Zinc-battery storage developer Eos Energy raises $23M in funding
Dive Insight:
Eos' zinc-based battery storage option captured attention from utilities looking to boost their energy storage procurement at a low cost, according to multiple media reports. One such early partnership was with New York's Consolidated Edison, which unveiled a pilot project in 2013. Now its latest round of funding suggests interest from utilities looking at energy storage options apart from the very popular lithium ion battery storage.
Eos won a $750,000 award from the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority (NYSERDA) in January. At the time, the company said its storage system can be manufactured at a cost of $91/kWh to $116/kWh at commercial volumes.
The New York company hopes the latest capital-raising round will help lower costs for its zinc based battery at commercial scale production levels.
Zinc is less costly than lithium, but encounters corrosion problems. Eos is using a proprietary coating to reduce corrosion over multiple charge-discharge cycles, saying its battery will have a 75% round-trip efficiency and a 10,000-cycle, or 30-year, lifetime.
In May 2015, Eos raised $23 million in a funding round led by AltEnergy. Previously the company raised about $27 million in funding rounds from investors that included OCI, NRG Energy and Fisher Brothers.
Correction: The headline of this article previously misstated the amount of money raised by Eos. It is $23 million, not $223 million.