Copper prices slipped on Monday as weak data from top consumer China reinforced poor demand and growth prospects due to the prolonged U.S.-China trade dispute which has undermined economic activity globally.

Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange was down 0.9% at $5,870 a tonne at 1030 GMT. Prices of the metal used by investors as a gauge of economic health hit 15-month highs of $6,011 last week on hopes for an end to the trade war.

“At the moment it’s to do with the trade war and how that develops,” said Commerzbank analyst Daniel Briesemann. “The market is waiting for Chinese industrial production and investment data due later this week.”

DATA: China’s producer price index, seen as a guide to corporate profitability, fell 1.6% in October from a year earlier, marking the steepest decline since July 2016, official data showed.

New bank loans in China fell more than expected to the lowest in 22 months in October. Loans are used as a yardstick of activity among smaller and private companies which generate a sizeable share of Chinese growth and jobs.

Chinese industrial output and investment data for October are due Thursday. Both are highly correlated with metals demand.

TRADE: Optimism about a deal faded after President Donald Trump said he has not agreed to rollbacks of U.S. tariffs sought by China.

TECHNICALS: Support for copper stands at the 21-day moving average currently at $5,861, followed by the 100-day moving average at $5,833.

NICKEL: Prices of the stainless steel ingredient fell to $15,705, the lowest since August and a drop of more than 15% since early September. It was last down 2.3% at $15,820.

Nervousness about supplies from top exporter Indonesia faded after the government allowed nine companies to resume nickel ore exports following reports of ore export rules violations and inspections.

However, historically low stocks of nickel — around 65,000 tonnes — in LME registered warehouses are a concern for users of the market MNISTX-TOTAL looking for nearby delivery.

This is why the premium for the cash over the three-month contract hit $214 a tonne at the start of October. The premium is now a discount of $1, but traders say more nickel needs to go on LME warrant for larger discounts CMNI0-3.

ALUMINIUM: The spotlight is also on the premium of $14 CMALZ19-3 a tonne for the December aluminium over the three-month contract, which has been ticking up for a few days. Traders say it is needed to attract the large amounts of metal that need to be delivered to buyers.

PRICES: Three-month aluminium was down 0.1% to $1,805, zinc rose 0.2% to $2,487, lead gained 0.3% to $2,114 and tin ceded 0.7% to $16,590.

Inspired by diving bell spiders and rafts of fire ants, scientists at the University of Rochester have created a metallic structure that does not sink in water, no matter how much you force into water.

Scientists have previously developed a groundbreaking technique that they developed for using femtosecond bursts of lasers to ‘etch’ the surfaces of metals with intricate micro- and nanoscale patterns. The technique helps make the surfaces superhydrophobic, or water repellent. However, after being immersed for a long time, the surfaces start losing their hydrophobic properties.

The diving bell spiders and fire ants can survive under or on the surface of the water for a long time. How? By trapping air in an encased area, the spiders, for instance, create a dome-shaped underwater web—a so-called diving bell—that they load up with air carried from the surface between their superhydrophobic legs and stomach abdomens. Similarly, fire ants can form a raft by trapping air among their superhydrophobic bodies.

Chunlei Guo, professor of optics and physics, said, “That was a fascinating inspiration. The key insight is that multifaceted superhydrophobic (SH) surfaces can trap a large air volume, which points towards the possibility of using SH surfaces to create buoyant devices.

This new structure consists of the treated surfaces on two parallel aluminum plates facing inwards-enclosed and free from external wear and abrasion. The surfaces are separated by just the right distance to trap and hold enough air to keep the structure floating—in essence, making a waterproof compartment. The superhydrophobic surfaces will prevent water from entering the compartment in any event when the structure is compelled to submerge in water.

During experiments, scientists forcefully tried to submerge the material for two months. But, the structure denied immersing and bounced back to the surface after the load was released. What’s more, it also retained this ability even after being punctured several times.

When scientists first demonstrated the etching technique, it took an hour to pattern a one-inch-by-one-inch area of the surface. Now, by using lasers seven times as powerful, and faster scanning, the lab has speeded up the process, making it more feasible for scaling up for commercial applications.

Scientists noted, “The discovery could lead to manufacturing an unsinkable ship and also electronic monitoring devices that can survive in the long term in the ocean.”

Moixa passes 10k smart battery milestone in Japan

November 11, 2019 By News Team

Moixa, the UK-based pioneer of smart battery and EV charging software, has announced that its GridShare smart software is optimising 100MWh of batteries across 10,000 homes in Japan.

This is believed to be the largest single fleet of batteries under management in the world.

The milestone was achieved within one year of launching the GridShare Japan service with its partner ITOCHU, the Fortune 500 company. The partnership has resulted in ITOCHU’s share of the domestic battery market rising to nearly 20 per cent.

Simon Daniel, CEO of Moixa, said: “We want to accelerate the global transition to a zero-carbon energy system. Smart charging of batteries in homes and electric vehicles provides the critical tool to help achieve decarbonisation by storing and shifting solar and wind-resources. At the same time, it helps save money for consumers and reduce infrastructure cost.”

Moixa’s GridShare software enables aggregation and smart charging of batteries to grid signals. This provides additional value from aggregating battery fleets to provide GWh scale virtual power plants to help balance the grid.

Moixa’s experience gained from managing large fleets of bi-directional batteries provides a blueprint for how to smart charge fleets of batteries and apply the technology to smart charge electric vehicles or any “battery on wheels”.

Koji Hasegawa, general manager of Industrial Chemicals Department of ITOCHU said: “Our customers are getting extra value from their batteries with Moixa’s GridShare software. It’s enabling them to maximise their solar resources and prepare for weather risk.”

In March 2019, Honda and Moixa unveiled a partnership to deliver an energy management solutions business for Europe that creates increased value for EV customers and power system operators, due to be rolled out in 2020.

Furthermore, Honda has selected Moixa as its European smart charging partner to leverage this experience to support the rapid growth of electric vehicles across Europe. Moixa has also launched a smart battery partnership in Ireland with Energia.

AI: saving money and cutting carbon

Moixa’s GridShare software embeds artificial intelligence into home batteries and EV chargers. By learning energy consumption patterns and developing tailored charging plans for each household and vehicle battery, GridShare saves customers money and helps reduce their carbon emissions, by optimising daily and to real-time markets.

By enabling fleets of assets to react to various signals, such as pricing or constraints, it also provides valuable flexibility services to local energy networks, enabling improved economics to partners and customers, and a cleaner, smarter energy system.

Moixa has gathered and analysed over 50 terabytes of data to date on household consumption, generation patterns, weather predictions, energy tariff costs, battery performance and savings, enabling increasingly accurate predictions and improved battery optimisation.

In the US and globally, the increasing demand for clean, renewable sources of energy is fuelling the need for batteries. Energy storage systems (ESS) are powering this global clean energy transition, many of which feature batteries as an integral part.

The US energy storage industry broke national records for deployments in 2018. But 2019 and 2020 will continue this ground-breaking trend, with an expected doubling and tripling in US deployment of energy storage projects respectively. By the end of this year, global solar power capacity alone will have risen to more than 26 times the 2009 level – this works out as enough electricity to power 100 million homes in the US annually.

The importance of batteries in powering this growth is reflected by Bloomberg NEF’s estimates of global investments in batteries amounting to $843 billion by 2050. Market analysts Avicenne have predicted more than double the growth of batteries needed for energy storage applications between 2015 and 2025 – from 100,000 MWh to over 400,000 MWh.

And as the electric vehicle revolution continues apace, with 120 million EVs on the road by 2030 in the US, the EU and China, the role of batteries will be ever-more important.

And not just lithium batteries. Demand is set to be so substantial that one battery technology alone cannot be expected to meet it. Lithium technology will of course be a central player, and advanced lead batteries are the only other technology available on a mass-market scale that meet the technical requirements for automotive and energy storage applications.

As societies across the world rush to meet emissions targets, advanced lead batteries, a proven, reliable and safe technology, will play an essential role. A leader in sustainability and circular economy, lead batteries have a collection and recycling rate of 99% in the US and Europe.

As a Consortium, made up of global battery manufacturers, lead producers, suppliers and world-leading universities and testing institutes, we have produced a technical innovation roadmap. Based on extensive and global market analysis, with co-operation with end-users, our roadmap aims to deliver the next generation of lead batteries through research and innovation.

For energy storage applications, we have identified an increase in cycle life to 5,000 cycles by 2022 as a key performance improvement area. Cycle life is vital for ESS as it allows a battery to continue working through numerous cycles when not fully discharged, especially for renewable energy sources such as solar that can be intermittent – the sun isn’t always shining. Setting a 5 times performance improvement goal will ensure lead batteries continue to seize opportunities to provide reliable, safe and cost-effective energy storage.

Virtually every car, from start-stop and hybrids to full electric, contain a lead battery. Improving dynamic charge acceptance (DCA) by 5 times by 2022 to 2 Amps/Ah will maximize the performance of advanced lead batteries in the ever-increasing number of vehicles powering the electric vehicle revolution.

And as global connectivity joins clean energy and clean mobility in ushering in a brighter future, the dawn of 5G will see lead batteries playing a central role for UPS and telecoms in supporting new mobile networks and infrastructures.

The Consortium believes the potential of lead battery technology has not yet been fully exploited, and our industry will continue to advance and innovative to ensure ambitious carbon reduction goals are accomplished.

Maine’s ambitious plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions by making a wholesale transition to renewable energy poses a fundamental question: What happens when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow?

The answer would have been elusive 10 years ago, but today there’s an evolving solution: Strategically build storage, mostly with a new generation of lithium-ion batteries. These huge, shipping-container-sized units soak up and send out energy at just the right times, such as when there’s excess power being generated by a wind farm or when there’s a surge in demand on the grid.

Maine needs to create storage for the renewable energy it produces if it wants to expand wind and solar farms because the electricity they generate is a use-it-or-lose-it thing. But unlike other states, Maine has no policies or incentives to entice developers to invest in these mega battery units.

A Massachusetts study found that generating power during the top 10 hours of demand each year drives 40 percent of the cost. Utilities must keep expensive, rarely used power plants, such as Yarmouth’s Wyman Station, at the ready to meet instant demand spikes on super hot or cold days.

“That’s what we’ve done with the grid for 100 years because we had no storage,” said Todd Olinsky-Paul, project director for the Clean Energy States Alliance in Vermont. “That’s changing now.”

Olinsky-Paul’s overview of energy storage kicked off the first meeting of a 14-member Maine study group examining the economic, environmental and energy benefits of storage. The group was created by the last legislative session and is made up primarily of lawmakers and representatives of the energy industry. They’re meeting this fall and will file a report by Dec. 4 with recommendations for the full Legislature. The panel’sproceedings are available online, along with Olinksy-Paul’s PowerPoint presentation.

The scale of these battery projects is impressive. The Wyman Station power plant has 1,300 lithium-ion modules in a cabinet inside a warehouse.  Smaller versions of this technology – trim enough to hang from a garage wall – are also being used by homeowners to store output from rooftop solar arrays, or provide backup during a power outage.

Besides reducing the need for having so much standby generation, big batteries have other potential benefits. They could moderate output from the grid and take the sting out of shockingly high demand charges that some businesses now pay utilities for supplying electricity during their most power-hungry moments each year. And they could provide consumers some resiliency during storm-driven outages, such as the wind and rain storm that struck Maine in mid-October.

INCENTIVES TO DRAW INVESTMENT

Olinsky-Paul’s advice to the group is clear: Don’t bother spending money on studies and pilot projects. This technology is beyond the demonstration stage. California, New York, Massachusetts and other states already have battery projects up and running or in development – along with a variety of incentives to attract developers, largely funded by utility ratepayers and taxpayers.

The questions the study group will need to wrestle with this fall include: What are the right incentives for Maine and what’s the best way to pay for them?

“When you’re talking about money, it’s always challenging,” said Sen. Eloise Vitelli, D-Arrowsic, the panel’s co-chairwoman. “But to move the agenda forward, we’d have to make some investment.”

Any investment would have to pass a cost-benefit test. That’s how it works in Massachusetts and a study last year showed commercial customers, for instance, got more than $3 in electricity savings for every dollar spent on storage.

No one should expect Maine to mirror the financial commitments of big states with millions of customers. California has set a target of procuring 1,825 megawatts of storage by next year, encouraged in part with $830 million in rebates through 2025. New York is looking for 1,500 megawatts by 2025, and has earmarked $350 million.

One of those projects is KCE NY1, located in a substation near Albany, New York. Connected to the transmission grid, the 20-megawatt project earns money from utilities by postponing the need for new equipment. The company, Key Capture Energy, received $1.3 million from the state under a bulk storage incentive program.

Key Capture’s co-founder and chief executive, Jeff Bishop, is on the Maine panel and said after the meeting he’d like to build a project in Maine.

“But we’re not sure what policies would be best to allow for batteries to be able to compete and provide benefits for Maine ratepayers,” he said. “That’s why we are looking forward to the (commission study) to determine what would be best.”

One longer-term potential, he said, is to build storage in key locations that could put more wind power onto the grid. Wind tends to be strongest overnight, when demand is low. That power could be captured and stored for use when demand is higher.

MODERATING THE GRID

A near-term option is something called frequency regulation.

Storage can have a role in helping grid operators maintain output frequency. That’s a task not appreciated by most people, but appliances and computers could be destroyed by an imbalance between the supply of power and constantly changing demand at home and work.

Conventional power plants help balance frequency now, but big batteries may be able to supply this variable output faster and cheaper.

For the past three years, NextEra Energy Resources has been pioneering this trend in Maine at its Wyman Station power plant in Yarmouth with the largest battery storage project in New England.

Casco Bay Energy Storage uses 1,300 lithium ion modules in a warehouse at the power plant to help provide grid stability in the region. It’s rated at 16 megawatts and can operate for 30 minutes at a time before needing to be recharged. By comparison, the grid operator, ISO-New England, needs between 30 and 100 megawatts of variable power in a typical day to fine-tune the system.

SHARING POWER

At home and in businesses, smaller batteries can contribute power when it’s needed, and their owners can get paid for it.

In some states, utilities can use a smartphone app or send a text message to a homeowner, asking if it’s OK to tap the power of their batteries. That’s happening in an expanding home energy storage pilot program at Green Mountain Power in Vermont.

In Massachusetts, utility customers with storage are paid different amounts in summer and winter – up to $4,000 a year for a business. From 30 to 60 times a summer, for instance, they could be asked to let the power company dispatch their batteries for two to three hours.

In Maine, Pika Energy’ markets the Pika Energy Island, which combines solar panels and its Harbor smart-battery storage. This installation, which adds $10,000 to $20,000 to a typical, 7.5-kilowatt home solar-electric system, can keep the lights on during multi-day power outages. It also qualifies for federal tax credits, when installed with solar.

ReVision Energy promotes solar-and-battery backup using the Tesla Powerwall storage system. ReVision says it’s a cleaner and cheaper-over-time alternative to a conventional, propane-fired generator.

As Maine’s study group moves forward this fall, Olinsky-Paul indicated, participants also will have to embrace a new way of thinking of energy efficiency. Historically, it’s been about using less power. With battery storage, energy efficiency is being redefined as also shifting the use of power to hours when it’s less expensive.

China, the world’s largest producer of rare-earth metals, will expand production to record levels, as it seeks to maintain its global dominance in the field.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has set this year’s production quota at 132,000 tons, 10% higher than last year. This will be the second consecutive year that production hits a record high.

Industry watchers had feared that Beijing may use rare earths as a weapon in its trade war with Washington by shutting its spigots and drying up supply. China commands 70% of global market share.

While the new quota will ease such fears, some see the policy as a way to flood the market with ample supply, keep prices low and subsequently push out any American entrants, as Washington seeks to boost domestic production and reduce China dependence.

The primary reason for the expansion is to respond to an increase in domestic demand. China accounts for roughly half of the world’s production of new energy vehicles, such as electric cars. Output of such cars grew 20% in the January-September period, year-on-year. Rare earths are indispensable for high-performance magnets mounted on electric vehicle motors.

“There is oil in the Middle East. There are rare earths in China,” former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, the father of China’s reform and opening up policy, is believed to have said. Under his watch, China acquired the technology to mine, extract and process rare-earth metals, eventually establishing a full production chain in the country.

The U.S., on the other hand, lacks refining and processing techniques. While it exports rare-earth ore to China, for most processed products such as alloys, it is still dependent on Chinese imports. As tensions with the U.S. mounted over trade and high-tech hegemony, Chinese President Xi Jinping in May visited a leading magnet manufacturer in Jiangxi Province, a hub of rare-earth production in China.

When he emphasized that rare earths were an “important strategic resource” during the inspection, it was widely viewed that China would limit the supply of rare-earth products to the U.S.

After the visit, the price of dysprosium, a type of rare earth used in high-performance magnets, rose about 50% compared with the beginning of the year. China’s decision to expand production, therefore, is “a message from the government that it will maintain a stable supply,” an employee at a Chinese nonferrous company explained.

But there seems to be more going on. China’s supply expansion will ease global supply and demand and put downward pressure on rare-earth prices. “This may worsen the profits of related companies and have a negative impact on the construction of supply chains outside of China, such as the construction of a separation plant promoted by a U.S. private company,” said a foreign company executive.

Previously, the Chinese government had temporarily restrained the domestic production of rare earths as it sought to preserve the strategic resource and protect the environment. As a result, supply could not meet domestic demand and China imported nearly three times the volume of the previous year in 2018. The U.S. suddenly emerged as a supplier nation.

The U.S., on its part, had stopped production of rare earths after an American company went bankrupt in 2015, but with strong demand from China, it resumed production in 2018. At present, American ore is exported to China, where it is separated and processed, before being shipped back to the U.S.

The recent confrontation over high-tech hegemony has broken this supply chain. In May, Blue Line, a U.S.-based processor of rare-earth products, signed a memorandum of understanding with Australia’s Lynas, the largest producer of rare-earth materials outside of China, to build a separation facility in the U.S. state of Texas.

While Blue Line’s new facility looks to be part of an effort to “decouple” from China, the expanded quota from Beijing looks to be an effort to block new entrants from the U.S., ensuring that China maintains its dominance.

Rare earths are said to be used in high-performance magnets used in advanced weapons such as drones and missiles. The Xi regime is mobilizing the government, military and the private sector to push forward development.

For Washington, which needs drones and missiles on its multiple fronts spread across the world, access to rare earths is equally crucial.