The PCE and VRB boards are as quiet as the night before...

The PCE and VRB boards are as quiet as the night before Christmas. The analogy might be quite apt as VRB has every opportunity at it's AGM on Friday night (Australian time) to show substantial progress and sales.

The optimistic amongst us think the deathly silence from the VRB camp for the last month presages great things which will be revealed at the VRB AGM.

Anyway, below is my recap of why I think vanadium flow batteries have a great future in systems ranging from the single household/installation through to substantial load smoothing and UPS.
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Weak grids would certainly benefit from storage to minimize peak loadings. Which storage system is best is ultimately a lifecycle price decision. We long-term VRB holders believe that the VRB-ESS is the premium storage method for the 50 kWhr to 10 MWhr range, the Regenysis sulphur battery (also owned by VRB) may be suitable up to several hundred MWhr with pumped hydro, compressed air storage in caverns and hydrogen suiting many MWhr centralized storage requirements.

Weak grids are often low total power grids such as Moab, that is why the economics are against upgrading the grid to meet peak requirements for a fairly small average load. Such systems often have large transmission losses, say 10% of total power every 100km, and/or high peaking generation costs. Such locations are ideally suited for renewable energy such as solar/wind/small hydro which have relatively low maximum power but zero fuel costs. Matching there low fuel cost systems with storage in weak supply areas such as isolated small grids or edge-of-grid locations may be more cost effective that delivering centrally generated power to meet short term peak power requirements. The VRB-VESS would appear to be ideally suited to such locations.

The VRB-VESS in the MWhr range may even have a premium value in CBD business districts in office towers for peak shaving and back-up power. Such systems would be paid for on an opportunity basis determined by negotiation between the tower occupants who want to avoid peak power costs and blackouts and centralized generators who want to delay building bigger power lines and bigger power plants.

HOMER suggests that under some scenarios a battery with total capacity about 20% that of a renewable energy scheme can substantially increase the value to a distributor of the power generated by the renewables, everyone wins. The renewable plant operator gets more $ for greater reliability of supply, the distributor can offset more demand from peaking plants against renewables and VRB sells more batteries.

Which brings us to the Friday meeting.

If VRB doesn't put figures on delivery times for the 130 odd 5 & 10kW batteries asked for and on the larger MW scale systems there will be large negative effects on the share price.

Announcement of major progress in the collaboration with Solon or a wind generator on the other hand would have a positive effect.

You have paid your money now we await the spin of the wheel.