This article was originally published in PV Magazine.
Australian battery storage startup Allegro Energy has announced completion of a AUD 17.5 million Series A funding round led by US-based venture capitalist The Grantham Foundation and Australian energy major Origin Energy.
Allegro Energy Chief Executive Officer Thomas Nann said the funding round, which also included Australian investors Melt Ventures and Impact Ventures, and US group Lightbank, presents the company with strategic and growth capital.
“These funds will help us rapidly accelerate our manufacturing capacity,” Nann said. “We are thrilled to be among the companies to have been given global recognition by The Grantham Foundation while also successfully drawing critical local capital and strategic support from some of the leading names in the renewable energy space.”
Allegro Energy manufactures water-based redox flow batteries and supercapacitors that it said are “non-flammable, fully recyclable, and have no reliance on scarce materials or complex supply chains.”
At the core of both products is Allegro Energy’s microemulsion electrolyte that it said has overcome the voltage limitations that typically hinder water-based solutions, giving it an advantage in the large-scale, long-duration energy storage market.
“This enables energy storage that is much less expensive and much safer than competing technology, opening up the ability to address needs at global scale,” the company said.
The Grantham Foundation’s Sam Lefkofsky said Allegro Energy’s technology has the potential to transform long-duration energy storage.
“We welcome the opportunity to support this revolutionary technology which we believe is poised to change the conversation around clean storage and lead to a rapid adoption of cheaper, cleaner and more abundant energy,” he said.
For Origin Energy, the involvement in this funding round follows its investment last year which secured a 5% stake in the company in tandem with an agreement to develop a pilot redox flow battery at the Eraring power station site in the New South Wales Hunter Valley.
The pilot battery will initially be sized at 100 kW/800 kWh but Origin Energy has flagged plans to increase its capacity to 5 MW with 12 hours (60 MWh) of energy storage capacity. The first stage of the project is expected to be completed later this year.