The fastest-growing segment of the rechargeable battery market just got its biggest news ever.
Last week, Chinese state TV announced that the most powerful solar farm in the world, located in the central Asian desert region of Xinjiang, had finally been hooked into the power grid.
At more than 32,000 acres, or about 50 square miles, this 3.5 gigawatt complex will produce enough energy to power the country of Latvia.
With the addition of this beast, China now operates five of the world’s ten most productive solar farms, with total national production figures rising 55% last year alone.
At first glance, it would appear that China is leading the charge into a cleaner carbon-free future, but there is one detail that many fail to consider.
Solar farms are more than just acres and acres of panels looking up at the sky.
To supply uninterrupted power day and night, production must be combined with storage, and storage in China is accomplished primarily using a technology the Chinese know very well: lithium-ion batteries.
Rechargeable Battery Stocks Have A Lot To Gain From Chinese Solar
Therein lies a major problem.
Li-Ion batteries, which also power your phone, your laptop, and your car if you drive an EV, have a lifespan of only a few years.
After that, charge capacity, charge delay, and overall cell stability start to rapidly decay. You’ve probably seen all of these effects in the form of degrading performance and excessive heating during the charging process.
That heating, if allowed to reach a critical point, will lead to a fire — another thing lithium batteries are known for.
But that’s not a huge issue on its own because, as Western consumers do, you probably replace most of your lithium-powered gear at least once every few years.
When it comes to utility-scale batteries for solar farms, like the kind the Chinese switched on last week, its a whole different story.
They’re designed and expected to run 24/7. Charging during the day, discharging at night, and for years on end.
Replacing battery arrays that look like tractor trailer parking lots every couple years is one of the problems. This is not only too expensive to be practical on a truly wide scale, but also too harmful to the environment to be of any benefit at all.
Why The Best Rechargeable Battery Stocks Contain 0% Lithium
Lithium isn’t exactly known to be environmentally friendly to source… One look at an evaporation field tends to drive that point home pretty quickly.
So supplying huge amounts, over and over again, for the 25-30 year lifespan of a solar facility is simply not a long term solution.
But one UK-based company is producing a rare sort of battery that solves all of these problems.
These batteries are called Vanadium Flow Batteries. And as suggested by the name, the critical element isn’t lithium, but another lesser-known energy metal called vanadium.
Used primarily in the refinement and production of steel alloys, vanadium, when applied to battery technology produces the longest-lasting batteries known to man.
Where as lithium-ion batteries start to degrade in as few as 500 charge/discharge cycles, Vanadium flow batteries will last as many as 20,000.
That’s a service life of 30 years or so, which is exactly the life-expectancy of a solar farm.
This Rechargeable Battery Stock Is Like No Other
Now, as an investor, you’re probably well aware that the rechargeable battery market is being driven into the sky by electric vehicles and wireless devices, but you may not be aware that the other major segment — utility grade storage is the fastest growing of them all.
Only problem is lithium fits utility grade storage about as well as a formula one car would fit the task of moving a family of 4 cross country.
The company that builds these batteries is unique in its space, and does nothing else… So it’s small.
But with the U.S. Department of Energy’s backing, it’s a major force in one of the most significant market trends in play today.
Best of all, because this isn’t a lithium stock, the retail hordes haven’t put this one through the ringer yet with their manic buying and panic selling.
Like the batteries themselves, this stock was built with the long-term in mind.
Want to learn more about it? Check out my video presentation, right here. Fortune favors the bold, Alex Koyfman His flagship service, Microcap Insider, provides market-beating insights into some of the fastest moving, highest profit-potential companies available for public trading on the U.S. and Canadian exchanges. With more than 5 years of track record to back it up, Microcap Insider is the choice for the growth-minded investor. Alex contributes his thoughts and insights regularly to Energy and Capital. To learn more about Alex, click here.
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