Energy access solution lies in adopting VRFB technology in renewable energy – Nikomarov
Date: Aug 02, 2018
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – With about 650-million people in Africacurrently without access to electricity, Bushveld Minerals subsidiary Bushveld EnergyCEO Mikhail Nikomarov believes the solution lies in area-specific solutions.
He explained in an interview with Mining Weekly Online that a solution needs to be an energy-intensive one, which he says can be found in adopting vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) technology in renewable energy applications.
“We’ve got a situation in the world where urbanisation is increasing and, yet, we’re starting from the least urbanised areas in the world to provide access to electricity,” he pointed out, suggesting that, with Africa’s immense solar radiationlevels, the answer lies in a localised solution, which can be achieved with wind, solar and even hydropower plants.
However, he warned that a quality energy delivery systemcannot be successful without storage that equalises the powerdistribution and bridges the gaps in power generation.
VRFB technology combines the performance advantages of flow batteries with vanadium and uses a liquid electrolyte to store energy.
This, Bushveld Energy said, allows for near unlimited recharging and easy scaling by just adding more electrolyte. It also results in negligible performance deterioration over long periods of time.
