Enerpoly, Swedish maker of zinc-ion batteries, has won an $8.4 million grant from the Swedish Energy Agency to build what it claimed is “the world’s first megafactory to manufacture zinc-ion batteries”.
The plant will be built in Sweden in the next three years. The Enerpoly Production Innovation Centre (EPIC) will have final capacity throughput of 100MWh annually, the company said.
Total cost of the factory is $19 million, and the company will raise more private funding through a Series A round.
It believes EPIC will reshape the stationary energy storage industry by demonstrating that zinc-ion batteries can be affordably and profitably mass-produced at scale, with attractive returns for investors.
The patented zinc-ion battery technology uses zinc metal as anode, manganese dioxide as cathode and a water-based electrolyte. Upon discharge, the zinc metal dissolves to zinc-ions on the anode. The raw materials are globally available, cost-effective and recyclable – and sourced from Europe. This will provide resilience to supply chain disruptions and rising production costs.
Enerpoly was co-founded by Dr. Mylad Chamoun (CTO) and Dr. Samer Nameer (CSO). CEO is Eloisa de Castro.
Chamoun said: “This is a major milestone for Enerpoly, and for zinc-ion battery technology globally. Our EPIC zinc-ion plant will showcase how this technology is scalable and can enable the large-scale adoption of renewable energy.”
In October, we reported how the company won a two-year $600,000 grant from government agency Vinnova to help it develop zinc-ion battery technology. In December last year, it closed a $1.5 million seed round to finance pilot projects.
