Metal-hydrogen battery startup raises $12m for grid storage
EnerVenue (Femont, CA) has raised $12m (€10m) in seed funding to use metal-hydrogen battery technology in grid storage applications.
The investment enables EnerVenue to accelerate development of its safe, maintenance-free, and cost-efficient clean energy storage solution. The battery technology is based on nickel-hydrogen technology that has been used over decades under the most extreme aerospace conditions, including powering the International Space Station and Hubble Space Telescope. EnerVenue has developed a lower cost metal-hydrogen version of the batteries for utility grid storage.
“As an example of metal hydrogen batteries, nickel-hydrogen batteries have proven to be an incredibly powerful energy storage technology – albeit an expensive one – for the aerospace industry over the past 40 years,” said Dr. Yi Cui, a Professor of Materials Science at Stanford University, and Founder, Chairman of the Board and Chief Technology Advisor, EnerVenue. “The performance and longevity of nickel-hydrogen batteries is well-established and second to none. We’re now able to deliver the same performance and durability at a breakthrough competitive price using new low-cost materials.”
Renewable energy generation is expected to account for more than half the world’s power supply by 2035. EnerVenue’s metal-hydrogen batteries can last more than 30 years, with cost-per-kilowatt-hour cycles as low as one cent.
“Ultra-long battery life with zero maintenance requirements even in the harshest climates is game-changing for stationary use cases such as solar plants in hot desert environments, wind farms, and micro-grids in difficult-to-reach locations,” said Jorg Heinemann, CEO of EnerVenue.
The EnerVenue metal-hydrogen batteries are developed for large-scale renewable and storage applications and designed to be durable, operating from -5° to 60°C ambient temperatures with 30,000 cycles for a 30+ year lifespan. There is no fire or thermal runaway risk and no toxic materials so it is easy to recycle. There is a broad charge/discharge range of C/5 to 5C. Nickel-hydrogen batteries have completed more than 200 million cell-hours in orbital spacecraft and more than 100,000 charge/discharge cycles.
The seed round is led by Dr. Peter Lee, Chairman of Towngas, a leading energy company in Asia with 158 years of history, and includes Doug Kimmelman, founder of Energy Capital Partners. “Our investors bring more than capital – and we’re very excited about the investing team that has come together for our seed round,” said Heinemann. “EnerVenue will also benefit tremendously from the manufacturing facilities our investors provide for development, and the access we now have to captive projects where we can clearly demonstrate the bankability of what we are bringing to the market.”
“Most analysts predict our overall energy mix shift to at least 75% renewable by 2050,” said Kimmelman. “The world has been assuming a major battery breakthrough to support that shift. EnerVenue will be one of the companies delivering the energy storage breakthroughs we need.”
EnerVenue was founded out of EEnotech, a materials-focused startup foundry that incubates and accelerates nanotechnology-driven solutions to water purification, grid-scale energy storage, smart wearable textiles and other energy and environment problems. “EEnotech has established a mechanism to source breakthrough technologies from top institutions and develop fast into commercial prototypes with capital efficiency,” said Meng Sui, CEO of EEnotech.
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