Furthermore, vanadiumis a readily accessible element in many different easy-to-find minerals.The rest of the battery is made up of equally accessible materials, making iteasy to assemble and recycle, in comparison to lithium-ion batteries, whichneed metals like cobaltand manganese to function. Not only is the mining of these metals veryenvironmentally damaging, as it causes toxic heavy metals to leach frommines and trigger extensive habitat loss. But refining these metals andassembling them into a battery also requires a lot of energy and planetwrecking carbon emissions. These metals are also highlytoxic, making recycling and end-of-life disposal tricky. Overall, thismeans that redox flow batteries are much better for the environment.
This simplicity, combined with easy access to materials and easy assembly,makes redox flow batteries incredibly cheap. Right now, lithium-ion batteriescost, on average, $132per kWh. This means that if Fort Carson were to use a lithium-ion batteryfor its base, it would cost a massive $1.32 million. But redox flow batteriescan go as low as $25per kWh without compromising performance, making the Fort Carsonbattery only a quarter of a million dollars.
Butthis cheapness isn’t just for one-off purchases. Lithium-ion batteries onlylast about 10 to 20 years as grid batteries. After that, they must bereplaced or expanded to compensate for the drop in capacity. Meanwhile, theredox flow battery should last for well over a century with minimalmaintenance, making flow batteries exponentially cheaper in the long run.
Add to My Watchlist
What is My Watchlist?