Mining Review29 Jan 2020 07:31
This may have already been posted earlier this month but was posted on the Mining Review website today with an extract from 'Mining Review Africa Issue 1, 2020'
https://www.miningreview.com/battery-metals/battery-metals-long-term-demand-remains-strong-despite-price-woes/
Vanadium – the key to renewable energy storage
According to AIM-listed Bushveld Minerals, a low-cost, vertically integrated primary vanadium producer with assets in South Africa, Vanadium currently benefits from having two strong uses driving its demand.
One, the traditional steel sector, where vanadium is used as a strengthening alloy, which boasts a steady growth trajectory according to most general forecasts due to an increase in intensity in use of vanadium.
Two, the energy storage sector, where vanadium is the primary input into vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs), which not only benefits the burgeoning renewable energy sector, but significantly, and perhaps more importantly, helps make existing power systems more efficient through load balancing and other forms of grid savings.
Upside in demand from the energy storage sector
Research from Navigant forecasts that the size of the energy storage market will reach US$50 billion within the next 10 years, which represents a growth rate of 58% a year to exceed 100 GWh of capacity by 2027.
While multiple technologies are expected to be successful due to their unique technical and cost advantages and suitability to local conditions, VRFBs are expected to capture approximately 18% of the market, which equates to 20 GWh of demand and nearly $10 billion in revenue in the coming decade.
This confidence is shared by the World Bank, which recently allocated $1 billion to a global battery storage programme (aiming to raise an additional $4 billion in co-investment) to drive market creation and help drive down battery prices in low- and middle-income countries.
From a VFRB deployment perspective, there are already a number of large VRFB projects in progress, including the largest VRFB in the world currently under construction, demonstrating the technological benefits and proven use-cases in countries with established power grid infrastructure.
In South Africa, the country’s recently published Integrated Resource Plan 2019 specifically seeks novel ways to improve grid reliability and access to power over the long-term, with a dedicated allocation of over 2 GW for new energy storage.
As a result of these developments, Bushveld Minerals founder and CEO Fortune Mojapelo is confident that vanadium will continue to feed the primary steel market, while gaining further market share of the important energy sector through VRFBs.
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