Commercialization of Lowest-Cost, Long Duration Energy Storage Systems
e-Zinc Inc
Recipient
Etobicoke, ON
Recipient Location
$0
Amount Spent
Active
Project Status
Project Update
The project team has submitted the draft system design report which outlines the preliminary specifications of a pilot system, which is expected to be a kW scale system with upwards of 24 hours of duration. The current focus is on progressing product development and testing of the project team’s latest cell version. The project team deployed its first demonstration project in late 2022, which has provided a significant amount of field data to improve upon the cell design. Data points obtained include charging and discharging performance, voltage curves, degradation of key components, reactions to ambient temperature swings, and transportation of the cells. The project team is currently optimizing the functional parameters of the cell in a design of experiments to ensure that performance requirements are met. This optimization is done by using a combination of ARBIN instruments to evaluate the cells, in addition to completing smaller benchtop tests. The project team intends to complete the build of the pilot system to deploy in early 2024 with Western Energy Systems for back-up power and daily cycling use cases. Finally, the project team is completing the upgrades of a 40,000 sq-ft pilot scale manufacturing facility.
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 an e-Zn long-duration energy storage system, and test and validate the e-Zn technology at the commercial scale. e-Zn'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% of its usable capacity throughout its lifetime.
Affordability
In addition to increased resiliency, e-Zn 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-Zn 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-Zn 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-Zn 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 (vs. 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-Zn 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
Penn Power Group, LLC d/b/a Western Energy Systems
SunGrid Solutions Inc.
Match Partners
e-Zinc Inc
