The U.S. may have fallen behind Asia and Europe in battery manufacturing, but a number of well-funded companies are looking to get the country back in the game with a technology that could supersede today’s lithium-ion chemistries.

Companies including Ionic Materials, QuantumScape, Sila Nanotechnologies, Sion Power and Solid Power are developing all-solid-state batteries (ASSBs) that are expected to be safer and more energy-dense than the lithium-ion products used in today’s electric vehicles and battery systems.

“Lithium-ion today, with a metal-oxide cathode and carbon-based anode, is starting to approach its theoretical limits,” said Solid Power CEO Doug Campbell in an interview.

Current lithium-ion technologies might achieve power densities of up to 300 watt-hours per kilogram, Campbell said, but not much more. “Solid-state is a platform that allows things like metallic lithium as an anode,” he said. “That’s perhaps the most direct pathway to significantly increasing the energy.”

ASSBs will not have liquid electrolytes that are susceptible to thermal runaway, so the batteries should be inherently safer. And because today’s lithium-ion products require costly thermal control systems, “a safer battery pack is a lower-cost battery pack,” Campbell said.

That combination of potential upsides is attracting big bucks. Massachusetts-based Ionic Materials has drawn investment from a fund backed by Nissan, Mitsubishi and Renault, in addition to Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy. Daimler has backed Sila Nanotechnologies, based in California’s Bay Area. Samsung and Hyundai have invested in Colorado-based Solid Power.

According to Wood Mackenzie, U.S. investments in ASSB and advanced lithium-ion players amounted to $300 million in 2018, $250 million in 2019 and $200 million so far this year, with the 2020 figure made up by a single cash injection from Volkswagen into QuantumScape.

The European Union (EU) has just published its Strategy for Energy System Integration, including pledges to support renewables and energy storage as the continent targets carbon neutrality by 2050.

Published through the European Commission, the strategy provides the “framework for the green energy transition,” with a particular emphasis on bringing together the disparate energy supply and demand scenarios in transportation, industry, gas and buildings – also known as ’sector coupling’.

This includes a recognition that behind-the-meter resources such as household energy storage batteries and electric vehicles (EVs) could help manage distribution grids better. EVs for example could provide 20% of Europe’s required electricity system flexibility by 2050, the Commission said, according to a new study.

Meanwhile larger-scale energy storage resources including pumped hydropower, grid battery storage as well as hydrogen (H2) electrolysers could also provide a great deal of flexibility, to help manage the system. Thermal storage at industrial facilities, closely integrating heat with power, could also be a big provider of flexibility, allowing for demand response that takes advantage of electricity price changes in real-time.

In addition to adding increased flexibility, energy system integration – planning the whole energy sector holistically – will have multiple benefits from reducing greenhouse gas emissions in difficult-to-decarbonise sectors, to increasing energy efficiency and reducing demand, to supporting European economic competitiveness, the Commission argued. It will also mean “greater consumer empowerment, improved resilience and security of supply”.

A subcommittee of the US House Committee on Appropriations has approved more than a billion dollars in support for developing energy storage deployment, research and manufacturing in a funding bill for the 2021 Fiscal Year.

The Congressional Committee, which makes funding decisions on the federal government’s key activities, approves 12 bills a year on topics including legislation, labour and education, defense and energy and water.

Yesterday, the FY 2021 Energy and Water Development Funding Bill was approved by the Committee, set to invest a total of US$49.6 billion in programmes to address climate change, improve infrastructure, strengthen national security and make measures to support the revitalisation of the economic in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Committee noted that this was an increase of US$1.26 billion – or 3% – above the 2020 equivalent Bill. Also included was US$43.5 billion of emergency spending for the repair of water infrastructure and the modernisation of energy infrastructure. The bill now heads to the full committee for markup.

In the section on electricity, the Bill proposed a total of US$3.35 billion of “necessary expenses related to grid modernisation programmes”. Alongside a US$2 billion commitment to grants and demonstration for the enhancement of grid resilience, reliability and energy security of national electricity infrastructure including allowing for the greater adoption of renewable energy, there were specific pledges on energy storage. These were:

The U.S. may have fallen behind Asia and Europe in battery manufacturing, but a number of well-funded companies are looking to get the country back in the game with a technology that could supersede today’s lithium-ion chemistries.

Companies including Ionic Materials, QuantumScape, Sila Nanotechnologies, Sion Power and Solid Power are developing all-solid-state batteries (ASSBs) that are expected to be safer and more energy-dense than the lithium-ion products used in today’s electric vehicles and battery systems.

“Lithium-ion today, with a metal-oxide cathode and carbon-based anode, is starting to approach its theoretical limits,” said Solid Power CEO Doug Campbell in an interview.

Current lithium-ion technologies might achieve power densities of up to 300 watt-hours per kilogram, Campbell said, but not much more. “Solid-state is a platform that allows things like metallic lithium as an anode,” he said. “That’s perhaps the most direct pathway to significantly increasing the energy.”

ASSBs will not have liquid electrolytes that are susceptible to thermal runaway, so the batteries should be inherently safer. And because today’s lithium-ion products require costly thermal control systems, “a safer battery pack is a lower-cost battery pack,” Campbell said.

That combination of potential upsides is attracting big bucks. Massachusetts-based Ionic Materials has drawn investment from a fund backed by Nissan, Mitsubishi and Renault, in addition to Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy. Daimler has backed Sila Nanotechnologies, based in California’s Bay Area. Samsung and Hyundai have invested in Colorado-based Solid Power.

According to Wood Mackenzie, U.S. investments in ASSB and advanced lithium-ion players amounted to $300 million in 2018, $250 million in 2019 and $200 million so far this year, with the 2020 figure made up by a single cash injection from Volkswagen into QuantumScape.

Gresham House Energy Storage Fund is aiming to raise an initial £15m to buy more grid scale battery storage.

The fund has an operational storage portfolio of 215MW with a further 140MW expected to come on line later this year (details here).

It aims to use the initial series of ‘Grid Power Bonds’, which pay an annual fixed rate of 5 per cent over a five-year term, to acquire an operating asset “which is at an advanced stage of due diligence”, per the market announcement.

The fund aims to launch a series of such bonds, which will be redeemable by the issuer after two years with no penalty. It may also use proceeds to fund other buys and to refinance existing projects.

Paying 5 per cent a year and with low fees is a good rate compared to revolving credit or project finance, the fund argues.

Gresham House doesn’t plan to use the bonds to borrow more than £40m in aggregate.

At the time of writing this article, the COVID-19 pandemic still had a firm grip on the world with no reliable and widespread cure within reach. And while there will be a day when this crisis is resolved, its impact on global economies and industries will likely still be felt for a long time after the virus is under control and life has returned to (the next) normal.

The energy storage industry is no exception. But what is the actual impact of COVID-19 on the market, in particular, in the longer-term? And how should energy storage players adapt to weather the pandemic’s effects or become even more successful?

In this two-part article, based on work carried out by my company, Apricum, an international cleantech advisory and consultancy group, I will provide the bigger picture of “energy storage vs the virus” by examining its impact on the fundamental market drivers and outlining the key mindset and behavioural shifts that we expect to see in a post-pandemic world.

A quick recap: Where we are currently
Like all industries, the energy storage business is significantly impacted by the pandemic due to site access problems and difficulties to get permissions in times of lock downs as well as a general economic downturn. This will certainly affect activity in 2020.

However, we are not aware of any larger scale project under construction that has been cancelled or delayed for a longer period. Quite the opposite, grid battery contracts of impressive size have been announced over the last few months, like Southern California Edison’s (SCE) 770MW storage procurement in May, one of the largest ever seen. Temporary slowdowns in the execution will typically not lead to an abandonment of a large grid battery project given the often multi-year development cycles. Moreover, if utility-scale energy storage qualifies as “critical infrastructure” site access is granted even in times of a lockdown, as seen, for example, in California and Italy.

Behind-the-meter storage companies in general are likely to feel a stronger impact, though: Many commercial and industrial (C&I) customers will have to cut back on investments outside their core business, so the purchasing of an energy storage system might be considered non-essential for the time being. In the same spirit, homeowners might want to defer major household spending to 2021 and beyond.