A manufacturing opportunity. An evidence-led path.
BSSF targets a cost within the battery manufacturing process. The commercial ambition is to supply enabling technology to compatible manufacturers, subject to qualification.
MANUFACTURING ECONOMICS · COMPANY MODEL
The opportunity, with its assumptions visible.
ILLUSTRATIVE MANUFACTURER SCENARIO
What changes at factory scale?
Explore the model’s arithmetic. These assumptions describe electrolyte process costs, not the cost of a complete battery.
MODELLED ANNUAL DIFFERENCE · PER FACTORYA$2.19billion
Potential manufacturer value before integration and other excluded costs. This is not Howe Invest revenue or a measured saving.
Currency provenance: this calculator retains the founder-pitch AUD scenario. The detailed Economic Roadmap v3 uses USD for its cost model. No exchange-rate conversion or equivalence between these two scenarios is implied; the benchmark requires currency reconciliation before investment use.
Read the calculation and limitations
Annual difference = (reference cost − assumed process cost) × annual GWh × 1,000,000 kWh/GWh. The reference scenario is (A$31.90 − A$10.00) × 100,000,000 = A$2.19 billion per year per factory, rounded to A$2.2 billion in the founder pitch.
This is an illustrative electrolyte manufacturing scenario, not a market-wide benchmark, forecast, company valuation or measured saving. It assumes equivalent usable output and successful technical validation. Yield, throughput, equipment, qualification, supply terms and adoption can materially change outcomes. Financing, tax, integration and timing effects are excluded. Linear scaling is illustrative and does not model scale efficiencies or constraints.
AUSTRALIAN STORAGE ECONOMICS · EXTERNAL SOURCES
What does a MWh of storage cost?
Project capital cost per MWh of storage capacity is different from the price of electricity delivered, and from a factory’s cell manufacturing cost.
Australian project cost context
Selected four-hour projects · A$ thousands per MWh of storage capacity
View values and scope
ERA March 2026 compilation, Table 20
Project
A$/MWh
Tomago 1 · NSW
380,000
Eraring 2 · NSW
445,000
Stanwell · QLD
591,000
Kwinana 2 · WA
762,000
Collie stage 1 · WA
800,000
Projects have different dates, locations and cost boundaries; these are selected reported estimates, not a national average or manufacturing quotations. Construction dates in the source range from 2023 to pending.
ERA’s six-hour, 200 MW / 1,200 MWh benchmark uses approximately A$625.6 million capital cost for the 2028/29 capacity year. It is a modelled project benchmark, not a BSSF manufacturing price.
Western Power contributes transmission connection estimates to the ERA assessment. The battery cost estimate is not a Western Power electrolyte manufacturing breakdown.
Capital costs include forecast escalation. This is not an electricity tariff, lifetime cost per MWh delivered, or the separate capacity payment expressed in $/MW/year.
TRACING THE 40–50% FIGURE
Electrolyte economics depend on the battery chemistry.
Range illustration, not a measured BSSF cost breakdown. Leasing shifts expenditure over time; it does not remove the electrolyte cost.
Australian Vanadium’s April 2026 presentation describes electrolyte leasing potentially moving 40–50% of vanadium-flow battery upfront capital into operating expenditure. It cites World Bank work and places an ERA cost reference alongside its own VFB estimates.
This is a plausible source behind the summit discussion, not a confirmed attribution to Western Power. It does not establish that electrolyte is 40–50% of lithium-ion or BSSF manufacturing cost.
Start with integration. Grow through qualification.
01 · INITIAL ENTRY
Manufacturer evaluation
Seek controlled evaluation of the enabling peptide and compatible material systems after sufficient experimental evidence.
02 · ENGINEERING
Pilot & qualification
Establish repeatability, customer-specific requirements, representative layers and process-transfer evidence.
03 · POTENTIAL MODELS
Supply & licensing
Explore repeat supply, licensing or agreed strategic structures. No completed licensing or customer revenue is claimed.
PRIORITY APPLICATIONS
Energy where reliability matters.
01
Mining & remote power
Potential stationary storage applications in demanding operating environments.
02
Data centres & edge compute
Exploring future fit for resilient power infrastructure and energy continuity.
03
Grid-scale storage
A prospective application for energy storage and grid firming, subject to qualification.
Application priorities are prospective markets, not validated product capabilities or customer commitments.
THE NEXT DEVELOPMENT STAGE
Capital that advances the evidence.
The October 2026 founder pitch outlines an A$2.5 million strategic seed funding objective.
Proposed uses include independent research, pilot engineering, material supply and manufacturing trials. Current availability, terms and scope are provided directly through investor discussions.