This Series C round comes 4 years after raising $3.2M in a Series A round led by Pangaea Ventures
ESS Inc., a developer of safe, low-cost, and long-duration energy storage systems, reported that it has secured $30M in a Series C investment round led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures and SoftBank Group’s SB Energy.
The subsidizing gathering incorporates new financial specialists Evergy Ventures and Southeast Asia-based chemical company PTT Global Chemical (GC), joining prior investors who also invested in this round: BASF Venture Capital, Cycle Capital Management, Presidio Partners Investment Management, IPM Group, and Pangaea Ventures.Â
This funding will be utilized to grow and automate the manufacturing process of ESS’ iron flow battery innovation. The new module configuration is consolidated into the organization’s Energy Warehouseâ„¢ (EW) containerized storage system and presents its utility-scale platform, the Energy Centerâ„¢ (EC). ESS is leveraging the capital efficiency of its technology to ramp-up to 1 GWh per year production in Wilsonville, Oregon.
“There is tremendous need for low-maintenance storage technology that can extend the availability of intermittent renewable energy sources like wind and solar,” said Carmichael Roberts, Breakthrough Energy Ventures. “Remarkably, ESS Inc. uses low-cost, safe, and effective materials – iron and water – to deliver a long-duration storage solution in several applications, even high-temperature climates where there is significant need for off-grid energy. We’re excited about the near-term opportunity for at-scale deployments of the ESS technology.”
“Cost-effective long-duration energy storage is becoming a reality, and is needed to improve grid resiliency and enable the high renewables power system of the future,” said Rich Hossfeld, Senior Vice President, SB Energy. “As a global leader in renewable energy, we are very interested in long-duration energy storage technologies and see great potential to deploy ESS Inc.’s iron flow battery technology. This investment reflects our belief that ESS Inc.’s technology will be a clean, safe, and low-cost storage solution that can be deployed at scale to complement renewable energy resources.”
“This investment reinforces the value and growth potential of our long-duration flow battery solution. It enables us to scale up manufacturing to meet our order pipeline, as well as continue to pursue global deployment opportunities. We’re grateful to our investment partners for their confidence in our solution and support of our vision.”
Craig Evans, founder and CEO of ESS Inc.
ESS Inc’s technology is safe (no hazardous chemicals) and sustainable (completely recyclable). The storage system is unmistakably appropriate for time-shifting renewable energy, managing a facility’s demand charges, providing ancillary grid services with unlimited cycling, and smoothing the intermittency of renewables on a constrained grid.
The EC is a “battery-in-a-building” platform module utilized in the EW, with a plan construct approach that empowers frameworks to be custom-made to meet for all intents and purposes any undertaking size with capacity spans going as long as 10 hours. These wide-going capacities make the EC appropriate to help scale sustainable power ventures, just as transmission-and dispersion level administrations, without cycling limits.Â
To help all ESS Inc. arrangements, the organization has collaborated with Munich Re to actualize an industry-first protection guarantee on its flow batteries. This investment grade guarantee empowers ESS Inc’s solutions to be financed by venture proprietors and designers.
