Commercialization of Lowest-Cost, Long Duration Energy Storage Systems
e-Zinc Inc
Recipient
New Jersey, NJ
Recipient Location
$0
Amount Spent
Active
Project Status
Project Update
In late 2024, e-Zinc successfully moved into its new 40,000 sq-ft pilot-scale manufacturing facility and is advancing product development and testing of its latest cell revision. The team has initiated the assembly and testing of new cell designs to optimize functionality and validate performance metrics are met. The company has also established a manufacturing presence for its air cathode product. In early 2025, e-Zinc began lab testing that includes a 24-hour continuous discharge cycle to remain on track for a system delivery to the RICU facility at the Miramar Marine Base (San Diego, CA) in the first half of 2026. The team is also working with external partners to validate the durability and ruggedness of the their battery cells product for field deployment.
The Issue
In order for California to achieve its renewable energy goals, affordable long-duration energy storage is a necessity. The storage requirements to meet these goals cannot be accomplished by batteries (i.e. device-based technologies like lithium-ion) alone, given the linear price vs. energy capacity curves for these technologies, leading to very high prices for applications requiring durations of 12 hours or longer. To address long periods of limited solar or wind power generation, as well as seasonal differences, long-duration energy storage technologies that can scale in the energy capacity dimension (kWh) at a super low cost will be required.
Project Innovation
This project will demonstration a zinc based long-duration energy storage system, and test and validate the e-Zinc technology at the commercial scale. e-Zinc's technology is material based, as adding more hours of runtime does not require an additional device (or battery), but only additional zinc, potassium hydroxide (the electrolyte), and plastic (for containment), at a material cost of approximately $20/kWh. This makes e-Zn's technology exceptionally well suited for long-duration energy storage applications, particularly greater than 24 hours duration (at rated power), and at a power node size of 1 kW to 10 MW.
Project Goals
Project Benefits
The project team’s technology is a paradigm shift in energy storage. By storing electrical energy within zinc metal, the system can store hundreds of hours of energy capacity while being significantly cheaper than incumbent battery technologies. This has the potential to dramatically improve the value proposition of intermittent, renewable electricity sources such as wind and solar. In addition, it can provide clean back-up power to provide resilient power for customers experiencing outages during PSPS events and forest fires. The project team’s system uses water-based electrolyte which is non-flammable and has no risk of thermal runaway or igniting in a fire. The system retains 100 percent of its usable capacity throughout its lifetime.
Affordability
In addition to increased resiliency, e-Zinc technology could be cycled daily to reduce costs through demand charge reduction, energy use shifting (i.e. time-of-use arbitrage), or by capturing excess onsite solar generation. Given its large energy capacity, an e-Zinc system could do this while still reserving enough energy to supply the customer in the case of an unexpected outage.
Environmental Sustainability
By discharging during peak periods, an e-Zinc energy storage system can offset electricity otherwise supplied by fossil-fuel utility peaking units. The approximate savings per system are shown in Figure 2, with CO2e reductions of ~5000 lbs/year for a residential system and ~100,000 lbs/year for small scale commercial/industrial system.
Reliability
e-Zinc technology, given its ultra-low cost of energy capacity, can provide an affordable and reliable source of backup power for 1-2 days or longer (versus only a few hours for commercially available batteries), in the case of a grid outage or fire-prevention public safety power shutoff.
Safety
Given that e-Zinc technology inherently has no risk of fire, explosion, or thermal runaway, it would be a lower risk option for Californians compared to lithium-ion, particularly fire prone areas.
Key Project Members
James Larsen
Subrecipients
SunGrid Solutions Inc.
Match Partners
e-Zinc Inc
