Vanadium flow battery player VRB gets US$24m investment from Thai renewables company BCPG - Energy Storage News | Canada News Media
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Vanadium flow battery player VRB gets US$24m investment from Thai renewables company BCPG – Energy Storage News

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Vanadium flow battery cell stacks at VRB Energy’s large-scale demonstrator project in Hubei Province, China. Image: VRB Energy.

Thailand-headquartered renewable energy group BCPG will invest US$24 million into vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) manufacturer VRB Energy, aimed at accelerating VRB’s utility-scale VRFB business.

BCPG is active in developing and operating assets across the solar, wind, geothermal and hydroelectric technologies in Asia, with projects in Thailand, Japan, Laos, the Philippines and Indonesia. Energy-Storage.news reported in May 2020 that a BCPG subsidiary had signed up for a loan deal with the Asian Development Bank for Thailand’s first wind-plus-storage project, in a pilot scheme that the ADB said could be replicated and scaled up elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

Investment target VRB Energy meanwhile is among the VRFB technology providers looking to commercialise its offerings with a view to capturing opportunities for large-scale, long-duration facilities with several hours’ of storage. VRFBs could be a longer-lasting alternative to cheaper lithium-ion batteries, but more commonly are described as a complementary energy storage technology for lithium, able to do energy applications cost-effectively, while lithium-ion will likely remain popular for power applications.

Canada-headquartered VRB is owned by minerals exploration company Ivanhoe Electric (which was formerly known as High Powered Exploration), which in turn is owned by electric industry innovation group I-Pulse. The groups are led by Robert Friedland, a noted figure in the junior mining industry, who is also now VRB’s chairman. To date, the company has deployed around 40MWh of VRFBs world-wide.

As part of a flagship clean energy and grid modernisation strategy scheme of the Chinese government, several large-scale VRFB projects are being built across the country in the coming years. VRB has been awarded a 100MW / 500MWh project in Hubei Province through the scheme and commissioned a 3MW / 12MWh demonstrator system a couple of years ago.

In March this year Energy-Storage.news reported that in addition to a framework agreement for the 500MWh project, the company has also signed documents with local government in Xiangyang, Hubei Province, to build a 1,000MW per annum VRFB factory in the region.

Investment from BCPG will support expansion of VRB Energy’s manufacturing capacity, the rollout of its latest Gen3 flow battery energy storage system (ESS) product, as well as assisting with the vertical integration of vanadium processing into its supply chains. VRB CEO Dr Mianyuan Huang said that BCPG could also now work with VRB to add storage to its existing and planned projects, which Huang said would “optimise system performance and enhance revenues” from renewables assets. The pair could also consider localised manufacturing of ESS in Thailand, Huang said.

“We have been determined to strengthen our position as a leader in the green energy sector through investment in smart energy solutions, and VRB Energy’s long-duration batteries are a perfect fit to meet increasing demand for renewable energy, grid stability, and microgrid development,” BCPG CEO Bundit Sapianchai said.

BCPG said the market for energy storage is rapidly expanding in Thailand, and the investment should help VRB Energy and BCPG meet that demand and across the Southeast Asia region as it grows, as well as demand for VRB’s products in China which already exists. 

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Tesla shares soar more than 14% as Trump win is seen boosting Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company

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NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Tesla soared Wednesday as investors bet that the electric vehicle maker and its CEO Elon Musk will benefit from Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

Tesla stands to make significant gains under a Trump administration with the threat of diminished subsidies for alternative energy and electric vehicles doing the most harm to smaller competitors. Trump’s plans for extensive tariffs on Chinese imports make it less likely that Chinese EVs will be sold in bulk in the U.S. anytime soon.

“Tesla has the scale and scope that is unmatched,” said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, in a note to investors. “This dynamic could give Musk and Tesla a clear competitive advantage in a non-EV subsidy environment, coupled by likely higher China tariffs that would continue to push away cheaper Chinese EV players.”

Tesla shares jumped 14.8% Wednesday while shares of rival electric vehicle makers tumbled. Nio, based in Shanghai, fell 5.3%. Shares of electric truck maker Rivian dropped 8.3% and Lucid Group fell 5.3%.

Tesla dominates sales of electric vehicles in the U.S, with 48.9% in market share through the middle of 2024, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Subsidies for clean energy are part of the Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022. It included tax credits for manufacturing, along with tax credits for consumers of electric vehicles.

Musk was one of Trump’s biggest donors, spending at least $119 million mobilizing Trump’s supporters to back the Republican nominee. He also pledged to give away $1 million a day to voters signing a petition for his political action committee.

In some ways, it has been a rocky year for Tesla, with sales and profit declining through the first half of the year. Profit did rise 17.3% in the third quarter.

The U.S. opened an investigation into the company’s “Full Self-Driving” system after reports of crashes in low-visibility conditions, including one that killed a pedestrian. The investigation covers roughly 2.4 million Teslas from the 2016 through 2024 model years.

And investors sent company shares tumbling last month after Tesla unveiled its long-awaited robotaxi at a Hollywood studio Thursday night, seeing not much progress at Tesla on autonomous vehicles while other companies have been making notable progress.

Tesla began selling the software, which is called “Full Self-Driving,” nine years ago. But there are doubts about its reliability.

The stock is now showing a 16.1% gain for the year after rising the past two days.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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S&P/TSX composite up more than 100 points, U.S. stock markets mixed

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TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 100 points in late-morning trading, helped by strength in base metal and utility stocks, while U.S. stock markets were mixed.

The S&P/TSX composite index was up 103.40 points at 24,542.48.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 192.31 points at 42,932.73. The S&P 500 index was up 7.14 points at 5,822.40, while the Nasdaq composite was down 9.03 points at 18,306.56.

The Canadian dollar traded for 72.61 cents US compared with 72.44 cents US on Tuesday.

The November crude oil contract was down 71 cents at US$69.87 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was down eight cents at US$2.42 per mmBTU.

The December gold contract was up US$7.20 at US$2,686.10 an ounce and the December copper contract was up a penny at US$4.35 a pound.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD)

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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S&P/TSX up more than 200 points, U.S. markets also higher

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TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 200 points in late-morning trading, while U.S. stock markets were also headed higher.

The S&P/TSX composite index was up 205.86 points at 24,508.12.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 336.62 points at 42,790.74. The S&P 500 index was up 34.19 points at 5,814.24, while the Nasdaq composite was up 60.27 points at 18.342.32.

The Canadian dollar traded for 72.61 cents US compared with 72.71 cents US on Thursday.

The November crude oil contract was down 15 cents at US$75.70 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was down two cents at US$2.65 per mmBTU.

The December gold contract was down US$29.60 at US$2,668.90 an ounce and the December copper contract was up four cents at US$4.47 a pound.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 11, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD)

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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