I bet you didnt expect this..could be a gamechanger
The Fight For The Vanadium Roof Of The Future
Don’t hold your breath for TARC to show up in the toolkit of your friendly neighborhood roofer any time soon. The team still has to scale up the prototype and determine if it really is a practical solution.
By practical, they may be thinking of who’s gonna get all the vanadium together. Vanadium is an earth-abundant material but as of just a few years ago, thedomestic supply of vanadiumin the US was lagging.
Regardless, thevanadium flow battery fieldstarted to pick up steam around 2014 with support from theUS Department of Energyand it shows no signs of slowing down. If that energy efficiency vanadium roof business really does take off, the roofers will have to fight the battery makers for a cut of the supply chain, and both of them will have to beat down the metallurgical industry, which accounted for more than 90% of vanadium usage in the US as of 2019.