enCore Energy Executive Chairman William Sheriff & CEO Paul Goranson deliver a formal corporate overview, followed by a Q & A session moderated by Noble Capital Markets Senior Energy Analyst Michael Heim. Return to the Investor Forum Event Page enCore Energy Corp. is a U.S. domestic uranium developer focused on becoming a leading in-situ recovery (ISR) uranium producer. The Company is led by a team of industry experts with extensive knowledge and experience in the development and operations of in situ recovery uranium operations. enCore Energy’s opportunities are created from the Company’s transformational acquisition of its two South Texas production facilities, the changing global uranium supply/demand outlook and opportunities for industry consolidation. These short-term opportunities are augmented by our strong long term commitment to working with local indigenous communities in New Mexico where the company holds significant uranium resources. News & Advanced Market Data on ENCUF

Energy Fuels President & CEO Mark Chalmers delivers a formal corporate overview, followed by a Q & A session moderated by Noble Capital Markets Senior Energy Analyst Michael Heim. Return to the Investor Forum Event Page Energy Fuels is the leading U.S. producer of uranium – the fuel for carbon- and emission-free nuclear energy. Nuclear energy is expected to see strong growth in the coming years, as nations around the world work to provide plentiful and affordable energy, while combating climate change and air pollution. Energy Fuels is also a major U.S. producer of vanadium and an emerging player in the commercial rare earth business where its work is helping to reestablish a fully integrated U.S. supply chain. With a truly unique portfolio, Energy Fuels has more production capacity, licensed mines and processing facilities, and in-ground uranium resources than any other U.S. producer. It boasts diverse cashflow-generating opportunities, including vanadium production, uranium recycling and rare earth processing. News & Advanced Market Data on UUUU

Peninsula Energy Managing Director & CEO Wayne Heili delivers a formal corporate overview, followed by a Q & A session moderated by Noble Capital Markets Senior Energy Analyst Michael Heim. Return to the Investor Forum Event Page Peninsula Energy Limited is an ASX listed company that owns the Lance Uranium Projects in Wyoming, USA which are in transition from an alkaline to a low pH in-situ recovery operation, with the aim of achieving the operating performance and cost profile of the industry leading uranium projects. News & Advanced Market Data on PENMF

Standard Uranium President & CEO Jon Bey and VP, Exploration Sean Hillacre deliver a formal corporate overview, followed by a Q & A session moderated by Noble Capital Markets Senior Energy Analyst Michael Heim. Return to the Investor Forum Event Page Standard Uranium is a mineral resource exploration company based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Since its establishment, Standard Uranium has focused on the identification and development of prospective exploration stage uranium projects in the Athabasca Basin in Saskatchewan, Canada. Standard Uranium’s Davidson River Project, in the southwest part of the Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan, is comprised of 21 mineral claims over 25,886 hectares. The Davidson River Project is highly prospective for basement hosted uranium deposits yet remains relatively untested by drilling despite its location along trend from recent high-grade uranium discoveries. A copy of the 43-101 Technical Report that summarizes the exploration on the Project is available for review under Standard Uranium’s SEDAR profile (www.sedar.com). News & Advanced Market Data on STTDF

CanAlaska Uranium CEO & EVP Cory Belyk delivers a formal corporate overview, followed by a Q & A session moderated by Noble Capital Markets Senior Energy Analyst Michael Heim. Return to the Investor Forum Event Page CanAlaska Uranium Ltd. (TSX-V: CVV; OTCQB: CVVUF; Frankfurt: DH7N) holds interests in approximately 214,000 hectares (530,000 acres), in Canada’s Athabasca Basin – the “Saudi Arabia of Uranium.” CanAlaska’s strategic holdings have attracted major international mining companies. CanAlaska is currently working with Cameco and Denison at two of the Company’s properties in the Eastern Athabasca Basin. CanAlaska is a project generator positioned for discovery success in the world’s richest uranium district. The Company also holds properties prospective for nickel, copper, gold and diamonds. News & Advanced Market Data on CVVUF

Blue Sky Uranium President and CEO Niko Cacos & VP, Exploration & Development Guillermo Pensado deliver a formal corporate overview, followed by a Q & A session moderated by Noble Capital Markets Senior Energy Analyst Michael Heim. Return to the Investor Forum Event Page Blue Sky Uranium Corp. (TSX.V: BSK; FSE: MAL2.F; OTC: BKUCF) is one of Argentina’s best-positioned uranium & vanadium exploration companies with more than 4,000 km2 (400,000 ha) of prospective tenements. The Company’s mission is to deliver exceptional returns to shareholders by acquiring, exploring and advancing towards production a portfolio of uranium-vanadium projects, with an emphasis on near-surface deposits with the potential for near-term low-cost production. The Company follows international best practices in exploration, with a focus on respect for the environment, the communities, and the cultures in all the areas in which we work. Argentina is the largest generator of electricity from nuclear energy in South America. The country is working to further expand their nuclear energy sector with additional power plants, but currently lacks domestic uranium production. Argentina’s desire for security of supply could provide a “guaranteed” first customer for a new domestic supplier. Large scale production could make Argentina a strategic exporter of uranium to the international nuclear energy sector. Blue Sky’s exploration work between 2007 and 2012 led to the discovery of a new uranium district in Rio Negro Province. The Company’s Amarillo Grande Project covers the district with three major properties, including the Ivana near-surface uranium deposit which hosts the largest NI 43-101 uranium resource in the country; Ivana also has potentially significant vanadium credits. Other exploration targets for blind uranium and vanadium mineralization are also present within the project area. The close proximity of the properties & targets provides the potential for an integrated, low-cost uranium-vanadium producing operation, making Amarillo Grande an excellent candidate to be the first near-term uranium producer in Argentina. The Company is a member of the Grosso Group, a resource-focused management group that pioneered the mineral exploration industry in Argentina and has operated there since 1993. The group is credited with four exceptional mineral deposit discoveries, and has a highly-regarded track-record for fostering strong relationships with the communities and governments where it works. The Grosso Group leverages its vast network of local, regional and international industry contacts to support the exploration team as they search for quality resource opportunities. News & Advanced Market Data on BKUCF

GoviEx Uranium CEO Daniel Major delivers a formal corporate overview, followed by a Q & A session moderated by Noble Capital Markets Senior Energy Analyst Michael Heim. Return to the Investor Forum Event Page GoviEx is a mineral resource company focused on the exploration and development of uranium properties in Africa. The company has a sizable resource inventory with over 143M lbs U3O8 in measured and indicated categories, and 86.9M lbs U3O8 in the inferred category. GoviEx’s principal objective is to become a significant uranium producer through the continued exploration and development of its flagship mine-permitted Madaouela Project in Niger, its mine-permitted Mutanga Project in Zambia, and its multi-element Falea Project in Mali. News & Advanced Market Data on GVXXF

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Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough: What Do New Results Mean for the Future of ‘Infinite’ Energy?

 

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has announced a major breakthrough in nuclear fusion, using powerful lasers to produce 1.3 megajoules of energy – about 3% of the energy contained in 1kg of crude oil.

Nuclear fusion has long been thought of as the energy of the future – an “infinite” source of power that does not rely on the need to burn carbon. But after decades of research, it has yet to deliver on its exciting promise.

How much closer does this new breakthrough bring us to the desired results? Here is a brief overview to put this new scientific advance into perspective.

What is Nuclear Fusion?

There are two ways of using nuclear energy: fission, which is used in current nuclear power plants, and fusion.

In fission, heavy uranium atoms are broken into smaller atoms to release energy. Nuclear fusion is the opposite process: light atoms are transformed into heavier atoms to release energy, the same process that occurs within the plasma core of the Sun.

A fusion reactor amplifies power: the reaction triggered must produce more energy than is needed to heat the fuel plasma for energy production to occur – this is known as ignition. No one has managed this yet. The current record was achieved in 1997 by the Joint European Torus in the UK, where 16 megawatts of power were generated by magnetic fusion, but it took 23 megawatts to trigger it.

 

Inside the fusion chamber of the DIII-D tokamak, San Diego, USA. Rswilcox, CC BY-SA

 

There are two possible ways of achieving nuclear fusion: magnetic confinement, which uses powerful magnets to confine the plasma for very long periods of time, and inertial confinement, which uses very powerful and brief laser pulses to compress the fuel and start the fusion reaction.

Historically, magnetic fusion has been favored because the technology needed for inertial fusion, particularly the lasers, was not available. Inertial fusion also requires much higher gains to compensate for the energy consumed by the lasers.

Inertial Confinement

The two largest inertial projects are the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the USA and the Laser MégaJoule in France, whose applications are mainly military and funded by defense programs. Both facilities simulate nuclear explosions for research purposes, though the NIF also carries out research on energy.

The NIF uses 192 laser beams that produce a total of 1.9 megajoules of energy for a period lasting a few nanoseconds to trigger the fusion reaction. Fuel is placed inside a metal capsule a few millimeters across, which, when heated by lasers, emits X-rays that heat up and compress the fuel.

It was this process that, on 8 August 2021, achieved the landmark energy production of 1.3 megajoules, the highest value ever recorded by the inertial approach. That is, the closest we have come to ignition.

The overall gain of 0.7 equals the record achieved by JET in 1997 using magnetic confinement. Still, in this case, the fuel absorbed 0.25 megajoules of energy and generated 1.3 megajoules: fusion, therefore, generated a good part of the heat needed for the reaction, approaching the point of ignition.

Still, a reactor will have to achieve much higher gains (more than 100) to be economically attractive.

 

Magnetic Confinement

The magnetic confinement approach promises better development prospects and is thus the preferred route for energy production so far.

The vast majority of research focuses on tokamaks, and fusion reactors invented in the USSR in the 1960s, where the plasma is confined by a strong magnetic field.

ITER, a demonstration reactor under construction in the south of France involving 35 countries, uses the tokamak configuration. It will be the world’s largest fusion reactor and aims to demonstrate a gain of 10 – the plasma will be heated by 50 megawatts of power and should generate 500 megawatts. The first plasma is now officially expected by the end of 2025, with a demonstration of fusion expected in the late 2030s.

The UK has recently launched the STEP project (Spherical Tokamak for Electricity Production), which aims to develop a reactor that connects to the energy grid in the 2040s. China is also pursuing an ambitious program to produce tritium isotopes and electricity in the 2040s. Finally, Europe plans to open another tokamak demonstrator, DEMO, in the 2050s.

Another configuration called the stellarator, like Germany’s Wendelstein-7X, is showing very good results. Though stellarator performances are lower than what a tokamak can achieve, its intrinsic stability and promising recent results make it a serious alternative.

 

The Future of Fusion

Meanwhile, private nuclear fusion projects have been booming in recent years. Most of them envision a fusion reaction in the next ten to 20 years and together have attracted US$2 billion in funding to outpace the traditional development sector.

 

Two different nuclear fusion deployment scenarios, compared with wind, solar and nuclear fission. G. De Temmerman, D. Chuard, J.-B. Rudelle for Zenon

 

While these initiatives use other innovative technologies to reach fusion and could thus very well deliver operational reactors fast, deploying a fleet of reactors throughout the world is bound to take time.

If development follows this accelerated track, nuclear fusion could amount to about 1% of global energy demand by 2060.

So while this new breakthrough is exciting, it’s worth keeping in mind that fusion will be an energy source for the second part of the century – at the earliest.

 

This article was republished with permission from  The Conversation, a news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It represents the research-based findings and thoughts of  Greg De Temmerman, Associate researcher at Mines ParisTech-PSL. Managing Director of Zenon Research, Mines ParisTech

 

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Noble Capital Markets Uranium Power Players Investor Forum – August 31, 2021 Starting at 9am EDT The Noble Uranium Power Players Investor Forum is a virtual conference bringing together leading companies involved in the exploration and production of uranium. Registration is fast and free.

 

 

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	Image Credit: Michael Mees (Flickr)

The National Renewable Energy Lab Sees Potential to Increase U.S. Energy Storage 3000%

 

In recent decades the cost of wind and solar power generation has dropped dramatically. This is one reason that the U.S. Department of Energy projects that renewable energy will be the fastest-growing U.S. energy source through 2050.

However, it’s still relatively expensive to store energy. And since renewable energy generation isn’t available all the time – it happens when the wind blows or the sun shines – storage is essential.

 

This article was republished with permission from  The Conversation, a news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It represents the research-based findings and thoughts of  Kerry Rippy, Researcher, National Renewable Energy Laboratory

 

As a researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, I work with the federal government and private industry to develop renewable energy storage technologies. In a recent report, researchers at NREL estimated that the potential exists to increase U.S. renewable energy storage capacity by as much as 3,000% percent by 2050.

Here are three emerging technologies that could help make this happen.

Longer Charges

From alkaline batteries for small electronics to lithium-ion batteries for cars and laptops, most people already use batteries in many aspects of their daily lives. But there is still lots of room for growth.

For example, high-capacity batteries with long discharge times – up to 10 hours – could be valuable for storing solar power at night or increasing the range of electric vehicles. Right now there are very few such batteries in use. However, according to recent projections, upwards of 100 gigawatts’ worth of these batteries will likely be installed by 2050. For comparison, that’s 50 times the generating capacity of Hoover Dam. This could have a major impact on the viability of renewable energy.

 

Noble Capital Markets Uranium Power Players Investor Forum – August 31, 2021 Starting at 9am EDT The Noble Uranium Power Players Investor Forum is a virtual conference bringing together leading companies involved in the exploration and production of uranium. Registration is fast and free.

 

One of the biggest obstacles is limited supplies of lithium and cobalt, which currently are essential for making lightweight, powerful batteries. According to some estimates, around 10% of the world’s lithium and nearly all of the world’s cobalt reserves will be depleted by 2050.

Furthermore, nearly 70% of the world’s cobalt is mined in the Congo, under conditions that have long been documented as inhumane.

Scientists are working to develop techniques for recycling lithium and cobalt batteries and to design batteries based on other materials. Tesla plans to produce cobalt-free batteries within the next few years. Others aim to replace lithium with sodium, which has properties very similar to lithium’s but is much more abundant.

Safer Batteries

Another priority is to make batteries safer. One area for improvement is electrolytes – the medium, often liquid, that allows an electric charge to flow from the battery’s anode, or negative terminal, to the cathode, or positive terminal.

When a battery is in use, charged particles in the electrolyte move around to balance out the charge of the electricity flowing out of the battery. Electrolytes often contain flammable materials. If they leak, the battery can overheat and catch fire or melt.

Scientists are developing solid electrolytes, which would make batteries more robust. It is much harder for particles to move around through solids than through liquids, but encouraging lab-scale results suggest that these batteries could be ready for use in electric vehicles in the coming years, with target dates for commercialization as early as 2026.

While solid-state batteries would be well suited for consumer electronics and electric vehicles, for large-scale energy storage, scientists are pursuing all-liquid designs called flow batteries.

 

A typical flow battery consists of two tanks of liquids that are pumped past a membrane held between two electrodes. Qi and Koenig, 2017, CC BY

In these devices both the electrolyte and the electrodes are liquids. This allows for super-fast charging and makes it easy to make really big batteries. Currently these systems are very expensive, but research continues to bring down the price.

 

Storing Sunlight as Heat

Other renewable energy storage solutions cost less than batteries in some cases. For example, concentrated solar power plants use mirrors to concentrate sunlight, which heats up hundreds or thousands of tons of salt until it melts. This molten salt then is used to drive an electric generator, much as coal or nuclear power is used to heat steam and drive a generator in traditional plants.

These heated materials can also be stored to produce electricity when it is cloudy, or even at night. This approach allows concentrated solar power to work around the clock.

 

Checking a molten salt valve for corrosion at Sandia’s Molten Salt Test Loop. Randy Montoya, Sandia
Labs/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND

This idea could be adapted for use with non-solar power generation technologies. For example, electricity made with wind power could be used to heat salt for use later when it isn’t windy.

Concentrating solar power is still relatively expensive. To compete with other forms of energy generation and storage, it needs to become more efficient. One way to achieve this is to increase the temperature the salt is heated to, enabling more efficient electricity production. Unfortunately, the salts currently in use aren’t stable at high temperatures. Researchers are working to develop new salts or other materials that can withstand temperatures as high as 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit (705 C).

One leading idea for how to reach higher temperature involves heating up sand instead of salt, which can withstand the higher temperature. The sand would then be moved with conveyor belts from the heating point to storage. The Department of Energy recently announced funding for a pilot concentrated solar power plant based on this concept.

 

Advanced Renewable Fuels

Batteries are useful for short-term energy storage, and concentrated solar power plants could help stabilize the electric grid. However, utilities also need to store a lot of energy for indefinite amounts of time. This is a role for renewable fuels like hydrogen and ammonia. Utilities would store energy in these fuels by producing them with surplus power, when wind turbines and solar panels are generating more electricity than the utilities’ customers need.

Hydrogen and ammonia contain more energy per pound than batteries, so they work where batteries don’t. For example, they could be used for shipping heavy loads and running heavy equipment, and for rocket fuel.

Today these fuels are mostly made from natural gas or other nonrenewable fossil fuels via extremely inefficient reactions. While we think of it as a green fuel, most hydrogen gas today is made from natural gas.

Scientists are looking for ways to produce hydrogen and other fuels using renewable electricity. For example, it is possible to make hydrogen fuel by splitting water molecules using electricity. The key challenge is optimizing the process to make it efficient and economical. The potential payoff is enormous: inexhaustible, completely renewable energy.

 

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Gevo Files for Environmental Permits in South Dakota for the Net-Zero 1 Project

 

ENGLEWOOD, Colo., Aug. 26, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Gevo, Inc. (NASDAQ: GEVO) is pleased to announce that the air quality and wastewater permit applications for the company’s Net-Zero 1 project have been filed with the South Dakota Department of Agriculture & Natural Resources.

“These permit applications are on schedule and represent the first of the permits necessary for the construction of Net-Zero 1,” commented Dr. Chris Ryan, Gevo’s President and Chief Operating Officer. “We are happy to work closely with Pinnacle Engineering, a world-class engineering firm known for specializing in environmental permitting, to draft our permits. These combined efforts are focused on minimizing environmental impact and establishing the lowest CI (Carbon Intensity) score possible,” continued Dr. Ryan.

“It’s a pleasure to work with the Gevo team and we look forward to our continued collaborations on this exciting project,” stated Steve Schleicher, Pinnacle Engineering, Partner and Vice President, Industrial Services.

About Gevo

Gevo’s mission is to transform renewable energy and carbon into energy-dense liquid hydrocarbons. These liquid hydrocarbons can be used for drop-in transportation fuels such as gasoline, jet fuel and diesel fuel, that when burned have potential to yield net-zero greenhouse gas emissions when measured across the full life cycle of the products. Gevo uses low-carbon renewable resource-based carbohydrates as raw materials, and is in an advanced state of developing renewable electricity and renewable natural gas for use in production processes, resulting in low-carbon fuels with substantially reduced carbon intensity (the level of greenhouse gas emissions compared to standard petroleum fossil-based fuels across their life cycle). Gevo’s products perform as well or better than traditional fossil-based fuels in infrastructure and engines, but with substantially reduced greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to addressing the problems of fuels, Gevo’s technology also enables certain plastics, such as polyester, to be made with more sustainable ingredients. Gevo’s ability to penetrate the growing low-carbon fuels market depends on the price of oil and the value of abating carbon emissions that would otherwise increase greenhouse gas emissions. Gevo believes that its proven, patented technology enabling the use of a variety of low-carbon sustainable feedstocks to produce price-competitive low-carbon products such as gasoline components, jet fuel and diesel fuel yields the potential to generate project and corporate returns that justify the build-out of a multi-billion-dollar business.

Gevo believes that the Argonne National Laboratory GREET model is the best available standard of scientific-based measurement for life cycle inventory or LCI.

Learn more at Gevo’s website: www.gevo.com

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release may constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements relate to a variety of matters such as, without limitation, statements regarding Pinnacle Engineering; the Net-Zero 1 project, including the permits necessary for the Net-Zero 1 project, whether Gevo will receive the permits, Gevo’s ability to produce products with a “net-zero” greenhouse gas footprint; Gevo’s plans and strategy and other statements that are not purely statements of historical fact. These forward-looking statements are made on the basis of the current beliefs, expectations and assumptions of the management of Gevo and are subject to significant risks and uncertainty. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements. All such forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and Gevo undertakes no obligation to update or revise these statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Although Gevo believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, these statements involve many risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from what may be expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements. For a further discussion of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those expressed in these forward-looking statements, as well as risks relating to the business of Gevo in general, see the risk disclosures in the Annual Report on Form 10-K of Gevo for the year ended December 31, 2020, and in subsequent reports on Forms 10-Q and 8-K and other filings made with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by Gevo.

Investor and Media Contact

+1 720-647-9605

IR@gevo.com