Connected Energy has secured £15 million ($18.4 million) from five new investors to drive growth in its use of second-life electric vehicle batteries in energy storage systems (BESS).
The firm has sixteen operational systems using second-life vehicle batteries in commercial battery storage systems in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK.
This phase of investment will enable the firm to scale up its technology and operations in response to a growing energy storage market and increasing international availability of second-life batteries.
It will also facilitate the in-house development of the company’s first large scale M-STOR systemm which is planned to be around 20MW and 40MWh, employing a contracted ‘flow’ of batteries from multiple OEMs to provide long-term operational services to customers.
The new investors Caterpillar Venture Capital, the Hinduja Group, Mercuria, OurCrowd and Volvo Energy join existing investors Engie New Ventures, Macquarie, and the Low Carbon Innovation Fund.
In Germany, Connected Energy’s units help to balance the energy supply where EV chargers are used on either side of a motorway.
Connected Energy CEO Matthew Lumsden, said: “This marks a key gateway for our business. Our group of investors now span battery supply through to project deployment and monetisation, and critically this will enable us to plan and manage technology and project development to maximise the volume of batteries that are redeployed in second life applications.
