Dutch long-duration energy storage developer Ore Energy has raised $43 million in Series A funding to establish its first manufacturing facility and scale production of its iron-air batteries.
The round was led by investment firms Plural and HV, with participation from existing investor Positron Ventures. It takes the Amsterdam and Delft-based company’s total funding to $61 million.
Ore Energy said the facility would validate its manufacturing process at scale, ahead of a target to reach gigawatt-hour production in 2028. Its location, planned annual capacity and timetable for opening were not disclosed.
The company’s batteries use a reversible oxidation process to store and release electricity. During charging, electrical energy converts iron oxide into metallic iron. Exposing the iron to oxygen and water during discharge causes it to oxidise again, releasing electricity.
Ore Energy said the technology could provide storage durations of up to 100 hours, using abundant materials including iron, water and air. It claims the systems can be manufactured through a European supply chain without lithium or cobalt and offer a tenfold reduction in energy-capacity cost compared with lithium-ion batteries for long-duration applications.
The company was founded by CEO Aytac Yilmaz, COO Rutil Özdemir and CSO Yaiza Gonzalez Garcia.
Ore Energy’s grid-connected technical pilot
Ore Energy completed a grid-connected technical pilot at EDF Lab les Renardières in France earlier this year. The MWh-scale system was operated under different load profiles and seasonal conditions to assess its charging and discharging behaviour, responsiveness and integration with conventional grid-management systems.
That followed an earlier grid-connected installation in Delft, the Netherlands.
In June, Ore Energy signed an agreement with Dutch energy and telecoms supplier Budget Thuis covering up to 1 GWh of iron-air storage. The agreement includes a committed first phase of 400 MWh, scheduled for delivery in 2028.
The new financing will also support recruitment across the company’s manufacturing, commercial and operational teams.
Yilmaz said: “Expensive energy is the biggest barrier to growth, something European businesses and politicians know only too well. Affordable, renewable baseload power is the foundation for the next generation of manufacturing, AI infrastructure and industrial growth globally. Ore Energy’s long-duration storage is an essential part of that future. This funding will help us build our first manufacturing facility and put us on the path to gigawatt hour-scale production, making renewable electricity available whenever and wherever needed.”
The company is positioning its technology as a means of storing surplus wind and solar generation across multi-day periods. It cited growing electricity demand from data centres as one source of demand for firm power: the International Energy Agency has forecast that worldwide data-centre electricity consumption will more than double to about 945 TWh by 2030.
Ian Hogarth, partner at Plural, said: “Long-duration energy storage is one of the biggest unsolved challenges in the energy transition, and unlocking it will transform how we power industry, scale AI data centres and drive economic growth. Aytac, Rutil and the team have combined world-class science with exceptional execution to make iron-air batteries commercially viable, whilst providing a critical technology, not just for Europe but as an important export technology too. By getting so much more out of every unit of wind we already have, Ore Energy has the potential to become one of the world’s most important energy companies.”
