Iron flow battery firm ESS Tech has announced plans to acquire the IP of VoltStorage GmbH, a German iron-salt battery technology developer that closed its doors last year. Story in PV Magazine.
100 Hours in Play
Competition in the 100-hour battery market is heating up, per a recent report from Latitude Media. In addition to iron-air juggernaut Form Energy, new entrants include iron-air startup Ore Energy and carbon-oxygen innovator Noon Energy. Form has raised $1.2B so far, but both Ore and Noon have recent noticeable wins under their belts.
(What’s driving the 100-hour interest? A hint from the same article: zinc LDES leader Eos Energy reported over 50% new pipeline growth in 2024 due to sudden interest from data center customers.) Read the whole story.
Zinc Intelligence
Brandon Smith, VP of Global Sales and Product at ZincFive discusses why traditional battery chemistries struggle with rapid, AI dynamic loads and how ZincFive’s nickel-zinc (NiZn) technology delivers high power density in a safer more sustainable solution. Read the interview in Intelligent Data Centres.
Virginia Turns to LDES for AI-Era Grid Resilience
Poised to become the world’s largest concentration of data centers, the U.S. State of Virginia has passed new legislation to scale LDES to maintain grid reliability. Pending the state’s governor approval, the legislation passed in the Virginia Senate and House sets out:
520 MW of Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) for Phase I utilities by 2045
4,000 MW of LDES for Phase II utilities by 2045
A 20% coalfield regional carve-out for LDES, and
Flexibility for utilities to exceed targets
Details from the Long Duration Energy Storage Council (LDES Council) on LinkedIn.
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A team at the Sandia National Laboratories and University of Kentucky, Lexington has found a way to potentially smooth the path to more impactful alkaline grid-scale batteries. “Externally applied pressure at 20% DODMnO2 has a profound effect on impedance, electrochemical cycling behavior, and materials morphology of alkaline Zn–MnO2 batteries,” their recent study finds.
Zinc-ion batteries have major safety, cost, and supply chain advantages – but energy density, zinc dendrite formation, and limited cycle life, largely driven by side reactions in aqueous electrolytes, is holding them back. Plus: China is taking the lead in patent development of the technology.
Those are key findings shared around a 2025 Zn-ion landscape analysis from patent & technology intelligence firm KnowMade and the Volta Foundation.
Preview: Octet @ International Battery Seminar and Exhibition
Octet’s Emily Dickens caught up with MaryAnn Brown, Executive Director, Conferences at Cambridge Innovation Institute, for a preview of Emily’s upcoming presentation at the 43rd International Battery Seminar and Exhibition, March 23-26 in Orlando, Florida.
Emily talks about how small electrolyte improvements can make huge battery performance impacts. 🎥Watch on LinkedIn:
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