Commercialization of Lowest-Cost, Long Duration Energy Storage Systems

Lead Proponent

e-Zinc

Project Outcomes

As part of the Impact Canada Charging the Future Challenge e-Zinc developed a technology which decouples power from energy. e-Zinc’s long-duration energy storage system is focused on coupling together with renewable energy generation to help achieve decarbonization goals at the grid scale.

The technology is based on 3 principles:

• Using zinc metal as the energy carrier, which has a high energy density and is inexpensive.
• The zinc metal is detached from electrodes allowing the metal to be stored independently at a low cost, unlike rechargeable batteries in which the energy-bearing metal is fixed on the electrodes.
• The storage space is located within the same electrochemical cell as the charging and discharging electrodes, enabling a simple operation.
  

e-Zinc’s energy storage system can cycle without degradation in capacity, is fire resistant, made of fully recyclable materials, and has a fast response time. Their solution could help increase the share of the world’s energy markets powered by renewable energy. It can be used with clean energy generation technologies to replace diesel generation systems, which is particularly advantageous in remote locations not connected to an electrical grid.

e-Zinc won the $1-million dollar Charging the Future Prize, and was awarded $1.6M from Breakthrough Energy Solutions Canada in 2020.

e-Zinc team