Ambri, with its liquid metal battery technology, has returned to the energy storage race after “a pause” during which it redesigned its high-temperature seals and worked on other facets of its storage system.
Getting an entirely new and novel battery chemistry to commercial scale is Sisyphean work. About a year ago, the firm had to lay off approximately 25 percent of its staff because the startup had “not made the technology progress [it] had anticipated.” The CEO said at the time, “Bringing new scientific discoveries in the physical sciences to commercial success is hard; the process is not entirely knowable or amenable to predictable timelines.” Ambri had been working on prototype storage systems with project partners such as Hawaiian Electric and Con Edison.
The now 37-employee company just announced that it’s still going after the potentially immense stationary energy storage market, but with an improved version of its unique battery.
Ambri’s technology is based on the research of Donald Sadoway, MIT professor of materials chemistry, and inspired by the economies of scale facilitated by modern electrometallurgy and the aluminum smelter. The big-battery startup has raised more than $50 million in venture capital from investors KLP Enterprises, the family office of Karen Pritzker and Michael Vlock, Building Insurance Bern, Khosla Ventures, Bill Gates and French energy giant Total.
Over the last year, the firm kept busy redesigning high-temperature seals and developing its battery management system and heater control. Ambri has been testing a “fully functioning in-lab” energy storage system, which provides 20 kilowatt-hours of energy storage with a peak capacity of 6 kilowatts.
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