It was an interesting week for Canadian energy storage firm Zinc8 Energy Solutions with news it had settled a debt claim, reached a settlement with its former CEO and signed a deal to deploy zinc-air storage in New York.
Of all three announcements made on 11 March, arguably the most interesting was the deployment agreement with New York-based private sector developer Digital Energy Corp.
The agreement is for the installation of a 100kW/1.5MWh zinc-air ESS in Brooklyn, New York.
The CAN$2.5 million ($1.8 million) project will receive CAN$600,00 ($435,000) from The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).
Ron MacDonald, president and CEO of Zinc, said: “This deployment marks a major milestone in our path to full commercialisation and underscores the growing demand for low-cost reliable long-duration energy storage.”
It will be the second major installation announcement within seven weeks for Zinc8. The firm announced plans to deploy a 100kW/1MWh zinc-air system in New York state on 17 January.
Debt agreement
Zinc8 also confirmed it had agreed to pay $1.5 million over the next four months to settle the debt claimed by MGX Minerals.
MGX Minerals had previously claimed a higher amount and the matter had been in dispute.
Part of the settlement includes MGX selling 5,500,000 shares of Zinc8 to Zimtu Capital Corp. for $550,000 that are to be held in escrow and released over two years. The remaining Zinc8 shares in escrow will be retained by MGX.
CEO settlement
The company’s director Jared Lazerson resigned as a director after reaching a severance agreement following his ‘termination’ as Zinc8’s CEO last September.
Lazerson will be paid 800,000 units at a deemed price of $0.38 per unit, each unit comprising one Zinc8 common share and one share purchase warrant. Each warrant is exercisable for two years at a price of $0.50 for one additional common share.
The board of Zinc8 now is composed of Ron MacDonald, CEO, Michael Reimann, Lyndon Patrick and David Hodge.
