Alsym Energy, a developer of next-generation non-flammable rechargeable batteries for stationary storage, marine and mobility applications, announced a $78 million funding round jointly led by Tata Limited (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Sons) and General Catalyst, a global venture capital firm. New York-based Thrive Capital and Toronto-based Thomvest also joined in the round, as well as existing investor Drads Capital. Alsym will use the funds to grow its Boston-area team and expand its prototyping and pilot lines to address increasing demand for customer samples. This commitment from leading strategic investors and venture capital firms highlights the growing interest in high-performance, inexpensive non-flammable battery technologies.

Electricity generation is shifting to renewables,

Electricity generation is shifting to renewables, which are intermittent by nature and must be backed up by battery energy storage systems (BESS) at scale to ensure 24/7 availability as fossil-fuel plants go offline. A variety of storage technologies are needed to address the different requirements of customers in terms of costs and performance. Alsym’s first product for this market, called Alsym Green, offers significantly higher system-level energy density than other non-flammable, non-lithium battery chemistries. Products targeted to the marine, two-wheeler, three-wheeler, and passenger vehicle markets are planned to follow.

With the ability to operate at elevated temperatures, Alsym Green is the only high-performance, non-flammable option suitable for stationary and grid storage in situations where the risk of fire increases as the mercury rises. And with low, industry-leading levelized cost of storage (LCOS) and the ability to support a wide, software configurable range of discharge durations, Alsym batteries can be used for short, medium, and long-duration storage applications without the need for multiple solutions.

“As the clean energy transition accelerates, it’s becoming more apparent that a single battery technology is not ideal for every use case, and that more options are needed to help address the challenges of a changing climate,” said Mukesh Chatter, CEO and Co-Founder of Alsym Energy. “This funding round represents a significant vote of confidence in our approach to developing new, non-flammable battery chemistries that combine high performance and low cost with a high level of safety. It gives us the ability to speed our pace of development, increase our capacity to provide samples to both existing and prospective customers, and ultimately get our first product to market as quickly as possible.”

Battery storage systems – Alsym Energy

“Battery storage systems can help provide firm capacity to the grid when the sun is not shining and wind is not blowing, but changing climates and hazardous environments demand flexible solutions that can meet a range of needs safely and economically,” said Dr. Kripa Varanasi, Co-Founder of Alsym Energy, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, and thought leader in decarbonization and sustainability. “Alsym batteries are ideally suited to both temperate and warming climates, as well as infrastructure and industrial applications including data centers, steel mills, and chemical plants. Our low-cost, non-toxic technology will help make decarbonization economically feasible in the developed world as well as G-77 nations, allowing everyone to play a role in the clean energy future.”

“As we continue to see record scaling of renewable energy resources around the world, the practical constraints and supply chain uncertainties of lithium-ion batteries have become more acute, driving demand for alternatives that compete on performance, cost, and availability. This is particularly salient in emerging markets, where battery storage will be critical to driving down the cost of clean energy,” said Genevieve Kinney, partner at General Catalyst. “Alsym’s low-cost batteries combine performance and safety, and their strategic partnerships reflect one of the key pillars of our Global Resilience thesis, which relies on radical collaboration with established industry partners to scale new, critical technologies. With this partnership, we believe Alsym is well-positioned to drive a more sustainable future around the world.”

About Alsym Energy

Alsym Energy has developed an innovative low-cost, high-performance rechargeable battery chemistry that’s free of lithium and cobalt and ideal for applications such as stationary storage, maritime shipping, and EVs including two-wheelers, three-wheelers, and passenger vehicles. By using non-flammable, non-toxic battery materials with robust global supply chains, Alsym is working to deliver wide-duration storage with performance comparable to lithium-ion at a much lower cost, helping to speed the pace of decarbonization globally. Alsym is based in Woburn, Massachusetts. To learn more, please visit alsym.com.

About the Tata Group

Founded by Jamsetji Tata in 1868, the Tata Group is a global enterprise, headquartered in India, comprising 30 companies across ten verticals. The group operates in more than 100 countries across six continents, with a mission ‘To improve the quality of life of the communities we serve globally, through long-term stakeholder value creation based on Leadership with Trust’. Tata Sons is the principal investment holding company and promoter of Tata companies. Sixty-six percent of the equity share capital of Tata Sons is held by philanthropic trusts, which support education, health, livelihood generation and art and culture.

About General Catalyst

General Catalyst is a venture capital firm that invests in powerful, positive change that endures — for our entrepreneurs, our investors, our people, and society. We support founders with a long-term view who challenge the status quo, partnering with them from seed to growth stage and beyond to build companies that withstand the test of time. With offices in San Francisco, Palo Alto, New York City, London, Berlin and Boston, the firm has helped support the growth of businesses such as: Airbnb, Deliveroo, Guild, Gusto, Hubspot, Illumio, Lemonade, Livongo, Oscar, Samsara, Snap, Stripe, and Warby Parker. For more: www.generalcatalyst.com.

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• Collaboration with Wykes Engineering will develop one of the largest energy storage systems in the UK to harness solar and wind power using second-life EV batteries
• Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) will help decarbonise the National Grid and deal with peaks in demand; 30 second-life Jaguar I-PACE batteries can store 2.5MWh of energy – enough to power around 250 homes for a day*
• The reuse of vehicle batteries forms part of JLR’s ambition to adopt circular economy principles based on a Use Less, Use Longer, Use Again philosophy to limit the use of virgin materials
• Initiative supports JLR’s drive to achieve carbon net zero by 2039 across its supply chain, products, and operations under its Reimagine strategy
• Project represents a key R&D priority for Wykes Engineering Ltd
• With innovative uses for used car batteries on the rise, car wreckers in Melbourne play an important role in responsibly recycling vehicles and supplying parts for renewable energy projects

Wykes Engineering BESS

A single Wykes Engineering BESS utilises 30 second-life I-PACE batteries and can store up to 2.5MWh of energy at full capacity. The batteries supplied have been taken from prototype and engineering test vehicles, and JLR aims to supply enough batteries to store a total of 7.5MWh of energy – enough to power 750 homes for a day – by the end of 2023.  After this point more containers can be created to house additional second-life batteries removed from used production vehicles in the future.

Each BESS, which is linked to an advanced inverter to maximise efficiency and manage energy, is capable of supplying power direct to the National Grid during peak hours as well as drawing power out of the grid during off-peak hours to store for future use.

Battery storage systems like this are critical to decarbonising the Grid, as they can deal with rapid peaks in demand, and maximise solar and wind energy capture during sunny or windy conditions for use when needed.

As part of the technical collaboration, Wykes Engineering and JLR have achieved seamless integration, with no need for additional manufacturing steps or the removal of battery modules. The batteries are simply removed from the Jaguar I-PACE and slotted into racks in the containers on-site, helping to maximise the sustainability of the project.

JLR adoption of circular economy principles,

The partnership represents an important step in JLR’s adoption of circular economy principles, part of the business’ strategy to achieve carbon net zero by 2039.

Second-life battery supply for stationary applications, like renewable energy storage, could exceed 200 gigawatt-hours per year by 2030, creating a global value over $30 billion**.  JLR’s batteries are engineered to the highest standards and can therefore be deployed in low-energy situations once their health falls below the stringent requirements of an electric vehicle, which typically leaves a 70-80% residual capacity.

Reusing vehicle batteries will create new circular economy business models for JLR in energy storage and beyond.  Once the battery health falls below the required level for these second-life use cases, JLR will recycle the batteries so that raw materials can be recovered for re-use as part of a true circular economy.

Renewable Energy – What people had to say

François Dossa, Executive Director, Strategy and Sustainability at JLR, said: “Our sustainability approach addresses the entire value chain of our vehicles, including circularity of EV batteries.  Our EV batteries are engineered to the highest standards and this innovative project, in collaboration with Wykes Engineering, proves they can be safely reused for energy sector application to increase renewable energy opportunities. Using the 70-80% residual capacity in EV batteries, before being recycled, demonstrates full adoption of circularity principles.”   
“Working together with industry-leading partners, we are developing a complete EV ecosystem, from batteries to charging, supporting our net-zero transformation.” 

Reuben Chorley, Sustainable Industrial Operations Director at JLR, said: “We’re delighted to be working with Wykes Engineering on this pioneering project that will help unlock the true potential of renewable energy. Developing second-life battery projects like this is crucial to helping JLR adopt a new circular economy business model and drive us toward achieving carbon net zero by 2039.”

David Wykes, Managing Director of Wykes Engineering, said: “One of the major benefits of the system we’ve developed is that the containers are connected to the Grid in such a way that they can absorb solar energy that could otherwise be lost when the grid reaches capacity. This excess energy can now be stored in the second-life I-PACE batteries and discharged later. This allows us to ‘overplant’ the solar park and maximise the amount of power we generate for the area of land we are using.”

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• Rimac Technology launches Rimac Energy to accelerate the transition towards a sustainably powered planet. The move sees Rimac leveraging its expertise in making market defining electric vehicle technology to create the next generation of stationary Energy Storage Systems (ESS).
• Rimac Energy’s ESS is built upon a novel electrical architecture, which enables significant performance, safety, and availability advantages, including up to 50% reduced energy losses and 40% smaller system footprint. Insights into the technology will be revealed later this year.
• The Rimac Energy product portfolio includes utility-scale ESS, commercial & industrial applications, and highly integrated battery buffered charging solutions. All products are fully designed, developed, and produced in Europe.
• Rimac Energy will produce its pilot systems for selected customers this year with commissioning in 2024. High volume ESS production shall begin in 2025 at the Rimac Campus in Croatia, scaling to more than 10GWh of annual production.

This marks a major milestone for the company, as it expands beyond its market-leading EV technology and introduces innovative stationary energy storage systems. These stationary solutions are essential in realizing the full potential of renewable power generation and driving the decarbonization of our energy networks.

The Rimac Energy team has been steadily built as a specialized team within Rimac Technology over the last 18 months and now consists of 60 dedicated employees – all of whom currently work on its first generation of stationary ESS and pilot applications with select customers.

Leveraging Rimac’s renowned expertise in EV technology, Rimac Energy applies the same engineering philosophy and design know-how to stationary energy storage applications. As a result, Rimac Energy has created a novel battery architecture that reduces efficiency losses by up to 50% whilst decreasing the system footprint by up to 40% compared to current state-of-the-art solutions. Additional technological benefits include improved cycle life, built-in redundancy for increased availability, as well as competitive material and installation cost.

Rimac Energy’s Director, Wasim Sarwar, commented:

“At Rimac we have always been driven by innovation and a passion for pushing the limits of what is possible in the automotive industry. However, we recognize the importance of stationary storage solutions to power our planet sustainably. Given our track record in innovative battery technology, we believe we will play a vital role in building Europe’s future energy ecosystems, elevating it on the global stage.”

Initially, Rimac Energy will provide solutions for large commercial, industrial, and utility-scale applications, with battery-buffered solutions for fast and mega-watt charging already underway. The company currently has several customer projects in discussion, including a pilot with a leading renewable energy company to provide battery storage solutions for their solar and wind power plants. These pilot systems are expected to be produced by the end of this year, and commissioned in 2024. Mass manufacturing is set to start in 2025, with manufacturing capacities continuously scaling up into the double-digit GWh-scale.

Rimac Group founder and CEO Mate Rimac stated:

“There is an urgent need for clean energy infrastructure to support the integration of renewable energy sources into the grid by providing storage and balancing capabilities. Given our head start in EV technology and dedication to sustainability, this path feels like a seamless progression for us. Our team is truly excited about creating solutions that make clean energy more accessible, as we strive to decrease our dependence on fossil fuels and foster a greener future.”

Rimac Energy’s unique technology is being developed and manufactured at Rimac’s facilities on the outskirts of Zagreb, Croatia and will be revealed later this year.

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