Advanced Battery Concepts (ABC) and Monbat are partnering to design a bipolar lead-acid battery that can be mass-produced following a product development program agreement.
Based on ABC’s patented GreenSeal® technology, the firms will work on a battery that can be put into “mass-scale” production at a future Monbat 1GWh manufacturing facility to be built in Bulgaria.
The forecast for the investment is about €16 million ($17 million).
In the first stage of the program, ABC will produce “Alpha Samples” of Block B batteries— a 48-volt, 32 amp-hour industrial battery, aimed at Telecom and battery energy storage systems applications— at its expanded Clare, Michigan, US plant.
The batteries will be delivered to existing Monbat clients and special BESS projects to enable the firms to gather the necessary data to inform future mass-scale production plans.
Monbat has intensively tested prototype Block B batteries since 2019 in the company’s certified testing laboratories.
Dr. Edward Shaffer II, founder and CEO of ABC, said: “Monbat’s aggressive adoption of the GreenSeal® technology for next generation products is important for more than just economic reasons.
“While the bottom-line results are important to Monbat’s business, there are three additional benefits that are important to our companies. Providing energy storage products and solutions that are environmentally, socially, and economically responsible are vital benefits of our technology.”
Viktor Spiriev, Monbat CEO said: “Monbat is determined to become the first mass-scale producer of bipolar lead-acid batteries in the world.
“The demand for more efficient BESS and more stringent environmental requirements in terms of circularity and less greenhouse gas emissions are about to find optimal solutions in the joint product, developed by ABC and Monbat.”
Lead powering EVs and homes
In January, ABC announced it would supply its lead battery technology for use in 10,000 solar powered electric vehicle (EV) “Charging Plazas” being installed across the US after signing a MoU with EV charging station operator GreenCore EV Services.
Under this arrangement, ABC will manufacture and supply the ESSs by the end of the decade.
Last September, ABC launched a residential storage system to address the growing need for emergency power in the US.
The system, called Home Emergency Energy Storage (HEES), relies on the firm’s patented GreenSeal bipolar batteries.
Black-start ESS commercialisation is as simple as ABC for bipolar lead battery firm
