Renewable Innovation in Focus ISSUE 1: NOVEMBER 2023
FEATURE STORY
Table salt
The key to transforming renewable energy faster than expected
A new universe of opportunity Moves afoot to solve lithium-rich Canada’s poor lithium production capacity
Fusion gets real Harnessing the sun’s power gets closer than ever
MARKET OPENED(ed) OCTOBER 2023
INAUGURAL PRINT EDITION 1
From the editor Welcome to MarketOpen Presents, distributed in partnership with our friends at Post Newspapers
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ur first edition features stories about innovators dedicated to finding solutions for the unprecedented challenge of reducing carbon emissions and shifting to renewable energy sources to mitigate the effects of climate change.
The world today faces a significant challenge with the rise of global warming and climate change. The need for clean energy has never been more pressing. The good news is that there are promising technologies that can help us transition to a cleaner world. Two of the most promising technologies that are making headlines in this regard are solid-state sodium chloride batteries and nuclear fusion. Solid-state sodium chloride batteries hold great potential to provide large-scale energy grid storage. They are a rechargeable battery that uses sodium chloride as the electrolyte instead of the traditional liquid electrolytes. Solid-state electrolytes offer several advantages over traditional liquid electrolytes, including higher energy density, high safety, and longer lifespan. The development of solid-state sodium chloride batteries is still in its early stages. However, once it becomes commercially viable, it has the potential to solve the problem of intermittency in renewable energy sources like wind and solar, which rely on favourable weather conditions. Another promising technology is nuclear fusion. This is when two atomic nuclei combine to form a heavier nucleus, releasing an enormous amount of energy. Unlike nuclear fission, used in conventional nuclear power plants, nuclear fusion does not produce greenhouse gases or radioactive waste. One of the challenges in achieving nuclear fusion is the scarcity of tritium, an essential fuel. However, the challenge lies in creating the right conditions for nuclear fusion, which requires extremely high temperatures and pressure. Scientists worldwide are working on developing viable nuclear fusion reactors, which could provide clean and sustainable energy for millions of people. One of the most critical factors in developing renewable energy technologies such as electric cars and solar panels is the availability of stable lithium and other critical metals. These metals are essential components of batteries and other renewable energy sources. Canada’s vast lithium reserves could facilitate the transition towards a cleaner and more sustainable world. Ongoing research into these and other promising areas is crucial. It allows investors to contribute to science that can save the planet. Sincerely, Rueben Hale Editor
Contents FEATURE STORY
Table salt
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Ordinary table salt could be the critical ingredient to unlock the transformational potential of renewable energy – and the transformation is coming faster than expected.
A new universe of possibility Moves afoot to solve lithium-rich Canada’s poor lithium production capacity
Humankind close in on the power of the sun Harnessing the sun’s power gets closer than ever
Disclaimer: MarketOpen Presents is intended to be used only for educational and informative purposes, and any information in this magazine should not be taken as investment advice or guidance. It is important to conduct your own research before making any investment decisions, which should be based on your own investment needs and personal circumstances. Any investment decisions based on information in this magazine should be taken in line with independent financial advice from a qualified professional or be independently researched and verified.
MarketOpen Presents NOVEMBER 2023
MarketOpen Team Managing Director Stewart Walters (stewart@marketopen.com.au) Managing Editor Rueben Hale (rueben@marketopen.com.au)
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FEATURE STORY
The solid state of our energy future BY RUEBEN HALE
Ordinary table salt could be the critical ingredient to unlock the transformational potential of renewable energy – and the transformation is coming faster than expected.
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torage issues have hindered the adoption of renewable energy. Now large-capacity solid-state sodium batteries, made from abundant raw materials such as salt and cobalt, have the potential to revolutionise the energy sector.
Sodium batteries deliver an economical, eco-friendly, and safe storage solution for renewables. Recent innovations in sodium battery technology offer unprecedented capacity for excess electrical energy to be saved and released back to the grid during high-energy-demand periods. Analysts’ estimates make it a timely revelation, with predictions the global grid-energy storage market will triple to US$15.1 billion by 2027. Additionally, the capacity of grid energy storage is expected to increase from 20 gigawatts in 2020 to over 3,000 GW by 2050. Lithium-ion batteries have undoubtedly been instrumental in the energy transition. However, sodium offers a promising alternative due to its longer lifespan
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and cost-effectiveness. This makes it suitable for applications requiring frequent cycling, affordability, and high levels of personal protection for handlers. Sodium batteries will become a significant player in upcoming largescale grid projects. Countries like the US, UK, China, and Australia have invested heavily. Notably, Australia has already taken an early lead in this space with the Hornsdale Power Reserve in South Australia. This extraordinary project remains the largest storage installation globally, providing energy arbitrage and contingency spinning reserves. Famously, the battery-powered facility prevented a disastrous electricity outage by injecting power quickly into the grid when a coal plant went offline.
Altech Batteries specialises in innovation and has developed eco-friendly and cost-effective CERENERGY® batteries, ideal for renewable energy storage and the grid storage market. They range from 60KWh to 1 MW GridPack. The company plans to manufacture solid-state sodium chloride batteries for various applications, including electric vehicles and power grids, at its 100-megawatt-hour facility in Germany. Altech CFO Martin Stein says his company is racing to bring its grid storage battery to market and believes that the advantages of its CERENERGY® battery, being that it is entirely fire and explosion proof and that it uses common table salt technology, represents a gamechanging opportunity for the accelerated uptake of renewable energy. “As the world works towards achieving net-zero carbon emissions and electrification of its MarketOpen Presents NOVEM BER 2023
energy solutions, it is ramping up its renewable energy production,” Stein says. “Solar and wind power, being intermittent in their production, require grid storage batteries to store surplus energy when it is being produced for returning to the grid when it is required. The concept is no different to a residential dwelling that has solar panels on its roof that require a battery to store the energy during daylight hours for returning to the residence in the evening. The demand for grid storage batteries is growing at a 28% compound annual growth rate and represents a very lucrative market.”
HOW DO SOLID-STATE SODIUM CHLORIDE BATTERIES WORK? When charging, electrons flow from positive to negative terminals. Sodium ions migrate through the ceramic electrode to the negative terminal. Chloride ions attach to nickel, forming nickel chloride. Sodium forms a molten anode layer, completing the charging process. The process is reversed when discharged. Electrons flow back while molten sodium is oxidised into
Na+ ions. These ions transfer back through the ceramic tube, forming sodium chloride. Nickel chloride is reduced back to metallic nickel, completing the discharge cycle.
INNOVATION AT A MOST CRITICAL TIME Altech Batteries has developed a proprietary Sodium-Chloride Solid State (SCSS) battery known as CERENERGY®, which can offer vast energy storage capacity and is recognised as key to the renewable energy revolution. Its battery uses table salt as a charge carrier between the cathode and anode, which helps to counter the expected lithium shortage. Altech is addressing the issue of grid storage redundancy by bringing to market the 1MWh
Solid-state sodium chloride batteries offer a promising alternative to lithium ion
GridPack. This sodium-alumina solid-state grid storage battery is the size of a sea container. This cutting-edge technology is part of Altech’s multi-application product offering. It is poised to significantly disrupt the energy-intensive battery market, which until now has been dominated by lithium ion. Altech is spearheading the CERENERGY® Batteries Project and the Silumina AnodesTM Battery Materials Project, which are aimed at continuously improving these innovative batteries. CERENERGY® batteries already have a 50 per cent lower carbon dioxide footprint than lithium-ion batteries, and the company aims to reduce its environmental impact further by leveraging renewable energy sources with on-site renewable generation at its 120MWh CERENERGY® battery plant. Altech’s initial strategy is to target the European grid storage market by constructing a 100 MWh (Train 1) production facility. The company has also developed a battery anode material that incorporates silicon and has a 30% higher retention capacity than a conventional graphite-only lithium-ion battery anode. The advancements in batteries and their storage capacity have been made possible through the innovative work of Fraunhofer IKTS to the leading German government-owned institute. Their revolutionary CERENERGY® Battery is a significant contribution to the industry. Furthermore, the company actively seeks federal and state grants and financial support for its Silumina AnodesTM project as part of its battery development program. New York-based financial services firm Arrowhead’s due diligence and valuation estimates suggest that Altech Batteries’ fair market value per share falls within a range of 33 to 74 Australian cents when using the Net Present Value (NPV) methodology.
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A new universe of opportunity BY RUEBEN HALE
Despite having vast quantities of highly desirable hard rock deposits, Canada has surprisingly produced much less spodumene than other lithium-rich countries. In contrast, Australia led the world in lithium production in 2022, with an estimated output of 61,000 metric tonnes. This fact is a cause of concern for lithium legend Iggy Tan.
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MarketOpen Presents NOVEM BER 2023
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ustralia, Chile, and China lead the lithium market, with Australia producing over half of the world’s lithium. Canada has untapped lithium reserves and the potential to join the market in a big way, but previous project failures, regulatory hurdles and a lack of lithium expertise have been setbacks. Tan launched Lithium Universe in August to fix this problem. “A lithium mine takes an average of between 8 and 10 years to reach production. It shouldn’t take that long,” Tan quips. It’s easier said than done, but Tan has done it all. Now he’s “got the band back together”, or as the former Galaxy boss dubs the standout lineup, the “Lithium Dream Team”, who share an impressive track record of getting lithium projects into production with minimal fuss. Tan built the world’s first largescale vertically integrated business by developing the Mt Cattlin spodumene project and the Jiangsu lithium carbonate refinery, which formed the foundation for Allkem’s continued success, now valued at US$9.5 billion. As the Chairman of Lithium Universe, he and former Greenbushes’ boss Patrick Scallan and international lithium downstream expert Dr Jingyuan Liu oversee a team led by Alex Hanly. Many of Tan’s former Galaxy Resources associates, including Terry Stark, Roger Pover, Huy Nguyen, and project manager John Loxton, provide an exemplary skillset to progress Tan’s Québec lithium processing hub strategy.
not only a multi-purpose and standalone concentrator to process run-of-mine ore but also one of the first downstream refineries in North America. “There is a lack of spodumene processing expertise in Canada, and we are going to fill that void,” Tan says. “My team has previously developed and brought lithium projects into production, and with their increased experience and insights gained from working on some of the largest operations in the world – they will do it again,” he adds confidently. Tan says his team are keen to support production development by offering help to other companies in the area. “The coarse spodumene, common in Canada, offers a competitive advantage of low waste and cheaper production,” Tan says. “This means we can offer expertise or form joint ventures to build spodumene concentrators based on the robust Mt Cattlin design.”
A lithium mine takes on average between 8 and 10 years to reach production. It shouldn’t take that long – Iggy Tan
Tan’s vision goes beyond simply mining the fertile land at Apollo, sitting between Patriot Lithium and Winsome Resources’ famed discoveries. He aims to demonstrate the feasibility of speedy construction and production as he and his team build a processing hub in the heart of one of the most promising spodumene districts in the world. The strategy looks to develop
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Recent advancements in fusion power research include the ITER project in France, the Wendelstein 7-X device in Germany, the SPARC project in the US, and the Large Helical Device in Japan. These projects have made considerable progress in enhancing plasma confinement, achieving impressive plasma durations and higher energy densities, and paving the way for practical fusion power. Renewable energy faces the challenge of excess power. A grid relying solely on renewable energy needs viable storage solutions, which are lacking. Solid-state sodium chloride grid storage batteries made from abundant sodium and cobalt show immense promise, but commercialisation is still in the preliminary stages.
Humankind close in on the power of the sun BY RUEBEN HALE
Scientists have been working on creating limitless free energy through nuclear fusion since the 1950s. Recent technological advancements have sparked a global renewal of interest in the reaction that powers the sun.
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enerating energy from the sun’s nuclear fusion reaction has been a challenge due to the high temperature involved. Nuclear fusion reactions can reach up to 300 million degrees Celsius, which is 20 times hotter than the sun. However, some experts in the industry are optimistic and suggest that we could see nuclear fusion power plants producing more energy than is consumed within the next decade.
While renewables continue to advance, fusion energy proponents believe the two could be combined to provide safe and reliable power for the entire planet. Currently, 1.2 billion people worldwide, or one in every six people, do not have access to electricity. If fusion technology can be made commercially viable, it could offer a sustainable and accessible energy source for anyone who needs it. Private companies and wealthy investors have poured several billion dollars into the most heavily researched inertial confinement and magnetic confinement reactors. The prize for the planet could be immense. The Industrial Revolution was kickstarted by harnessing fossil fuel energy to bring a 1000x step-up from animal power - and fusion would be another one million times multiplier. Fusion companies mainly focus on generating electricity as a reliable, alwaysavailable complement to renewables. But fusion could also provide heat for industrial processes, generate hydrogen or synthetic fuels, power desalination plants or propulsion (including space exploration). There is a definite buzz happening around the world. This month, there have been two significant policy announcements in the US regarding fusion energy; in California, a bill has passed which distinguishes fusion energy from nuclear fission, while in North Carolina, newly approved legislation recognises the safety and environmental benefits of fusion. These are significant policy shifts that other states and nations may follow that add confidence to the viability of commercial fusion. Indeed, many Silicon Valley companies are investing in fusion technology companies as they strive to commercialise power production by 2030. Fusion technology could revolutionise the way we power our planet and offer a sustainable and accessible energy source for everyone. With continued investment and research, we could see the dawn of a new era of energy that could benefit us all.
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MarketOpen Presents NOVEM BER 2023