Second life battery cells coupled with advanced battery managed systems (BMS) and inverter technologies provide a route to cheaper, more sustainable stationary storage for various applications. Relectrify from Australia is one of the lead players in this sector. Relectrify’s ReVolve® battery system combines Relectrify’s BMS+Inverter technology with nine second-life electric vehicle batteries to store over 120kWh of energy. Relectrify’s BMS+Inverter technology is cell-level control software incorporated with unique inverter hardware. Relectrify’s technology has been validated by a number of technical projects and pilots, including American Electric Power, Counties Energy, and IBM Research.
This will be a key source of more sustainable stationary storage options as the market share of electric cars continues to grow. However, having been proven its capabilities with all those projects using second life batteries, Relectrify’s advanced cell-level battery control solutions will now also be incorporated into new stationary energy storage systems as well. Relectrify’s BMS+Inverter technology replaces conventional battery management systems and inverters with a single electronic system that controls individual cells to generate grid-compliant Alternating Current (AC) directly from a battery pack. This technology revolutionizes battery storage, increasing the battery lifetime by as much as a third, and reducing power electronic costs by up to 30 percent compared to traditional battery systems.
As Relectrify moves to scale its operations and to help accelerate the adoption of its technology by manufacturers of battery energy storage systems in residential, commercial & industrial, and grid applications in global markets, it has just closed a round of growth funding led by San Francisco Bay Area-based Toyota Ventures, the technology investment arm of global automotive and manufacturing company Toyota. US and Asia-based deep tech venture firm Creative Ventures also joins Relectrify as a new investor. Relectrify’s existing shareholders — which include Australia’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation, Energy Innovation Capital, and the venture arms of South Korean industrial company GS and European power company EDP — further increased their investment in Relectrify’s technology.
“Robust energy storage solutions are key to reaching net zero,” said Lisa Coca, Climate Fund partner at Toyota Ventures. “Relectrify’s unique cell-level battery control technology has the potential to unlock significant cost, lifetime, safety and resilience benefits for battery systems, whether they are repurposed EV batteries or new stationary energy storage systems. We look forward to supporting the team as they contribute to decarbonization by reinventing the battery management system and inverter technology.”
Toyota Ventures is Toyota’s first standalone early-stage venture capital firm. Through the Toyota Ventures Climate Fund, the firm invests in early stage cleantech disruptors like Relectrify. Toyota Ventures also invests in artificial intelligence, autonomy, mobility, robotics, cloud technology, smart cities, digital health, fintech, and materials via the Toyota Ventures Frontier Fund.
“Relectrify’s BMS+Inverter technology is poised to meet the voracious global demand for better performing energy storage solutions that sit at the center of the global transition to renewables,” said Creative Ventures General Partner Alex Luce. “With the growth of battery storage world-wide, Relectrify’s accessible market is enormous and strongly aligned with our thesis on electrification and the pressing need for deployment of energy storage at multiple scales.”
Creative Ventures, a venture firm investing in early-stage companies solving humanity’s most critical crises, focuses its investments on innovative deep tech companies with global-scale solutions. Addressing pressing climate needs and the energy transition has been a major thrust of the firm’s investment focus since inception.
“Our team at Relectrify is helping the world transition to renewable energy by making battery energy storage a more compelling commercial proposition,” said Relectrify CEO Valentin Muenzel. “We are excited to be joined by Toyota Ventures and Creative Ventures as we move into high-volume battery storage systems including using non-lithium and particularly new Li-ion cells.”
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