"Star" falls, energy storage industry wailing everywhere

In any sense, Aquinn Energy seems destined to succeed.

This emerging startup that sells large-capacity energy storage batteries to renewable energy projects and power grids was founded in 2007 by Jay Whitacre, a professor of materials science at Carnegie Mellon University , Used to develop batteries for NASA's Mars rover. Aquinn Energy has raised nearly $200 million from many well-known investors including Bill Gates, Kleiner Perkins and Shell venture capitalists. Perhaps most importantly, when the company entered the market, it was sober and keenly aware of the biggest problem of the previous battery project startups-it is difficult to avoid the use of rare materials. With a lesson in mind, Aquinn Energy relies more on production equipment that has changed its original use and has determined the direction of possible market profitability.

However, after Aquin Energy failed to raise more funds on March 8, the company filed for bankruptcy protection, laid off 80% of its employees, and stopped manufacturing. This is another major hit by energy storage equipment venture capital companies recently. Earlier, EnerVault, which produced and developed so-called flow batteries, listed the company for sale after failing to find more investors in 2015. Later that year, Ambri, a startup that produces liquid metal batteries, laid off a quarter. At about the same time, LightSail Energy, which worked hard to develop new technologies and stored energy in carbon fiber storage tanks as compressed air, sold its container products to natural gas suppliers. All in all, all kinds of struggles have made people suitable for the price, and functional grid storage devices have reduced expectations in the near future.

This is a big problem. If there is no cheap way to store excess energy generated by intermittent energy sources such as wind energy or solar energy, then these renewable energy sources will create many restrictions on the power supply of the entire grid. Furthermore, its role in mitigating the greenhouse effect caused by carbon emissions remains to be discussed. California’s solar farms have been shut down for a few days before because they generated more electricity than the grid used at a specific time. However, when the sun is blocked by clouds, the system needs to activate backup equipment to burn enough fossil fuels to meet actual demand.

A year ago, Aquinn Energy also ranked fifth in the list of the 50 smartest companies selected by the MIT Technology Review. It is now difficult to figure out what went wrong, because the additional details provided in the bankruptcy application are limited, and Whitcrey also refused to speak before the auction is completed, but he made it clear that he hoped that the company or the technology would be able to Continue in some form.

The cost of lithium-ion batteries has been lowering

In 2012, when the MIT Technology Review Magazine first reported on Aquin, the company mentioned that they hope to manufacture battery products with a capacity cost of less than $300 per kilowatt-hour. This technology uses a brine electrolyte, a manganese oxide cathode, and a carbon-based anode to form a battery. The price positioning of this product is between low-end lead-acid batteries and more expensive lithium-ion technology. But the main point is that the battery can continue to be used for a longer time, and it performs better in the charging and discharging cycle of the power grid. This may lower the lifetime cost of the system.

We don’t know the exact cost of their products when Aquine filed for bankruptcy, but according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, lithium-ion batteries fell below the cost of $300 per kWh last year Threshold. In particular, this price has been reduced by half in just two years, reaching only $273 in 2016. This is because in order to meet the growing demand for mobile phones, electric vehicles and solar power backup systems, the global production of lithium batteries has gradually increased. And the price of lithium-ion batteries is still likely to continue to decline. Bloomberg predicts that it may drop to 109 US dollars per kilowatt-hour in 2025, and only reach 73 US dollars per kilowatt-hour by 2030.

Donald Sadoway, a material scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and co-founder of Ambri, expressed doubts about this. He believes that such an estimate only shows the total cost of lithium battery energy storage technology at the grid level. He also believes that Bloomberg New Energy Finance's forecast for the future is unrealistic, and the 2030 estimate seems to be lower than the cost price of raw materials. In any case, the sudden drop in prices has had a huge joint effect on the energy storage battery market. He said: "When the lithium-ion battery comes into play with these bold and amazing speculations, investors will stop to look at it and then say, wow, you guys (researching other batteries) are all finished."

At the same time, large customers who can consider building multi-million-dollar energy storage systems have little incentive to put treasure on emerging, higher-risk technologies. "Lithium ion batteries have met many specific needs of large utility customers who can obtain reliable products from stable suppliers," said John Zahurancik, director of AES's energy storage department. AES is a developer of electric power projects and has come to focus more and more on battery systems. After the California utility’s natural gas leak in 2015, they urgently ordered three independent lithium-ion systems to replace the natural gas equipment. These batteries were assembled by AES and Tesla. "We think lithium battery technology is more suitable for this moment and can stand by at any time."