I spoke with Ian 3 or 4 weeks ago and he described the leasing of V as a "really important development" to reduce the vanadium price headwind for the burgeoning VFRB market.
China (Rongke Power) is building a 200MW/800MWh VFB at an estimated capital cost of $13m/MW....capital cost $2.6bn. This battery bank (the size of 20 soccer fields) will need 6,950t of V2O5. At say $20/lb the V alone will cost over $300m. If rather than paying $300m for the V it can be supplied by 'merchant bankers' say on a leasing yield of 15%pa, the V could be seen as an operating cost (@ $45m per year) rather than a capital cost.
TMT Price at posting:
42.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held