Low-Cost Metal-Supported Metal Halide Energy Storage Technology

Delivering clean, affordable electricity, and reducing power outages to homes across America requires modernization of the U.S. energy grid. As the growth of renewable generation outstrips fossil capacity, the U.S. grid faces new stability and resiliency challenges. The intermittency of renewables forces fossil energy generating units built for steady, predictable demand, to assume a new role as flexible base-load power and energy storage resources, balancing intermittent renewable assets and smoothing grid performance. Essential to this new role and future grid stability is low-cost, scalable, energy-storage, co-located, and integrated with the fossil energy generating units. Incumbent Li-ion battery storage will only get us so far, and alternative energy storage solutions, which are safer, long-duration, and lower-cost, are needed. Nexceris’s sodium solid-electrolyte battery addresses this need, providing a differentiating, cost-competitive energy storage solution. The battery is based on the proven and safe sodium metal halide chemistry (ZEBRA), but re-imagined as a planar cell and incorporates a low-cost, domestic iron/salt cathode exclusively licensed from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Nexceris’ planar design allows for simpler, scalable manufacturing, while the substitution of iron for nickel eliminates a supply chain risk, reduces cathode materials cost to less than $2/kWh, and increases domestic availability. The result is an energy-dense (gravimetric energy density similar to Li-ion batteries) and intrinsically safe battery made from sustainable domestic materials and manufacturing. In this SBIR Phase IIB effort, Nexceris will continue to advance the commercial readiness of this differentiating sodium-based energy storage solution. In Phase II Nexceris successfully advanced its second-generation cell platform from lab proof-of-concept to a 100-cell module demonstration at an independent testing partner. This key technical milestone validated key subsystems but also highlighted the limitations of the current cell architecture. In this Phase IIB project a next-generation cell platform will be validated and incorporated into building block modules. The project will culminate with system-level testing with an engaged commercial partner. The goal of the Phase IIB project is to advance the technical, manufacturing, and commercial readiness of Nexceris’ disruptive low-cost intraday (8-24 hours duration) energy storage technology that is ideally suited for fossil asset integration. Nexceris’ energy storage systems can improve fossil asset utilization and environmental performance while improving grid stability and renewable integration. Its success would accelerate the energy transition, capabilities that allow renewable grid integration to proceed apace while capturing the greatest grid stability and value from existing gas and coal-fired assets. The proposed Phase IIB project aligns with the DOE Energy Storage Grand Challenge (ESGC) goals of fostering energy storage solutions that leverage US-developed technology and manufacturing, along with domestically sourced raw materials, to serve utilities in the US and abroad.