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.
Bushveld Energy, which is 84% held by AIM-listed Bushveld Minerals Limited (LON:BMN) aims to transform Africa by addressing the continent’s greatest obstacle to faster growth and industrialisation, reliable electricity supply. The technology of the Vanadium Redox Flow battery (VRFB) combines the performance advantages of flow batteries with the simplicity of using just one natural element – vanadium.