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Thanks.
Yes the intention was certainly there but don't think we've seen evidence it's actually happened. The BE website still says BE and IDC ownership, plus the Annual Report and Financial Results document from today mentions BELCO on page 5,6 and 45 indicating it comes under BE. Feel this could do with clarification from the company.
Today: BMN announce the start of construction of an electrolyte plant in SA that will manufacture the main ingredient for arguably the best long duration energy storage available which is a vital part of renewable self generation.
Also today: SA announce they will be increasing the threshold for self generation to 100MW, likely causing a significant increase in self generation capacity requiring energy storage.
What wonderful luck that is!
Attended an online lecture a couple of days a go with the Head of Major Infrastructure Tracking at Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) for UK Gov as the guest speaker. Spoke about various challenges they face etc… After the talk, we were asked to answer the following question on a form and send our response.
“What is the one piece of technology currently in existence or being developed that you think could unlock future growth for the country and scale for innovation?”
Naturally, I saw this as an opportunity to suggest VRFB. I wrote about a page worth, talking about the advantages, potential uses and how it might fit into a wider strategy where investment could lead to similar cost reductions as we’ve seen with renewable generation over the last decade or more. Also mentioned some inaccuracies from official papers I have come across. It’s not all perfect so I talked about some of the areas that need further development and only mentioned positives that I could back up, directing him to a few sources. My lecturer forwarded the following response from him today.
“Thanks for sharing the responses from the students. They look interesting. I have to admit the suggestion re Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries (VRFB) has caught my eye and whoever has written it seems to be convinced there's a counterfactual to the paper BEIS commissioned. Suspect I'll be looking into that one.”
If we see an avalanche of VRFB projects in the UK, I’m taking full credit!!! ????
Read the research paper behind that article the other week and it's quite interesting, especially as it was published so recently. It goes into reasonable depth describing VRFBs and as a peer reviewed journal entry you would hope it is accurate.
It points out that most of the remaining issues with VRFB technology is actually the Vanadium itself, specifically supply and costs before actually mentioning BMN and the electrolyte rental as a solution, which is great to see! There has been some discussion recently about the role BMN play in VRFB if they don't make the batteries themselves, but published research like this adds further weight to the idea that BMN are providing a solution to the most important aspect of VRFBs, breaking down those barriers with their vertical integration. They will both drive the technology and benefit from it, with a remarkable amount of control when all played out which shouldn't be under estimated in my opinion.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378775320311083#!
Hi all,
Unsure if this has been posted in the past but I have not noticed it. I am currently completing an assignment related to the UK energy strategy and stumbled across this report (hopefully the link works).
Motts Macdonald were appointed by UK Gov to create this report analysing storage technologies for the department of BEIS to use. See the table on page 7 showing a summary and I can’t help but feel flow batteries (particularly VRFB) have been hard done by!!!
No expert and get most of my info from this board and further research online so maybe I’m wrong… but showing similar lifetime durations to Lion not taking into account cycles seems misleading to say the least and the thing that really caught my eye is Lithium Ion having “No” Significant Operational Hazards on that summary. Surely this is simply false considering the fire risk? Looking at the specific VRFB section and that doesn’t do a good job at all of accurately highlighting all the benefits of VRFB technology either imo.
I guess my point is, if this if the information gov departments use to make decisions it is hardly surprising the roll out of the VRFB tech is slower than we would all like. Seems a shame… anyway, back to my assignment.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/910261/storage-costs-technical-assumptions-2018.pdf
Hi, new poster here but invested and have been silently following this board for a while!
I have been thinking the same thing for while, the technology simply isn't common knowledge. No matter how much effort is put into putting great content on this board (thank you all very much for that), the majority of people here already know what V is used for and the great opportunity presented to us (not saying people should stop..)
My point is, maybe we should do more than make it a conversation piece. For example, Bushveld Perspective is a great website, with tonnes of great information and from my understanding, run by Alfa? Is it not possible to skim a tiny bit of profit and put some effort into advertising the site a bit more? On facebook alone, for a relatively small amount of money,you can promote your sites/pages to 1000s extremely easily.
Ofcourse, I am not suggesting one person pays the bill, but perhaps a donation page could be set up?
Anyway, just a thought! Not sure if there are any legal implications but interested to see if anyone else has had any similar ideas!