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https://www.**********.co.uk/articles/verici-dx-first-day-of-dealings--86503d8/

This story is about small lithium batteries but it adds to people's awareness of the reputation that lithium batteries are getting for having a fire risk potential. Good for VFBs I reckon.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/26/zombie-batteries-causing-hundreds-of-waste-fires-experts-warn?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Thanks Bluerill. Appreciate the heads up.

Have searched without success for a link. Pretty useless at research really. Have you got a link Bluerill?

" I'm going to have to take a hit at some point" Really?

I don't know what your timescale is but IES's market cap is only £97 mn. At the moment IES is still in the proof of concept stage with customers. I don't think it is but they're the ones who have the money. A couple of decent orders and this is a different ball game. The danger is that those orders won't come but IES seem confident that we'll see progress on that front this year and early next. California, where IES have just won a competition to supply on 4 different projects, is heating up, if you'll excuse the pun, and it looks like I gw of long duration storage will be needed by 2026. IES will be in there pitching you cannot your life and I wouldn't be at all surprised if they were successful over there. If they are you can forget the £97 mn valuation. Its a gamble but I'm much more confident about my investment now than I was 6 months ago when I nearly sold.

https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/the-first-long-duration-storage-procurement-has-arrived

£10

Thanks for trying.

I couldn't open the attachments. It might be the one before but I was hoping it would refer to the 4 successful IES applications. No worries if it doesn't. Thanks for trying.

Superzero8, can you open the attachments?

https://www.energy.ca.gov/solicitations/2019-12/gfo-19-305-developing-non-lithium-ion-energy-storage-technologies-support

Good find. The remit from CEC was that applications were limited to non-lithium projects and IES did very well in getting accepted for 100% of their applications. But its worth considering why the CEC was asking for non-lithium projects and I think it fits in very well with Larry has been telling us. There is a growing acceptance that lithium presents a fire risk and the Californians have voiced their concerns to him. Apparently lots of the fires have been started by electrical faults/accidents and they don't want to add to the dangers more than they can. I'm not surprised that IES did well considering vanadium's inert characteristics. I now hope to hear that IES has won a substantial order from a Californian generator or supplier. Would cheer us up enormously in this time of restrictions.

How many times have we heard that lessons have been learnt after every disaster we have witnessed? The NHS is especially apt to hide behind these weasel words.

Thank you Alfacomp. I did give her some links and points so she is more up to speed but I wonder how many other council planning committees are lacking on the knowledge front. You'll have to google it but I found another lithium battery fire recently in Chester. I didn't follow it up but made my local fire services CEO and union rep aware of the 2 fires and about what could be happening nationally. There could be fatalities to look forward maybe.

It might be worth considering why California is looking at non-lithium storage and it fits in very well with what Larry was reporting about their fear of lithium fires.

A couple of months ago I was in an email conversation with the chair of the Liverpool Council Planning Committee. It was concerning a planning application for battery storage at Carnegie Road in the city, close to high density population. The Chair had never heard of VFB's nor the fires that have occurred with lithium batteries. I'm sure she will remember the correspondence as the storage facility in question, newly built, suffered a fire which looks like it was lithium battery related. I rather think that LCC would have scrutinised the planning application in more knowledgeable depth if they'd had the information they now do have. Presumably California's CEC have more knowledge than LCC about lithium fire risk and are looking for viable safe alternatives and it seems that IES has fitted their criteria.

I don't know if you know much about central versus state power in the US but the states have enormous powers compared to our county councils. Trump will have little say in what California, for example, spends it's money on. Unless he wants to introduce executive orders, which is unlikely, California will do whatever they want.

Its disappointing to have no news of additional orders and that is shared by Larry as you can see from the language he has chosen to use. The phraseology is not of someone trying to hide the truth IMHO but of someone who, although disappointed, is confident in what he says. He has, however, told us twice now that he is confident that new orders will be signed this year and perhaps more early next year. That is nailing your colours to the mast as they say. Certainly the Market gets it.

Talking of colours, why is YellowF1 here? He clearly is not invested nor would he judging by his opinion of the company and the BOD. I've asked him 3 times why he is here over the months but a reply there was none. I asked him if he has an emotional need to make people feel uncertain about their decisions. Maybe there's another need which I can't figure out but, until he tells us, we can only speculate and hope he recovers.

"Its a shame EDF don't plan to use IES for future Superhubs!!."

Where did you get that info?

I understand that the electrolyte represents 30% of the cost of a unit. Mitigation of this upfront cost should be a huge boost for the product. Let's see if it translates in to orders, some of which might have been held back waiting for this agreement and option. Very positive piece of news.

In a recent video IES said that the authorities in California have concerns about lithium batteries catching fire. In view of the fact that some of the fires were caused by the power grid last year it's no wonder they have concerns. Imagine the mud slinging if one of these lithium battery installations ignited and caused a large forest fire that engulfed houses and people and it came out that benign flow batteries could have been used instead. The risk of enormous compensatory claims would be high as well.

Storage is going to be huge. No doubt about it.

https://news.mit.edu/2020/assessing-value-battery-energy-storage-future-power-grids-increasing-integration-wind-and-solar-0812

https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/california-we-need-1gw-long-duration-storage-by-2026