Australian redox flow battery developer, Allegro Energy, has closed a A$17.5 million funding round, attracting major domestic and international investors as it aims to “rapidly accelerate” manufacturing capacity.
The Australian battery storage startup has completed a A$17.5 million Series A funding round led by Origin Energy and US-based venture capitalist The Grantham Foundation. Allegro CEO Thomas Nann said the funding round, which also included Australian investors Melt Ventures and Impact Ventures, and US group Lightbank, will help rapidly accelerate manufacturing capacity.
“We are thrilled to be among the companies to have been given global recognition by The Grantham Foundation while also successfully drawing critical local capital and strategic support from some of the leading names in the renewable energy space,” said Nann.
The Grantham Foundation’s Sam Lefkofsky said, “we welcome the opportunity to support this revolutionary technology which we believe is poised to change the conversation around clean storage and lead to a rapid adoption of cheaper, cleaner and more abundant energy.”.
Allegro Energy manufactures water-based redox flow batteries and supercapacitors that are non-flammable, fully recyclable, and have no reliance on scarce materials or complex supply chains. Behind both products is Allegro Energy’s microemulsion electrolyte, which overcomes the voltage limitations which typically hinder water-based solutions. This provides an advantage in the large-scale, long-duration energy storage market by providing less expensive and safer energy storage than competing technology.
Greg Jarvis, Head of Energy Supply and Operations, Origin Energy said, “We are pleased to be making an investment in what we view as a very promising technology. We believe long duration storage will ultimately play an important role in the energy mix.”
Origin Energy’s participation in this funding round follows an earlier investment, when it secured a 5% stake in Allegro last year, alongside an agreement to develop a pilot redox flow battery at the Eraring power station site in the Hunter Valley.
The pilot battery will initially be sized at 100 kW/800 kWh but Origin Energy has plans to increase its capacity to 5 MW with 12 hours (60 MWh) of energy storage capacity either at Eraring or another of its generation sites. The Allegro 800kWh pilot is expected to be completed later this year.