The vanadium flow battery company formed from RedT and Avalon will complete profitable projects in 2021. When two of the long-duration flow battery sector’s leaders ran into problems, a frequent partner, vanadium producer Bushveld Minerals, suggested they should discuss a merger. The U.K.’s RedT Energy and U.S. firm Avalon completed that process in March. The […]
Form Energy Raises Another $70M for Long-Duration Storage
Investors want a piece of Form Energy’s stealthy long-duration storage tech, even before its first commercial deployments. Form Energy raised a $70 million Series C to scale its super-long-duration energy storage technology. That investment was first reported by Reuters Friday, without naming the participating investors. It brings Form Energy’s total funds raised to around $120 […]
Avalon and RedT Finally Ready to Merge in Rare Flow Battery Confluence
Consolidation could be just what the fledgling flow battery industry needs. Two flow battery companies are about to complete a months-long effort to combine forces. It’s a rare instance of elective M&A in this challenging sector of the energy storage industry, where acquisitions often happen after a bankruptcy or insolvency. North America’s Avalon Battery will […]
Canada’s e-Zn Raises Millions to Commercialize Long-Duration Zinc Energy Storage
Startup bets on cheap and abundant zinc — and the emergence of a market for long-duration storage. Canadian startup e-Zn has raised money to store clean energy far longer than currently available batteries allow, using cheap and abundant zinc. On Wednesday, the company received CAD $2 million ($1.5 million) in non-dilutive grant funding from Sustainable […]
5 Tangible Advances for Long-Duration Energy Storage in 2019
The big wins for long-duration storage always seem to be just around the corner. This year brought concrete signs of progress. Following long-duration storage is like rooting for a home team that’s always about to win next year. Lithium-ion batteries utterly dominate grid storage deployments these days. That’s great for the cost decline narrative, in […]
Flow Batteries Struggle in 2019 as Lithium-Ion Marches On
Save for a few rare announcements, the promising technology class has gone quiet. October’s SoftBank-led investment in iron flow battery startup ESS represented an unusual event in 2019: a piece of good news for the flow battery sector. The $30 million cash injection was a rare sign that there may still be life in an […]
Iron Flow Battery Startup ESS Raises $30M From SoftBank and Breakthrough
The flow battery survivor marks the latest in a series of recent investments in unconventional long-duration storage technologies. Iron flow battery startup ESS raised an additional $30 million to take its technology from pilots to commercial scale. Since 2011, the company has been developing a low-cost, nonflammable long-duration storage technology to compete across domains where […]
A New Path to Market for Flow Batteries: Rent an Electrolyte
The newfangled arrangement lowers the upfront price of vanadium flow batteries, potentially making them more competitive with lithium. When you’re competing with mass-produced lithium-ion batteries, every bit of cost reduction counts. The dominant energy storage technology benefits from massive economies of scale. Flow batteries, a major class of alternative storage technologies, lack that scale, and […]
Toyota Corolla Hybrid, flow batteries, Greenlots, GM-Tesla pickup rumor: Today’s Car News
The EPA released impressive fuel-economy estimates for the 2019 Toyota Corolla Hybrid. Indiana professors combine ethanol, and fuel-cell tech in affordable next-gen electric-car battery. One-step Plug&Charge comes to Greenlots chargers. And a report reveals that Tesla may be supplying batteries and motors for a new electric pickup from GM. All this and more on Green […]
Back from the Brink, ViZn Turns to China for Flow Battery Commercialization
The Montana-based startup will license its unconventional storage technology to a Chinese industrial consortium under a new deal. Flow battery maker ViZn Energy bounced back from a near-bankruptcy experience last year to land a deal with a Chinese industrial consortium. Many companies have failed in the quest to commercialize technological alternatives to lithium-ion batteries, which […]