The evening of Feb. 27, 2008, was a dark moment for clean energy.
      Texas is the biggest producer of wind power in the United States, normally generating 1.7 gigawatts. But on that day a cold front moved in and the winds died around suppertime. Supply from wind power abruptly dropped by 80%, just as the day's electricity demand was peaking. Power grid operators enacted an emergency plan and scrambled to cut power to some areas for several hours to prevent statewide blackouts.
      That day's events in Texas highlight a massive but rarely discussed barrier to the adoption of renewable energy on a large scale. Solar and wind power rely on sunshine or winds, which are, by their nature, unpredictable. However, our power grids are highly sensitive and require constant, predictable loads to function properly. The August 2003 blackout that darkened Toronto, most of Ontario and the northeastern United States showed just how fragile and vulnerable the system can be.
      Fossil fuel-fired power plants such as coal and diesel, while environmentally damaging, do supply a constant level of power to the grid, calibrated second-by-second to exactly match demand. This is what renewable energy sources to date have difficulty offering. So with President Obama pledging to double U.S. renewable energy production within the next three years and other governments close to similar commitments, we will rapidly approach a crucial tipping point.
      The solution lies in storage. In order to provide the grid with significant levels of power, renewable energy requires storage -- batteries -- to save up energy when sun and wind are strong, and release their energy when they disappear. As a senior manager at the U.S. Department of Energy recently stated, "without storage, renewables will find it hard to make it big."

      Storage is the biggest, most significant issue we are facing this century. All the great ways we have to generate electricity -- wind, solar, geothermal -- are nothing without an efficient way to store it.
      The problem is that a power grid requires really big batteries -- and current battery technology can't scale up that big. And so the future of renewable energy -- and thus the future of climate change, and the planet -- may rest on a little-known element: vanadium.
      Why is vanadium so special? Vanadium is a strategic metal that is already irreplaceable for engineering in aerospace, aviation, automotive, shipping and construction. This is because vanadium has a remarkable ability to make steel alloys both stronger and lighter. In fact, vanadium-titanium alloys have the best strength-to-weight ratio of any engineered material. These ultra high-strength and super-light steels are often called the plastics of the 21st century, and demand for them is strong and growing.
      BHP Billiton projects that more steel will be consumed in the next 20 years than was consumed during the entire 20th century. And highstrength low-alloy steel, made with vanadium, has outpaced crude steel production by 21.6% since 2006. Around the world, economic stimulus packages are now funding a global boom in infrastructure projects such as airports, pipelines and bridges. World markets estimate total global infrastructure spending over the next 20 years will reach $35-trillion -- with many of those projects requiring vanadium.
      But while vanadium is most often associated with steel, it is poised to play a pivotal role in helping renewable energy achieve success. This is because vanadium also makes highly powerful and efficient batteries--batteries that have the potential for large-scale, power grid usage.
      Vanadium batteries are chemically and structurally different from any other battery. For the most part, battery technology hasn't advanced in decades: they're toxic, hold only a few hundred recharge cycles, leak power when not in use and are prone to overheating (ever felt the battery heat up in your phone or your computer as it's charging? Imagine that on the scale of a football field).
      But the Vanadium-Redox battery, invented at the University of New South Wales in Australia, could avoid these problems: They have a lifespan of tens of thousands of cycles, are non-toxic, do not self-discharge while idle and do not generate high amounts of heat when charging. On top of all that, the vanadium battery has a marvellous advantage over lithium-ion and most other types of batteries: It can absorb and discharge huge amounts of electricity instantly and do so over and over, making it the only battery technology today capable of connecting to power grids to help smooth out the unpredictable flow of energy stored from wind turbines and solar cells.
      Vanadium may, therefore, hold the key to scaling renewable energy to national levels, helping reducing our dependence on fossil fuels.
      Beyond these large-scale uses, vanadium has also proven to be effective at combining with Lithium-ion batteries to significantly improve their performance-- so the next generation of hybrid car batteries may also feature vanadium.
      The future will be battery powered. The best battery will win. Vanadium makes the best batteries.
      It's no wonder that Discover Magazine recently (October '08) called vanadium "The element that could change the world.".
      The increasing demand for vanadium from both highstrength steels and new battery applications is raising total world demand for vanadium. And one company is poised to significantly affect world supply. Uranium Star Corp.'s (OTCBB: URST; Frankfurt FWB: YE5) aptly-named Green Giant Project has recently announced what may be the world's biggest deposit: a continuous 18-kilometre mineralized trend of vanadium at a site in Madagascar.
      The Green Giant Project is located in an area of Madagascar that has low-population density and is savannah-like in nature, so there is no environmental impact on local wildlife, flora or fauna. Uranium Star's project manager and chief geologist, Bill Nielsen, says, "the company has very good relations with the local population and works with district officials to make sure that all regulations are understood and complied with, and all necessary permits are in place and current."
      Uranium Star has further strengthened the company strategically by recently adding two Canadian political and business heavy weights to their special advisory board: Brian Tobin and Peter Harder. Mr. Tobin, who served as a Member of Parliament for 16 years and as premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, will serve as chairman. Mr. Harder, who previously served as a deputy-minister, will also serve on the board of directors of Uranium Star.
      In September 2009, the Company appointed Julie Lee Harrs to the position of President and CEO. Ms. Lee Harrs brings extensive international mining experience to the Company.
      One of the most exciting attributes of the Uranium Star Vanadium Project is the geology. The mineral is hosted within a graphite-rich sediment with a very shallow overburden. Sediment-hosted vanadium deposits are quite rare, occurring in less than 5% of the world's vanadium occurrences, which happen mostly in volcanic intrusives. Once in production, this means vanadium extraction at the Green Giant Project can be accomplished through leaching alone, significantly reducing capital and processing costs over that of rival operations.
      Uranium Star is targetting a minimum 200-million-tonne deposit, which is anticipated to be one of the largest low-cost, single sources of vanadium in the world. When developed, it could very well be a game changer.
      Not only will it be a significant barrier to entry for other companies looking to bring pending and future deposits on-line, Uranium Star's deposit will provide the necessary sureness of supply at low cost to stabilize world vanadium prices and encourage further utilization of vanadium worldwide.
      "We are positioning the Green Giant Mine to capitalize on the developing 'green' market and the need for efficient battery storage and to ultimately compete as a significant supplier of vanadium to the steel and renewable energy industry," says Chairman and CEO Kirk McKinnon.
      And because of the incredible magnitude of Uranium Star's Madagascar deposit, the Green Giant could well meet all the world's vanadium needs for decades.
      For more information, visit the Uranium Star website at www.uraniumstar.com or call 1.800.818.5442.