Plus: Redox Flow Batteries; another billion + being invested in self driving cars
Just as US concerns about China’s dominance of the lithium market have been rising, China achieved a breakthrough that further reduces the cost to extract lithium. See headline story below. Yet there are other ways to store energy. Vanadium Redox Flow batteries are now being advanced in both Australia and California (stories below). Flow batteries are especially well suited to provide stationary power to the grid for longer durations. Wonder how they work? Check out the video below. Plus, want to see some neat maps of US electricity prices – see link near the bottom.
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Another couple busy weeks again, so watch for the next Energy Shift on June 2.
Thanks,
Peter
China cracks cheap lithium production in electric car breakthrough | China Economic Review
Comment: According to reports, China has achieved a record low US$2,180 per ton for extracting lithium, thanks to a technological breakthrough. International prices, by comparison range US$12,000-$20,000 with long term contract price being US$17,000 over the past year. I couldn’t find the scale of reduction they achieved (sorry).
CellCube to build huge grid scale vanadium battery in South Australia | RenewEconomy
Excerpt: Renewables firm Pangea Energy and vanadium battery producer CellCube have signed an agreement to build a massive US$200 million 50MW/200MWh battery storage system alongside a solar farm in South Australia.
Comment: Wonder how a redox flow battery works? Check out this 4 min video.
Innovative Battery Tech in California | Electrek
Comment: A 2MW, 8MWh vanadium redox flow battery is being installed in California. Whereas lithium-ion batteries with exceptionally fast response rates are good for helping to regulate the frequency of the grid, flow batteries are better suited for filling long duration power needs – in this case, about four hours worth.
GM’s self-driving unit Cruise gets $1.15 billion investment – Electrek
Comment: With $750 million of that from Honda and a commitment from Honda of $2B over 12 years, combined with a ramp up in employees from 40 a year ago to a thousand today and plans to double in the coming year – they definitely ought to have our attention.
With no upfront costs, this innovative financing tool makes energy efficiency affordable to all (in US)
Excerpt: This is possible through what’s called tariffed on-bill financing. Using energy efficiency loans available from the federal government, utilities pay the upfront costs of upgrading a home’s energy efficiency and then amend that home’s newly lowered bill with a tariff charge that pays back the cost of the upgrade month by month.
Key to making it work is that the tariff is calculated so the customer’s bill is always lower than it was before the upgrade. About 80 percent of the monthly savings go toward paying off the cost of the upgrade, and the rest goes to cutting the customer’s costs. In other words, they reimburse the utility for the cost of the upgrades and still pay less for energy each month than they did before the improvements were made. …more from GreenBiz
Shell’s industrial customers in Ontario to be offered Convergent’s BTM battery storage | Energy Storage News
Excerpt: Ontario’s policy of rewarding large users of energy that reduce their demand for grid energy at peak times has resulted in Shell New Energies announcing 21MWh of projects with Convergent Energy + Power.
Proposed $2B Offshore Wind Farm Wins Key Massachusetts Permit | US News
Excerpt: The Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board this week approved requests filed by Vineyard Wind for the construction and operation of the 84-turbine, 800-megawatt wind farm about 14 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard off the Massachusetts Coast.
South Korea once recycled 2% of its food waste. Now it recycles 95% | WE Forum
High-tech food waste recycling machines in Seoul. Image: Wikimedia
Comment: Compulsory recycling with biodegradable bags combined with smart bins that charge by weight. Now if they want people to reduce their food waste further (because they only need so much fertilizer), they’ll need to hike the disposal cost. Just like carbon emissions, tax the behaviours we don’t want.
VW takes on Tesla with electric hatchback it hopes will be the new Beetle | LA Times
Comment: So here is the question, with the initial cost of EVs still much higher than comparable gas ones, will the earlier adopters provide enough economies of scale for costs to come down further/enough to spur mass market adoption? The biggest car maker out there is staking $34 billion they’ll be able to make a profit, something not easy to do on electric cars.
A selection of other stories…
- Honeywell delivers 18MWh ‘biggest project yet’ in Ontario | Energy Storage News
- BP Chargemaster is to install 100 rapid chargers across 50 of its petrol station forecourts by the end of this year | Current±
- 4500MW of wind, solar and battery project to be added to Australian grid in next 18 months | Renew Economy
- This Map Shows How Much Electricity Costs in Every U.S. State | Thrillist
- Australian mayors want more ambition on climate change, 100% renewables | RenewEconomy