NEW YORK — American Vanadium Corp. has signed a memorandum of understanding with Gildemeister Energy Solutions to explore partnership opportunities for vanadium-based energy storage in the North American market.

Gildemeister’s fully developed and commercialized energy storage technology and American Vanadium’s supply of vanadium electrolyte presented “a unique opportunity to cooperate in the U.S. to rapidly supply the growing energy storage and renewable energy market,” Vancouver, British Columbia-based American Vanadium said.

American Vanadium opted to partner with Gildemeister because the German company was “the most advanced developmentally,” chief executive officer Bill Radvak told AMM Feb. 19, adding that the two companies “value the North American market very strongly.”
 
The North American market’s relative lag behind the European and Asian markets in adopting alternative energy storage technology means that it represents the greatest growth opportunity, Radvak said.

“I think the U.S. is the furthest behind globally, but that also means the U.S. has a much greater need than anybody globally,” he said.

Indeed, senior executives from both American Vanadium and Gildemeister are in New York this week to meet with senior state, municipal and transit officials.

“New York has the world’s biggest electrical grid and it’s the oldest, so it will need the most updating,” Radvak told AMM.

The company is still on track to start up its Gibellini vanadium mine in Nevada in 2015, with the company adopting a “pretty aggressive schedule” that should see the site obtain the necessary permitting in 2014, he said.

The Gibellini project is expect to produce up to 11.4 million pounds of vanadium pentoxide annually, at what would be the only operating vanadium mine in the United States (amm.com, Dec. 28).