Don is absolutely correct about this article being a great read. I have copied the pertinent parts about vanadium.
It may well be a 'game changer' on it's own.
What a valuable area the ROF is. Great Read.
The problem is that a power grid requires really big batteries -- and current battery technology can't scale up that big. And so the future of renewable energy -- and thus the future of climate change, and the planet -- may rest on a little-known element: vanadium.
Why is vanadium so special? Vanadium is a strategic metal that is already irreplaceable for engineering in aerospace, aviation, automotive, shipping and construction. This is because vanadium has a remarkable ability to make steel alloys both stronger and lighter. In fact, vanadium-titanium alloys have the best strength-to-weight ratio of any engineered material. These ultra high-strength and super-light steels are often called the plastics of the 21st century, and demand for them is strong and growing.
BHP Billiton projects that more steel will be consumed in the next 20 years than was consumed during the entire 20th century. And highstrength low-alloy steel, made with vanadium, has outpaced crude steel production by 21.6% since 2006. Around the world, economic stimulus packages are now funding a global boom in infrastructure projects such as airports, pipelines and bridges. World markets estimate total global infrastructure spending over the next 20 years will reach $35-trillion -- with many of those projects requiring vanadium.
But while vanadium is most often associated with steel, it is poised to play a pivotal role in helping renewable energy achieve success. This is because vanadium also makes highly powerful and efficient batteries--batteries that have the potential for large-scale, power grid usage.
Vanadium batteries are chemically and structurally different from any other battery. For the most part, battery technology hasn't advanced in decades: they're toxic, hold only a few hundred recharge cycles, leak power when not in use and are prone to overheating (ever felt the battery heat up in your phone or your computer as it's charging? Imagine that on the scale of a football field).
But the Vanadium-Redox battery, invented at the University of New South Wales in Australia, could avoid these problems: They have a lifespan of tens of thousands of cycles, are non-toxic, do not self-discharge while idle and do not generate high amounts of heat when charging. On top of all that, the vanadium battery has a marvellous advantage over lithium-ion and most other types of batteries: It can absorb and discharge huge amounts of electricity instantly and do so over and over, making it the only battery technology today capable of connecting to power grids to help smooth out the unpredictable flow of energy stored from wind turbines and solar cells.
Vanadium may, therefore, hold the key to scaling renewable energy to national levels, helping reducing our dependence on fossil fuels.
