Vanadium to revolutionise green energy

Vanadium to revolutionise green energy | International Mining
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By Marc Davis, www.BNWnews.ca The ‘Holy Grail’ of renewable energy - grid scale power storage - appears to be finally within reach. So is the ability to make electric cars far more practical or user-friendly. This is why the world’s most influential leaders, ranging from US President Obama to the Premier of China and even famed multi-billionaire Warren Buffet, are all heralding vanadium. Governments the world over are directing billions of dollars of grants into vanadium’s fast-emerging role in the electrification of society’s energy supplies. And major corporations are likewise investing in this ‘next big thing’ in the hopes of addressing global warming and society’s dependence on dwindling fossil fuel reserves.By way of explanation, a new generation of advanced green batteries is set to do everything from beefing up electric cars to providing uninterrupted solar and wind power to whole cities. That’s because of a crucial new battery ingredient, vanadium, which can cost-effectively supercharge batteries of any size, even ones so big they have to be housed in substations for large-scale power grid usage. Most significantly, vanadium-enhanced batteries can store prolific amounts of energy, which solves the major drawback of alternative energy. For instance, solar power currently cannot be harnessed for use when the sun doesn’t shine, and at night-time. Likewise, the electricity generated by wind turbines presently goes to waste when the wind stops blowing or when the wind speed is too high or too low.

The only limitation to this breakthrough battery technology is the scarcity of the planet’s economically viable vanadium deposits. So the world’s few primary vanadium producers will be pressed to their very limits in trying to satisfy a looming year-on-year exponential surge in demand for this increasingly invaluable 21st century metal. That’s great news for a tiny handful of mining companies around the world that control these limited mineral resources, according to Bill Radvak, CEO of American Vanadium Corp.

With extensive vanadium rich land holdings in Nevada, American Vanadium is developing what promises to be the only vanadium mine in the US. Not only is it expected to be a low-cost operation but the project’s location is also another major competitive advantage, according to Radvak. That’s because the world’s largest economy has to import the majority of its annual vanadium needs. “The US gets most of its domestic vanadium supplies by way of a byproduct of oil refining. But it’s expensive to extract,” Radvak says. “And the rest comes from such politically problematic jurisdictions as Russia, South Africa and China - all of which account for about 90% of the world’s reserves.”

He adds that North America’s automotive and battery manufacturing industries are very concerned about the possible disruption of long-term supplies when dealing with these overseas vanadium producers. Even President Obama has expressed serious concerns about supplies of strategic metals needed for green batteries.