of any technology in the market. For us, it is an obvious step to partner with the market leader of Long-Duration Energy Storage.”
Https://www.cellcube.com/cellcube-and-gw-electric-are-joining-forces-to-bring-microgrids-to-the-next-level/
V205 Vanadium Pentoxide Flake 98% USD / lb
*Europe : US$8.70/lb (0.00%)
??Ferro Vanadium 80% USD / kg
*China : US$38.00/kg (0.00%)
?*Europe : US$35.25/kg ?(-1.40%)
WWW.VANADIUMPRICE.COM
Fastmarkets Ferro-vanadium 70-80% V, in-whs Pittsburgh, $/lb. (Graph)
https://www.fastmarkets.com/commodity-price/ferro-vanadium-70-80-v-in-whs-pittsburgh-mb-fev-0002
Energy Storage Facility, at 400MW/1,600MWh the world’s biggest battery energy storage system (BESS) project so far, is back online.
Owner Vistra Energy had called a temporary halt to its operation and market participation after battery overheating incidents at both phases of the project.
The 300MW/1,200MWh Phase I, commissioned in December 2020, went out of action after a September 2021 incident, while Phase II’s separate 100MW output and 400MWh of capacity went online a month before that incident, only to be also switched off in February this year.
Vistra said in a statement yesterday (11 July) that a successful restart has been carried out with more than 98% of the total 400MW storing energy and releasing it to California’s CAISO grid. The plan communicated earlier by the company, had been to have it up and running during the first half of this year.
While the company had not responded to an earlier enquiry on progress from Energy-Storage.news last month, yesterday Vistra revealed it had been incrementally beginning to re-energise the battery energy storage system (BESS) in May and June.
The final 2%, or 7MW, will come back online once equipment (replacement batteries and electrical components) arrives on site and the company said it continues to work with regulators and local authorities as restoration work goes on.
A further expansion of the facility is ongoing, the independent power producer (IPP) said. Phase 3 will add 350MW/1,400MWh of capacity and the start of its installation was announced in January. The company has previously said that Moss Landing, at which BESS technology has been installed in the former turbine halls and other parts of a former gas power plant site, has the infrastructure and grid connection capacity to potentially be sized up to 1.5GW/6GWh.
Indeed, California utility PG&E, which is an offtaker for Vistra’s BESS, has also just deployed its own system at Moss Landing, the 182.5MW/730MWh Elkhorn Battery. While Vistra’s Moss Landing project uses LG Energy Solution battery racks, Tesla supplied the full BESS solution to PG&E for Elkhorn.
Batteries themselves were not the cause of the overheating, at least not at Phase 1, according to Vistra’s principal investigation findings published in January.
Instead, a fault-detection system responded to an overheating air-handling unit, triggering sprinklers that “improperly” sprayed water onto battery racks, which had been operating at normal temperature until the spraying occurred.
Vistra’s report also contained a number of corrective actions that the company said it would take.
www.ferroalloynet.com