Vanadium Markets: Drivers and restraints
Vanadium’s role in the growing energy grid storage will increase dramatically over the coming years, enabling wider use of renewable power such as wind and solar. According to the latest BNEF forecast, energy storage installations around the world will multiply exponentially, from a modest 9GW/17GWh deployed as of 2018 to 1,095GW/2,850GWh by 2040. Furthermore, the U.S. Biden administration has also pledged to deploy 1050-1570 gigawatts of solar power by 2050 and over 30,000 megawatts of offshore wind in the United States by 2030, therefore the need for energy storage is crucial.
Vanadium Flow Battery (VFB) is a type of rechargeable flow battery that employs Vanadium ions in different oxidation states to store chemical energy currently used for grid energy storage attached to power plants and electrical grids. Roll out of large-scale Vanadium flow batteries are underway across the globe, with many others being planned or under construction. Securing a strong supply of quality Vanadium minerals will be key to the growth of energy storage solutions. Read More
The properties of Vanadium allow for the use of a single, reusable electrolyte with no degradation. Renewable energies require a long-duration storage solution. Examples include reoccurring solar and wind energy generation, utilities and grid optimization and stabilization, commercial and industrial energy independence, and ultra-fast, safe EV charging. The power density of proprietary stack technology drives one of the lowest-cost energy storage solutions, and Vanadium flow cells enable up to a 5x reduction on core cell material requirements, long lives not limited by cycles, unlike Li-ion.
Because of this, Elcora is pleased to broaden its scope to supply materials and applications associated with battery technologies. Vanadium-based cell chemistries hold the promise to resolve persistent problems associated with large-scale energy storage.
More traditional applications of Vanadium in the steel and steel alloy industries is predicted to grow 10% year on year for the next decade to more than 150.000t of Vanadium a year, a figure which does not include the consumption of Vanadium in the emerging large energy storage battery markets.
