Commercial vanadium metal, of about 95% purity, costs about $20/lb. This is a tiny layer, so even at the 99.9% purity level cost of $100/oz, materials cost is not likely be a critical factor. The main constraint is that it's not making much power -- at this level it's really for very low power applications, especially things like sensors and comms.
I don't think the research is intended for large scale electricity production. It's for small sensors and processors and that won't cost much.
This opens up a quiet a few possibilities like buy a temperature sensor place it somewhere and it starts feeding data into your home WiFi. No wires, no batteries.
Lots of hand tools like hex-head wrenches also use it. Typically they get stamped with "CR-V" for chromium-vanadium. It's basically all you need to know when buying standard quality hand tools.
In addition to being affordable the material is available in bulk and there exists an industry which knows how to work with it. Same with all the materials mentioned.
I'm glad you ran the numbers for this to reach such an important conclusion about the future of this technology, RandomWorker. Care to show your working?