Energy Vault has become the latest startup with a novel, non-lithium battery energy storage technology to attract significant investment, raising US$100 million through a Series C funding round. 

Companies in the battery storage industry raised US$9.6 billion in corporate funding during H1 2021, with European manufacturing startup Northvolt once again the biggest single recipient of venture capital (VC) investment.

The cooling of commercial and industrial (C&I) buildings accounts for a significant percentage of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), but can instead be turned into “powerful energy assets.”

This edition of our news in brief from around the world focuses on novel technologies promising several hours or more of competitively-priced energy storage.

Construction is set to begin in Australia on a grid-scale power generation and long-duration energy storage project combining solar power and thermal energy storage, after the company behind the project said this morning that funding has been secured.

A 2.5MW / 4MWh demonstration system using novel energy storage technology based on a “carbon dioxide battery” has begun construction in Sardinia, Italy.

Corporate funding into the battery storage sector in the first quarter of this year totalled US$4.7 billion across 17 deals, a huge leap from the equivalent period of last year, according to a new report from Mercom Capital.

For the US to thrive while achieving its decarbonisation goals, it needs a robust clean energy economy, creating well-paid jobs and a strong trajectory for technical innovation, argues Philip Brennan, CEO of Echogen, an Ohio-based provider of waste-heat recovery systems and electro-thermal energy storage solutions.

A politically bipartisan effort to introduce investment tax credit (ITC) incentives to support and accelerate the deployment of energy storage in the US could be a “once in a generation opportunity” to protect the future of the earth.