Resumen de Storing up potential
Falling prices of renewable energy, increased interest in energy storage and demand for versatile off-grid applications spell good news for the expanding vanadium battery market, Davide Ghilotti, Chief Reporter, finds. "A large proportion of the stationary energy storage market will be the coupling of solar with storage and in order to do this, it requires a storage technology that can be used heavily every day which will last over 25 years," Scott McGregor, CEO of UK LSE-listed vanadium battery producer redT Energy Plc, told IM. According to data from the US Department of Energy (DOE), the cost of a KWh of solar photovoltaic (PV) energy at plant in 2015 was at $0.125, while coal ranged at a low end of $0.095 and a high end $0.15/Kwh. "To utilise this resource [solar and renewables] more effectively, we need to remove the inherent issue of intermittency and create 'firm' power through the use of long duration industrial scale energy storage infrastructure, such as vanadium redox flow [batteries]." The broad geographical span of the company's current projects points also to another characteristic that will underpin VRBs' future market penetration: their adaptability to off-grid applications and secluded areas. According to Mark Smith, Largo's CEO, the vanadium market will see a sharp shift in the composition of demand primarily on the back of VRBs, which will lead to improved industry conditions for producers, counteracting the low price trend seen in 2015 and part of 2016. According to Roskill Information Services, chemicals and non-ferrous alloys take...
