Energy Storage

Last year was another landmark 12 months for energy storage, with all indicators pointing to a massive surge in demand. Supply chain instability and inflation saw battery prices rise, but the industry demonstrated an ability to swiftly react to geopolitical developments. Marija Maisch examines five trends driving the market.

Australian energy storage systems provider Evo Power has teamed with battery optimisation technology provider Evergen in a move which aims to make it easier for commercial and industrial-scale battery customers to optimise and monetise their assets.

Only weeks after announcing its plan to build a lithium-ion battery gigafactory in Geelong, Australia-based startup Recharge Industries has bought collapsed battery maker Britishvolt – doubling its manufacturing ambitions. The takeover resuscitates Britishvolt’s gigafactory play in northern England, and means the little known startup now holds two significant battery making projects.

Atlassian CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes’ family fund Grok Ventures is among the initial investors in Canberra-based Infradebt’s Energy Transition Fund. The fund will finance six to eight grid-scale battery projects with a total capacity of up to 2 GW.

CATL’s new lithium pricing structure gives Chinese original equipment manufacturers (OEM) an effective discount of more than 20%. It is making the move to win more orders amid a slowdown in the electric-vehicle market and the ongoing efforts of cell manufacturers to secure raw materials.

Worldwide Universities Network researchers used cheap and abundant starting materials to synthesise a small molecule organic electrode material and achieved a considerable performance boost with various battery chemistries. The new cathode material exhibited unparalleled cycling stability, ultra-high capacity, and rate capability in aqueous zinc-ion batteries.

Western Australia-based AVESS is set to deploy demonstration batteries at a WA mine site in the second half of the year. The deployment is about proving the company’s technology, as it plans to move towards manufacturing the flow batteries in Australia from 2024.

US-based Sakuu has announced that it has successfully 3D printed solid-state batteries in custom shapes and sizes at its battery pilot line facility in Silicon Valley, California.

International oil giant Shell has provided New South Wales startup MGA Thermal with “gamechanger” funding to accelerate the completion of a commercial-scale pilot plant designed to demonstrate the role the company’s energy storage technology could play in the Australian energy market.

The New South Wales Labor Party plans to tip in $1 billion (USD 690 million) to create a state-owned energy corporation which will partner with the private sector to accelerate investment in pumped hydro, community batteries and renewables to support the state’s energy transition.