Commercialization of lowest-cost, long duration energy storage systems

Lead Proponent

e-Zinc Inc.

Project Background

Through this project, e-Zinc designed, manufactured, tested and validated the performance of a proof-of-concept 1kW/24kWh (nameplate) long-duration energy storage field demonstration. The system consisted of 2 strings of electrochemical cells and full balance-of-system, including power electronics, air supply, battery management system, and remote monitoring/controls software. The energy storage system was connected to both the grid as well as a 10 kW solar array, and powered the house loads located at a compressed natural gas facility belonging to Faromor, Inc.

Results

This project was a success for e-Zinc. e-Zinc was able to show the proof-of-concept of its technology to sustain operations of the house load at Faromor with its battery string system for a period of ~24 hours.

The deployment of this system was a tremendous achievement for e-Zinc and in particular, the Engineering and Technology Development teams. By observing the operations of the cells in the field, their technical teams were able to set up and use a remote monitoring system, debug and optimize control algorithms, determine a regular operations & maintenance schedule, and most importantly, develop an incident reporting system with a robust set of tags to drive at systematic root cause analysis for cell and system malfunction.

The next generation of cells incorporates improvements based on lessons learned in testing, operations, maintenance, and root cause analysis. This generation of cells, which will result in a commercial product for e-Zinc, has benefited greatly from the data generated in the field demonstration.

Benefits to Canada

e-Zinc’s proprietary and unique energy storage technology has the potential to dramatically improve the overall cost economics for delivery of intermittent, renewable electricity sources such as wind and solar. By integrating a reliable and cost competitive energy storage system, using an interconnected array of e-Zinc’s electrochemical cell modules, it will be technically and commercially viable to replace fossil fuel generated electricity with wind or solar electricity generation.

The annual emissions reduction intensity for e-Zinc systems is 0.118 tonnes CO2e/kWh e-Zinc systems sold (and in operation). The majority of e-Zinc’s initial projects will be in displacing diesel power generation in off-grid or weak grid applications. As e-Zinc matures, the projects will shift to displacing grid-scale power generation from natural gas or coal.

This project will have both economic and environment benefits for Canada. The global Long Duration Energy Storage market is expected require $1.6-2.5T of investment by 2040 to reach levels required to enable Net Zero (McKinsey, LDES Council, 2022), and as such there is expected to be significant investment in relevant Canadian infrastructure, technologies, and jobs. Further, the deployment of these LDES technologies such as e-Zinc’s in Canada will improve overall GHG emissions; the annual emissions reduction intensity for e-Zinc systems is 0.118 tonnes CO2e/kWh e-Zinc systems sold (and in operation). By 2035, the GHG emissions impact of e-Zinc technology at the projected market adoption rate will enable the annualized reduction of ~1290 MT of CO2e within Canada.

Next steps

e-Zinc is well on its way to eliminating the remaining technology gaps in the next generation of cells, which will also have a marked performance improvement from the cells deployed at the Faromor site. e-Zinc will pilot these cells within a battery string; a next generation balance-of-system, including power electronics, air supply, battery management system, and remote monitoring/controls software; and packaging, in its next pilot project with Toyota Tsusho Canada, Inc.

Awards

• Global CleanTech 100 (2022 and 2023)
• World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer 2023-24
• Corporate Knights 2023 Future 50
• CEO James Larsen named to Canada’s Clean50
• Winner of NRCan Charging the Future Challenge
• News - e-Zinc

Technology in Action