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https://www.pv-magazine.com/2021/05/10/large-scale-vanadium-redox-flow-battery-takes-shape-in-australia/

Engineering groundwork for the AUD 20.3 million ($15.9 million) Yadlamalka vanadium flow battery near Hawker, South Australia, is now moving toward completion. With production of the 41 Invinity VS3 battery modules now ramping up for delivery later this year, pv magazine Australia recently caught up with Matt Harper, chief commercial officer of Invinity Energy Systems, to talk tech...

https://www.bestmag.co.uk/indnews/sixteen-companies-form-european-association-drive-flow-battery-deployment

international not-for-profit association has been formed by 16 companies with the goal of accelerating the deployment of energy storage and flexibility solutions through flow battery technology.

Flow Batteries Europe (FBE) represents flow battery stakeholders with the goal of shaping a long-term strategy for the flow battery sector.

This will include helping structure the legal framework for flow batteries at the EU level, contribute to the EU decision-making process, and help define R&D priorities.

The organisation was formed on 28 April.

Its main objectives are: to promote the advantages of flow battery technologies and support the European supply chain, to accelerate the development and deployment of the flow battery value chain, and scale up the technology via EU legislation, funding and energy storage projects.

FBE’s members include: five research centres, five industry players, five start-ups and one association.

Kees van de Kerk, managing director at German redox flow battery maker Volterion, was named the FBE’s first president during the first Statutory General Assembly.

Kees said: “I am looking forward to working with the members to share with the European Institutions the benefits of flow batteries and how a strong flow battery industry can contribute to Europe’s climate goals”.

The organisation’s three vice-presidents are: Tobias Janoschka (JenaBatteries), Alexander Schönfeldt (CellCube) and Paul Vollant (Largo Resources). Guillaume Chazalet (Kemiwatt) was named as the treasurer.

Anthony Price, the secretary general of FBE, said: “Between 2010 and 2019, only 7% of the world’s flow battery projects were installed in Europe, with much more R&D and commercial support taking place in North America and Asia.

"Forming FBE is a great opportunity to ensure that Europe takes full advantage of this exciting, safe and efficient battery energy storage technology.”

FBE invites all European industrial and institutional organisations interested in actively promoting flow battery technologies to join.

The founding members are: (Industry) CellCube, InEnergy, Largo Clean Energy, Voith, and W.L. Gore & Associates; (start-up) JenaBatteries, Kemiwatt, Pinflow energy storage, Vanevo, and Volterion; (research) CIC energiGUNE, Cenelest, Tekniker, University of Padua, and Zhaw; and (association member) Vanitec.

https://www.juniorminingnetwork.com/junior-miner-news/press-releases/663-tsx/lgo/98515-largo-secures-1-4-gwh-nameplate-capacity-stack-manufacturing-facility-and-product-development-center-appoints-energy-executive-as-vp-of-operations.html

TORONTO / May 05, 2021 / Business Wire / Largo Resources Ltd. ("Largo" or the "Company") (TSX: LGO) (NASDAQ: LGO) is pleased to announce key developments in its clean energy division to scale up manufacturing capacity of its VCHARGE± vanadium redox flow battery (“VRFB”) system to meet expected deployment targets.

The Company is also pleased to announce that Mr. Salvatore Minopoli has been appointed as Vice President of Operations of Largo Clean Energy with overall responsibility for commercial development and implementation of the strategic business growth plan.

VCHARGE± Manufacturing Strategy Developed

During Q1 2021, the Company finalized the manufacturing strategy for its clean energy division and began to establish the supply chain required to deliver on its targeted deployment timelines and cost structure. In April 2021, the Company secured a location for its stack manufacturing and product development center in Massachusetts, U.S. with an expected nameplate manufacturing capacity of 1.4 GWh per year. This facility will be the global headquarters of Company’s clean energy division. The Company also approved a location in New Hampshire, U.S. for its clean energy division’s electrolyte production and manufacturing of containerized VRFB systems.

Paulo Misk, President and CEO of Largo, stated: “We continued to make considerable progress in advancing our clean energy division with the view of becoming a leading player in the long-duration energy storage sector with our superior VRFB technology. I am pleased to report that the Company secured its U.S. based stack manufacturing facility and product development center, which is expected to have an annual manufacturing capacity of 1.4 GWh.”

He continued: “Supported by robust sector demand and global carbon reduction targets, we continue to view the strategic growth opportunity associated with our clean energy division as a strong source of value creation for the Company. We are planning Largo’s Battery Day to highlight our development strategy, showcase the VCHARGE± system technological differentiations and detail the Company's sizable growth opportunity in the long-duration energy sector as we position ourselves toward a sustainable future. We will provide a date for this event soon.”

The Company is progressing with the certification of its VCHARGE± system under UL1973 and UL9540 requirements and expects to conclude this process shortly. Hiring of additional personnel to support the Company’s anticipated targets continues.

https://www.agriland.co.uk/farming-news/work-continues-on-10-million-project-at-belfast-wastewater-treatment-works/

Development is underway of a £10 million programme of work at Belfast Wastewater Treatment Works, Duncrue, to construct two new treatment tanks.

These tanks are equivalent in volume to six Olympic-size swimming pools – to cope with current and short-term future wastewater requirements.

This major investment will protect the environment, support development and aid economic growth in the city.

The two new treatment tanks will provide much-needed additional capacity and enhance the existing process to ensure that the discharge to Belfast Lough remains compliant with Northern Ireland Environment Agency standards.

The new assets will also facilitate essential improvements within the associated sewerage networks and will enable maintenance works to be undertaken at the other treatment tanks at a future date.

This significant interim investment is one of the first capital delivery projects of the ‘Living With Water Programme’, and will ensure that key wastewater treatment works for Belfast remains compliant until further works are carried out to provide the main increase in capacity and achieve more stringent water quality standards.

Another water project, which is taking place across the Northern Ireland border in Carlingford Lough and Lough Foyle, has reached the halfway stage.

The Shared Waters Enhancement and Loughs Legacy (SWELL) project – which is being led by NI Water working in partnership with Irish Water, the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI), and Loughs Agency and East Border Region – was awarded €35 million in 2019, as part of the EU’s INTERREG VA Programme, managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB).

It comes two weeks after a new government report revealed Northern Ireland has failed to make any significant progress towards its river basin water quality targets over the last six years.

The four-year project involves the construction of new wastewater treatment works, as well as upgrades to sewerage networks at strategic locations on both sides of the border to address wastewater pollution in Carlingford Lough, and Lough Foyle.

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4422329-vanadium-miners-news-for-the-month-of-april-2021

Europe vanadium pentoxide spot prices fell slightly the past 30 days. Roskill believes that vanadium prices reached a low in Q4 2020 and should gradually rebound in 2021.

Vanadium market news - China is expected to install around 30-60GWh of new energy storage capacity by 2030, corresponding to 28,000-56,000 t/yr of extra demand for vanadium pentoxide.

Vanadium company news -

Largo Resources to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol "LGO”, production ramp to 1,100 V2O5t/month to be completed by end Q2, 2021.

Neometals signs Barrambie off-take, announces low Barrambie OpEx, plans to list on the London Stock Exchange-AIM about Q3 2021.

TNG signs HOA with V-Flow Tech for establishment of a JV to commercialise VRFB systems in regional Australia.

A Roskill post states:

The vanadium market is set to tighten over the year and more so in 2022, driven by higher demand but also by tighter supply, as Chinese steel **** producers are running close to capacity. Outside of China, incremental supply will also be limited and come mainly from AMG’s new facility in Ohio, USA, and Bushveld’s Vametco gradually increasing its production in South Africa. Roskill believes that vanadium prices reached a low in Q4 2020 and should gradually rebound in 2021.....Vanadium redox batteries (VRBs) could become a major market for vanadium amid growing demand for energy storage, should the technology develop....On the supply side, Roskill does not expect significant tonnages from new projects to enter the market before 2024.

Roskill estimates that vanadium demand "for VRFB markets" could rise to 31,000 tons by 2025, amounting to a rise of 3,100% in a decade

Source: Australian Vanadium presentation

In 2017 Robert Friedland stated:

We think there’s a revolution coming in vanadium redox flow batteries....”

Vanadium market news
On March 25 Stockhead reported:

China’s big battery sector lights a rocket under vanadium prices......Steel still accounts for around 90% of vanadium consumption. Of the remainder, 9% is used in aerospace alloy and chemical catalysts, and 1% goes into VRFBs, according to Argus. Vanadium prices are now stirring as steel consumption soars and VRFB developments become real. China’s aim to accelerate a transition to lower energy consumption and to stimulate demand for renewable energy and energy storage products has prompted local companies to get cracking on VRFB developments, Argus says. On March 15, VRB announced plans to build a 100MW solar photovoltaic and 100MW/500MWh vanadium flow battery integrated power station in central China’s Hubei province. Shanghai Electric has unveiled plans for a 100MW/400MWh VRFB project in Yancheng in east China’s Jiangsu province. Rongke Power is on track to launch a 200MW/800MWh facility in Dalian in northwest China’s Liaoning province this year...... “Market participants estimate around 9.25t o

Hmmmmmm....

https://www.newsletter.co.uk/health/coronavirus/ni-health-authorities-to-test-sewage-to-keep-track-of-spread-of-covid-19-3213435

The Department of Health in Northern Ireland plans to test sewage for coronavirus in order to keep an eye on how the virus is spreading through the population, it has emerged.

That is just one of the measures to keep a lid on the pandemic found in a recent update to the department’s ‘Covid-19 response strategy’, outlined in a 42-page document published last week .

Testing sewage could even help scientists spot any new variants that crop up, the document states.

“Wastewater surveillance can detect the SARS-Cov-2 virus in both symptomatic and asymptomatic populations,” it explains.

“As such, testing will become an important part of the overall approach to the long-term management and tracking of the virus.

“Wastewater surveillance complements clinical surveillance by providing information on the prevalence and spread of disease in the population and will have an important role in monitoring overall viral activity and in identifying any new variants that may emerge.”

Two wastewater treatment sites are already undergoing “sampling and testing”, it adds, with plans for further sites to be developed “in the coming months”.

The department say the testing work also raises the possibility of “tracking a range of other harmful pathogens of importance in terms of both public and animal health”.

Other testing work outlined in the document includes antibody testing “Wastewater surveillance complements clinical surveillance by providing information on the prevalence and spread of disease in the population and will have an important role in monitoring overall viral activity and in identifying any new variants that may emerge.”

Two wastewater treatment sites are already undergoing “sampling and testing”, it adds, with plans for further sites to be developed “in the coming months”.

The department say the testing work also raises the possibility of “tracking a range of other harmful pathogens of importance in terms of both public and animal health”.

The document covers new testing technologies, contact tracing, supporting capacity and resilience in the wider health system, rebuilding plans, primary care, Covid centres, financial support, dental services, PPE and workforce support.

A spokesperson for the department said: “This Covid-19 Response Strategy is a living document and has been updated to reflect the rapidly changing environment since the start of the pandemic.

https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/covid-19-doh-action-plansframeworksstrategies

COVID-19 Response Strategy - pages 7-8

https://m.calcalistech.com/Article.aspx?guid=3905474

Israel-based private equity firm Fortissimo Capital is leading a $25 million funding round in Israeli startup BreezoMeter. Calcalist has learned that Fortissimo will invest between $15-20 million of the total sum.

The funding round values BreezoMeter at $60 million. BreezoMeter aims to monitor air quality and improve people’s health by using atmospheric data that is acquired through multiple sensing stations, AI, and machine-learning algorithms that are trained to recognize and detect several different types of pollutants. BreezoMeter’s technology aims to monitor and report on air quality and inform people so that they may take precautionary steps ahead of time. The company was co-founded in 2014 by environmental engineer CEO Ran Korber, who decided that existing technology didn’t adequately address these concerns, and Emil Fisher. Korber’s wife also suffers from asthma, so he understood the problem first-hand.

The company had previously raised $12.75 million, with its most recent round coming at the end of 2018.
Entrée Capital was the company's biggest investor to date and is set to become its second-largest shareholder following the new round.

BreezoMeter's platform is available in 100 countries and the company has partnered with pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, as well as Dyson, Apple, and cosmetic corporation Loreal, among others.
Aside from healthcare companies, Breezometer has also signed contracts with companies that specialize in skincare, such as Dermalogica, Clarins, and Loreal. Environmental pollutants can have harmful effects on people’s skin as well, as skin is the largest organ in the body and often exposed to the elements. Currently, along with Loreal, the company has developed the My Skin Track UV app that allows users to track environmental stressors that they may have been exposed to, and based on skin type or potential diseases, analyze how that will impact a user’s skin. It then recommends to a user which products, such as sunscreen, they may use to ensure that their skin stays healthy.
An additional product that is set to hit the market soon and uses BreezoMeter’s technology is Perso, an AI-based system that can offer personalized beauty and skincare recommendations by analyzing a forecast of weather data, and recommending which products a customer should use.
BreezoMeter is also in agreement with Apple, where the latest iOS version of Apple's software in iPhones has integrated its real-quality data.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.miningweekly.com/article.php%3fa_id=581995&rep_id=5582

An energy expert has written to the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) and the Independent Power Producer (IPP) Office to highlight the expensive shortcomings of the Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (RMIPPPP), which he says should be replaced by a materially larger, yet more cost-effective, procurement programme based primarily on renewables and storage, rather than power ships.

DPWI, together with The Presidency, is overseeing the implementation of the Strategic Infrastructure Projects, or SIPS, earmarked for priority implementation as part of government’s economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. The RMIPPPP is one of the 62 initial SIPS Gazetted in line with the Infrastructure Development Act.

On March 18, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe named eight preferred bidders under the 20-year RMIPPPP, including three fully imported Karpowership floating gas-fired power plants, which collectively secured 1 220 MW of the 2 000 MW on offer.

Besides the power ships, the other projects named as preferred bidders, and making up the 1 850 MW to be contracted under the scheme, included various combinations of solar photovoltaic (PV), wind and gas or diesel generators, along with battery storage systems.

The preferred bidders are required to reach financial close by no later than the end of July 2021.

All projects had to meet a standalone 05:00 in the morning to 21:30 at night dispatch-load stipulation, without accessing any other existing infrastructure.

Energy consultant Clyde Mallinson, who has written the letter to the IPP Office, warned in October, and ahead of the December RMIPPPP bid deadline, that the rules treating each project as separate generation “islands” were heavily skewed in favour of gas-to-power solutions and would result in extremely costly bids.

He said the standalone architecture, which made it impossible for projects to tap into existing grid infrastructure to help reduce the cost of production, should be overhauled to avoid an outcome that would lock in “dirty and expensive energy for the next 20 years”.

Mallinson also question why government was targeting to procure only 2 000 MW in a context where the true deficit was far larger. It has been estimated at 5 000 MW by Eskom.

In the event, the rules were not adjusted, and the tariffs bid by the preferred bidders range from a low R1 468/MWh to R1 885/MWh.

In his briefing note sent to the IPP Office, Mallinson argues that a “systems” response that deploys all the country’s existing electricity assets would be a far cheaper way to respond to the electricity emergency than the RMIPPPP.

Such an approach would allow new projects to interact with the country’s existing generation, storage, transmission, and distribution infrastructure to unlock “complementary or mutually beneficial interaction”.

https://www.miningmx.com/top-story/45934-workers-call-strike-at-bushveld-minerals-vametco-near-rustenburg-over-employee-benefits-deal/

WORKERS at Bushveld Minerals’ Vametco vanadium-producing facility in South Africa’s North West province downed tools on Friday in protest against the terms of an employee participation plan (EPP), the company announced.

An EPP had been previously agreed with the Association of Mineworkers & Construction Union (AMCU) which is the representative union at the mine. Benefits included production-related bonuses employees receive during the year.

Whilst Bushveld Minerals was yet to receive a formal notice from organised labour, it believed worker expectations were not in line with the agreed EPP.

The industrial action was unprotected; in other words not sanctioned in terms of the Labour Relations Act protocol.

This development could represent a bit of a blow for Bushveld Minerals which was already pushing for a strong performance out of Vametco this year after recently unplanned maintenance-related stoppages hurt fourth quarter production. Further downtime of some 35 days’ duration had been pencilled in at Vametco this year.

Bushveld Minerals’ vanadium production for 2021 was recently estimated to be between 4,100 tons to 4,350 tons. This represented a 13% to 20% increase over 2020 production (3,631 tons), including the planned maintenance at Vametco. Bushveld also produces vanadium from Vanchem, facilities situated near to Emalahleni in Mpumalanga province

Bushveld Minerals said that during “a series of meetings” between senior management and AMCU it was agreed that “… all reasonable steps would be taken to urge employees to safely return to work”.

Bushveld Minerals plans to expand its South African vanadium production to 8,400 tons a year from 2,931 in its 2019 financial year. All in all, its expansion ambitions carry a $100m price tag. It spent $53m last year buying the Vanchem facilities from a rival company. It also has the Mokopane vanadium resource that it wants to develop.

Vanadium is used in the steel manufacturing process but it has also been earmarked to play a greater role in the development of stationary long-life batteries which are thought to have a role in decarbonisation.

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