Date: Sep 6, 2018
A German gas storage firm is planning to make a battery big enough to power the entire city of Berlin for an hour – leaving Tesla and its proposed plans for a South Australian Gigafactory in the dark.
EWE Gasspeicher’s battery would use vanadium redox flow technology, marking a big step forward from Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s lithium-ion battery, which can only provide two per cent of Adelaide’s power needs at any time.
Vanadium flow batteries are also safer than lithium-ion.
This application of vanadium has peaked investors’ interest in the last 12 months.
Prices have been rising continuously as a result. The August price of ferro-vanadium was $US79/kg (A$108) — a 511 per cent rise on the $US13/kg price seen in late 2015.
This is great news for ASX-listed companies like Pursuit Minerals (ASX:PUR) which has secured mineral reservations covering the Koitelainen and Karhujupukka vanadium projects in northern Finland as well as its Airijoki project in northern Sweden.
In addition to being a close neighbour to Germany where vanadium is being put to good use, Pursuit’s Finnish projects have the added bonus of favourable changes in regulations.
