Highlights

Australia’s inventories of critical materials for batteries have seen major increases recently, with vanadium up 23%, lithium up 8%, rare earths up 4% and platinum group elements up 185% in the year to December 2020.

Energy Dome’s emission-free energy storage method uses carbon dioxide in a closed loop charge/discharge cycle that can store and dispatch renewable energy onto the grid over periods from four to 24 hours.

French renewable developer Neoen has signed a seven year agreement with energy giant AGL to provide 70 MW / 140 MWh of ‘virtual battery capacity’ in New South Wales.

A major Western Australian mine targeting the global vanadium battery market was this week found to be bankable, with feasibility studies confirming the project’s “strong commercial case for development,” its owner Australian Vanadium Limited said.

Indian renewable energy developer Greenko Group has partnered with Belgium’s John Cockerill to develop a green hydrogen electrolyser factory with a capacity of 2GW per annum. The partnership will also see the two companies jointly develop large-scale green hydrogen projects in India.

To encourage industry to consider the battery mineral opportunities currently sitting in neglected heaps around the country, Geoscience Australia and its partners are developing an Atlas of Australian Mine Waste. The public database hopes to highlight the opportunity in reprocessing mining waste for new markets.

Water-from-air technology company Aqua Aerem’s Desert Bloom green hydrogen project received Major Project Status from the Northern Territory Government last year, now it has announced a partnership with Japanese energy giant Osaka Gas which not only brings the 10GW project closer to reality, but has also seen the company boost its ambitions to 20GW in light of “quickly developing demand.”

The global battery energy storage market will grow to US$10.84 billion (AU$14.54 billion) in 2026, with around two-thirds of the demand concentrated in the Asia Pacific region.

The CSIRO will invest $50 million in four new programs to drive critical breakthroughs in electric vehicle batteries and creating storage solution which could “mimic pumped hydro.”

In other news, GM and Honda are jointly developing affordable EVs, the Biden administration holds an EV industry meeting, and Mercedes-Benz Energy agrees to supply EV batteries to BatteryLoop for its scalable, circular energy storage products.