Botswana has vanadium energy storage

Is vanadium a critical material?

Vanadium is one of those materials. It belongs to the categories of ‘critical materials’ and ‘battery materials’ (U.S. Department of the Interior 2018 and European Commission 2020) and is predicted to benefit from high market growth projections because of its use in vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) (Hund et al. 2020).

Does vanadium affect the environment?

This trend brings into focus the potential health issues related to vanadium in the environment. Most vanadium enters the Earth's crust through volcanic rocks; hence, vanadium levels in groundwaters in volcanic aquifers are higher than in other aquifers and can exceed local guidance limits.

What happens if vanadium ceases to be a critical material?

Currently, world-wide, many projects are in the advanced stages of exploration and development. In the longer term, should vanadium cease to be a critical material and the law of supply and demand applies, the marginal mines will be decommissioned, and the best deposits will remain economic.

Does vanadium degrade?

First, vanadium doesn’t degrade. “If you put 100 grams of vanadium into your battery and you come back in 100 years, you should be able to recover 100 grams of that vanadium—as long as the battery doesn’t have some sort of a physical leak,” says Brushett.

Should Botswana import electricity from South Africa?

Since the Union of South Africa ran a highly developed power sector with surplus power, there was a consensus to avoid developing Botswana’s domestic resources further and instead import the electricity, just like many other commodities (Kanduza 2009, p. 40).

What is Botswana's energy mix?

Botswana’s energy mix consists of three primary energy sources – the Morupule A & B coal-fired plants, which, based on their capacity factors, have a 360 MW capacity, the Orapa (90 MW) and Matshelagabedi (70 MW) diesel plants, and 150 MW imports (BPC 2020) (Fig. 3). No information was provided by the author.