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Volt Storage’s metal-salt batteries have bought the $24 million Series C from Cummins’ massive diesel engine.
with what is to come With the passage of the Affordable Care Act, renewable plants are about to see a new surge in the US. They are already the cheapest sources of electricity to build and operate, but they often fail to take off because they depend on the weather.
The simplest solution is to store any excess energy, but this increases the overall cost of renewable energy. That’s set off a race among startups to find the cheapest way, from batteries to compressed air and even giant concrete blocks.
The front runner so far seems to be batteries, many of which use the same lithium-ion chemistry found in EV batteries. The scale of EV battery production has made lithium-ion readily available, allowing it to gain a foothold in the sector, but the prospect of long-term grid-scale storage remains grim due to high material costs.
Competition for battery materials is intensifying, and there are many uses for batteries beyond EVs, which is why some companies like Germany’s Volt Storage are trying to make batteries using the cheapest and most widely available materials — mainly metal.
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