Battery Metals

Further demand for high grade, high purity manganese may be driven by new technology thanks to breakthroughs like the new discovery by researchers that using a nanosheet of manganese dioxide increases the performance of lithium-sulphur batteries significantly.

High grade, high purity manganese is used as a primary cathode material in lithium-ion manganese batteries or NCM batteries. The NCM formulation of batteries is the slated as the next generation of battery cathodes, after the lithium-nickel-cobalt-aluminum design (NCA) battery.

MANGANESE NANO TECH

One of the most promising battery technology breakthroughs comes from the University of Waterloo in Canada, where a team of researchers has found that using a nanosheet of manganese dioxide increases the performance of lithium-sulphur batteries significantly.

This boost has the potential to increase the range of an electric vehicle by up to three times for the same weight of lithium-ion battery.

The study brings the Li-S battery one step closer to realization.

In the model used in the research, the manganese dioxide nanosheet transforms the sulfur cathode used in the LI-S battery into a high-performance cathode capable of recharging over 2000 times.

Sulfur by virtue of its abundance, cheapness, and light weight make for an ideal battery material, but hasn’t worked well because it dissolves easily in electrolyte solution. While there are various methods for stabilizing sulfur including the use of metallic titanium oxide, manganese dioxide nanosheets have been shown in this study to work much better.

This technology has been known since the 19th century, but sulfur science has taken a backseat in that time and this study gives the first real glimmer of hope for sulphur as a cathode material.

TECHNOLOGY DRIVING DEMAND

Industry experts see great applicability of this new technology in the fledging market of electric motorcycles.

Tripling the range of electric motorcycles eliminates one of the primary concerns -limited range- that potential customers harbor over electric motorcycles. If developers are able to extend battery life while keeping costs constant, the acceptance of electric motorcycles will get a huge boost.

And if this new technology goes mainstream, the demand for manganese to support is expected to increase in similar fashion to what has been witnessed with lithium and cobalt since Tesla’s advances.

Currently about 90% of all manganese produced in the world is used in steel production. A potential steep increase in demand for use in EV technology could lead to a sharp upsurge in the price of the metal. Current investment in manganese mining infrastructure may lag behind production demand leading to steep price increases.

MORE DEMAND SPURS MINERS

Maxtech Ventures is a junior miner playing off of the momentum in manganese markets. Maxtech is focused two areas: building a vertical mining operation, selling its manganese into high growth markets focused on renewable energy and crop fertility.

As a Canadian-based mining company, Maxtech has a unique entry point; the company

has secured in excess of 540,000 hectares of potential high-grade manganese claims in Braziland has an agreement to jointly explore manganese-specific projects with Brazil’s Maringá Ferro-Liga S.A.

Brazil is expected to increase its demand for high purity manganese by 4.8% CAGR. That will translate to an additional demand of 227,000 tonnes for use in fertilizers.

It stands to reason that as a local supplier with a major distribution partner, Maxtech should benefit greatly from this demand.

Maxtech has set its sights on a direct opportunity to move to the cash flow stage by tapping the fertilizer market locally immediately, then increasing its resource capacity to answer the growing power cell and storage markets.

NMC IS JUST ONE MORE POSITIVE FOR GREEN ENERGY

While manganese-based batteries are not new to the industry, the model described in the current research can only accelerate demand.

Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide (NMC) already form a major segment of batteries used in EVs. Tesla recently signed a five-year agreement with NMC battery researcher Dr. Jeff Dahn to help improve the technology and bring costs down. The EV divisions of other major car makers such as BMW, Chevrolet and Nissan are also keen on adopting NMC battery technology for their vehicles.

Bridging the gap in demand is the lucrative challenge for mining companies who can bring new supplies to the table in the near term.

On Monday, Mercedes-Benz detailed some more its plans for what it calls electromobility. The most important news of all is, of course, the fact that Mercedes-Benz will have electric versions for the entire fleet of models it has in production.

The goal is to “offer more than 50 electrified vehicle variants” to its customers, either plug-in hybrids or fully electric. There will also be mild-hybrid variants that will use the new 48-volt-system.

Ten billion euros will be invested by Mercedes-Benz in the following years in this gargantuan project to develop electric production hubs for the vehicles themselves, but also for the carmaker’s own battery manufacturing plants.

To be sold under the EQ brand, Mercedes’ electric vehicles will start production at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Bremen in 2019. The first model to roll of the assembly lines will be the EQC, which will also be produced with BAIC in China and in the U.S. at the Tuscaloosa factory.

The battery pack used by the electric SUV is a 70 kWh unit, capable of offering a driving range of over 300 miles per charge.

“Our electric vehicles will be built in six plants on three continents. We address every market segment: from the smart fortwo seater, to the large SUV,” said Markus Schäfer, Member of the Divisional Board of Mercedes-Benz Cars, Production and Supply Chain.

“In case of a short-term high demand in another part of the world our battery factories are also well prepared for export. The electric initiative of Mercedes-Benz Cars is right on track. Our global production network is ready for e-mobility. We are electrifying the future.”

The latest drone shot of Tesla’s Gigafactory 1 in Nevada from January 23, 2018, reveals that developments along the north and south ends of the factory have remained relatively unchanged since August 2017, nearly six months ago. Aside from some newly paved parking lots in front of the building that houses several hundred vehicles, the latest terrain map of the area surrounding Tesla’s massive battery facility depict what appears to be a slow down in building expansion at the site.

But that’s not to say that Tesla hasn’t been busier than ever, with activity continuing at a frenzied pace inside the building, according to sources working at the factory.

Construction permits filed by Tesla in July 2017 revealed a $4.9M project addendum to an existing Section G of the facility and a $9.18M HVAC system for an ‘air separation yard’ project. Permits for several other multi-million dollar projects were filed at the time, but nothing in regards to new sections being added to the building.

As we noted in an earlier report this month, Tesla is currently attempting to hire numerous workers for the Nevada site, with CEO Elon Musk issuing an open invitation to interested applicants via his personal Twitter account. During that time, Gigafactory 1 featured job postings for numerous departments; from managers, material handlers to engineers.

Looking at Tesla’s list of available jobs in the massive battery factory – among the currently available slots are Quality Technicians, Battery Pack Engineer, Battery Module Engineer, and a Production Supervisor for Drive Units – one can presume that the hiring focus is on roles that will help ramp Model 3 production. While Gigafactory 1 is already producing the batteries and drivetrain for the Model 3, all eyes are on the company’s ability to scale production to meet its twice-delayed guidance of 5,000 vehicles produced per week, now expected to take place by the end of Q2 2018.

Tesla’s Gigafactory 1, once completed, will be the largest building in the world in terms of physical footprint, with the entire facility set to cover an entire area of 13 million square feet. Currently, the site only occupies a fraction of that number.

Gigafactory 1 is one of the California-based electric carmaker and energy company’s most important facilities, tasked with the automated production of Model 3’s battery pack and drivetrain, components that are incredibly pertinent to Tesla’s goal of manufacturing and delivering its most disruptive electric vehicle to date. In addition, Tesla manufacturers its energy solutions at the site, such as the grid-scale Powerpack battery storage unit, most recently proving its worth at the world’s largest battery site in Australia , and the home Powerwall unit.

A lot of the focus on making all-electric vehicles truly practical revolves around how far they can be driven on a single full charge of the battery. Although more and more batteries can be added to increase range, the weight that adds causes its own problems. Now it appears Porsche is pursuing a slightly different way of boosting all-electric range by employing an 800-volt system in its new Mission E, which as well as offering a 400km range, can also be recharged in as little as 20 minutes.

What Porsche is doing is increasing voltage instead of current, and this 800-volt system is double the voltage most automakers are working with at the moment. The company has some experience already with this way of doing things as it has already used it in its 919 Hybrid Le Mans racer. Through increasing voltage instead of current, there’s no need to employ thicker cables and that helps to avoid a huge increase in weight.

However, using a system like this in a car doesn’t come without its own issues, and the need for charging and battery hardware that can operate at 800 volts is the main drawback of opting for this way of doing things. Porsche is currently working with electronics giants LG and Panasonic on the chemistry and packs, and they expect to see a five percent increase in lithium-ion battery performance per-year in the not-too-distant future. The big problem here though is the need for a dedicated 800-volt charger, which will inevitably severely restrict the ability for Porsche Mission E drivers to find places they can recharge away from their home.

The prototype recharger Porsche is working on is an accumulator, which actually stores the power instead of simply delivering it to the car’s battery straight from the mains supply. The system the German automaker is developing is said to store enough power to recharge three vehicles one after another, without the need to access the grid. Porsche says that eventually, when out on the road, drivers will be able to reserve a place at a network of Turbo Charger stations.

BMW’s head of powertrain development believes that hydrogen’s suitability as a future fuel may only be short lived, with advances in battery technology set to overtake the advantages offered by fuel cell vehicles

Speaking with TMR at the global launch of the new X2 in Portugal, BMW’s powertrain development chief, Wolfgang Stütz, was cautious about the long-term viability of hydrogen as a fuel source, claiming that advances in battery technology could see battery electric vehicles become viable as a primary source of production.

The complexities of using hydrogen as a fuel, including storage, and the need to turn the fuel into a source of energy – electricity – on board the vehicle are just some of the disadvantages weighing fuel cell electric vehicles (or FCEVs) down. Rapid refuelling times and a user experience closer to traditional internal combustion vehicles, however, make the technology an attractive option.

According to Stütz those advantages may only last a short time, with predicted advances in battery technology, both in terms of capacity and charge times, likely to see FCEV vehicles give way to battery electric vehicles, or BEVs.
“If the battery technology and the cost especially decrease, and the infrastructure for charging will be in a good way then I think there’s not a necessity to change to hydrogen,” Stutz explained. “Because in principle they use the same energy, they use electric energy and hydrogen is only the battery for the vehicle.”

Hydrogen as a fuel wasn’t completely ruled out though, with BMW keeping its options open for the time being including showing an FCEV version of the previous 5 Series GT at events throughout 2017, and working on refuelling solutions though its Designworks subsidiary, in partnership with Shell.

“It strongly depends on all these developments [battery capacity and charging times] but because nobody can give the exact answer, BMW is also working on hydrogen,” Stütz said.

“It’s clear you can not say ‘forget it, this concept doesn’t have a future’ we have to be on the train.”

Although Stütz was unable to supply a timeline for future battery developments, Wieland Bruch, spokesperson for BMW i was able to suggest a rough outline for how the e-mobility division might advance its battery technology.

“We can basically say that every ten years you have double the energy density,” Bruch said. “When you follow how we launched the BMW i3 and what battery we have currently within the same dimension, that is already 50% [higher capacity] in five years, so that seems to be the right rule.”

BMW already has plans in place to introduce electric versions of the X3 SUV and Mini hatch, to join the range alongside the i3 EV and plug-in hybrid versions of the 3 Series, 5 Series, X5, and 7 Series.

If the blowup over President Trump’s new solar tariff proves anything, it proves that the renewable energy transition is inevitable. A new hydroelectricity project for the City of San Diego, California is a case in point. The city recently raised the level of an existing hydropower dam to hold more water, and now it is considering a massive new energy storage element that would help the grid support more wind and solar power.

The project provides support for the view that the new solar tariff is little more than a “speed bump” on the road to more sustainable future. Trump’s tariff is all but certain to disrupt the lives of individual solar workers, business owners and investors to some degree, but the overall impact is beginning to look like more smoke than fire.

Pushing the envelope on US hydropower

You wouldn’t know it from all the buzz over the latest high tech solar cells and wind turbines, but until very recently hydropower accounted for the lion’s share of the nation’s renewable energy pie.

That situation is rapidly changing. With wildlife conservation and environmental impacts in mind, there are few remaining opportunities to construct entirely new hydropower facilities in the US. In fact, this year the US Energy Information Agency expects wind energy to surpass hydropower for the first time ever.

There are still opportunities for growth in hydropower production, though. The US Department of Energy has been experimenting with ways to squeeze more electricity out of existing hydropower dams, and some interesting developments are occurring in the fields of wave energy, tidal energy and low impact hydrokinetic electricity.

It’s also worth noting that the importance of hydropower goes beyond the number of megawatts produced by the nation’s hydropower dams. The US Department of Energy foresees that hydropower provides the kind of stable, on-demand electricity supply that helps balance the variability of wind and solar.

Just a couple of weeks ago, the Energy Department posted an article describing how hydropower supports wind and solar. Here are some key points:

As the grid evolves in the 21st century, hydropower will be increasingly valued for its ability to respond quickly to disturbances in the grid and be dispatched on demand

Hydropower’s flexibility means it can help ensure power supply and quality even when high levels of variable power sources are on the grid. When countries run most or all of their power systems on renewable energy, it is often enabled by significant hydropower resources.

The Energy Department’s 2016 Hydropower Vision lays out the potential for the US to produce 30 gigawatts more hydropower than currently, with much of the increase coming from existing dams.

The 2016 report also supports an earlier Energy Department analysis from 2012, which describes scenarios for achieving 80 percent renewable energy by 2050.

Hydropower + energy storage for San Diego

That brings us to the new proposal to add an energy storage component to an existing hydropower facility owned by the San Diego Water Authority.

The project has its roots in the city’s recent $1.5 billion Emergency and Carryover Storage Project, designed to provide water supply for up to six months in case of systemwide distruption due to earthquakes or prolonged drought.

Two of four major facilities in sprawling project were constructed under design and management services provided by the A-list firm Black and Veatch. The company’s award-winning work included raising the existing San Vicente Dam an additional 117 feet, which doubled the size of the San Vincente Reservoir.

The latest twist is a proposal to add 500 megawatts of energy storage to the system. Dubbed the San Vicente Energy Storage Facility, it would have the goal of increasing “the efficiency and availability of renewable energy for the region,” as described by Black and Veatch. Here’s more:

The SVESF will store energy by pumping water to an upper reservoir when energy demand is low and releasing water from the upper reservoir through turbines when energy demand is high. The “pumped hydro” energy storage solution would support power grid operations and enable significant and sustained integration of renewable wind and solar energy into the power supply mix.

If you are already familiar with pumped hydro energy storage systems, this will ring a few bells:

During peak energy demand, water would flow downhill to turn hydroelectric turbines. During off-peak periods, including daytime when renewable energy supplies exceed demand, water would be pumped to the upper reservoir.

To ice the cake, the added revenue from SVESF would provide a funding stream for renovating the system’s aging infrastructure, without a consequent increase in water rates.

The new solar tariff: a hiccup, not a seizure

Circling back around to that solar tariff, it’s true that startups have been much in the spotlight as the US transitions to renewable energy, and some of them are exposed to the negative consequences of Trump’s decision.

However, diversified legacy companies like Black and Veatch also come in for their share of the credit for pushing the US renewable energy sector forward, and they may be less exposed to fallout from the solar tariff.

The San Diego energy storage proposal, for example, is just part of Black and Veatch’s long term strategy for growing its renewables business.

Last September, the company partnered with the Renewable Energy Test Center in California to launch a new service called “energy storage bankability.”

The new partnership will test and validate emerging energy storage technologies, providing a significant assist to new products on the verge of commercialization.

The Renewable Energy Test Center’s role is to help predict the lifetime performance of a product. Black & Veatch is contributing its experience in “independent assessment of alternative energy technologies and the design and construction of PV plants, microgrids and other systems that deploy PV and energy storage technologies.”

Solar tariff or not, it looks like renewables have a bright future in the US.