Alevo reveals its utility-grade battery vision

Successful deployment of utility-grade battery storage has the potential to completely change the way the grid is organised and operated. One company planning to be at the forefront of this potential revolution (or perhaps revolution in potential), is Switzerland based Alevo, which has recently unveiled its plans to combine innovative battery technology with "big data" and is gearing up to start mass production of its 2 MW/1MWh "GridBanks" in the USA within the next few months.

Emerging from several years in stealth mode with a big launch event in October at a new manufacturing facility being set up in Concord, North Carolina (at a former Philip Morris cigarette factory site), Alevo cannot be accused of lacking ambition in the field of energy storage.

Describing itself as an "energy service provider" dedicated to addressing one of the "world's greatest energy challenges" - the ability to time-shift electricity supply to when and where it is needed - Alevo says it plans to achieve massive efficiency increases in power generation globally through "innovations in battery technology" combined with the application of "big data" analytics to the power generation and consumption system to determine how and where the batteries should be deployed.

The company's storage offering is a version of the lithium ion battery. The battery technology, which originated from research in Germany, employs a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cathode and graphite anode, with an inorganic non-flammable electrolyte that does not decompose at higher temperatures and does not generate heat or combustible gases, reducing greatly the risk of combustion and adding to longevity. The battery also uses a nickel foam structure to maintain high ionic conductivity and allow use of thicker electrodes. The design enabes the internal resistance of the battery to remain constant over its life.

Aiming for utility grade

The battery is said to be completely non-flammable and can be charged and discharged with no resting period over 40 000 times, with no signs of increased internal resistance. As of October a test unit in Germany had successfully achieved over 43 500 charge/discharge cycles.

With its high levels of safety, reliability, robustness, coupled with long life - at least twenty years guaranteed - Alevo likes to refer to its system as "the first utility-grade battery".

It plans to provide energy services to utilities through the installation of what it calls GridBanks, basically 40ft shipping containers of Alevo batteries (with inverter technology and associated passive air cooling systems designed and supplied by Parker Hannifin). The GridBanks will initially be manufactured at the Concord plant, with an output of about 480 GridBanks envisaged in the first year of production and first shipments scheduled for around July 2015. The electrolyte is made in Switzerland.

A GridBank has a power rating of 2 MW, with a storage capacity of 1 MWh.

“GridBanks combined with advanced analytics, can substantially cut electricity waste in existing fossil-fuel generation," says Alevo, "while enabling full use to be made of wind, solar and other renewable energy sources...When combined with the advanced Alevo Analytics, the GridBanks can be used to optimise entire grids in real time."

Grid-connected batteries have the potential to dramatically change the way the power generation, transmission and distribution system is operated, and can help overcome many of the challenges presented by the growing penetration of renewables, Alevo thinks, but deployment has been held back by high lifetime costs. The company believes its new battery technology gets round this problem.

Alevo, founded in 2009 and headquartered in Martigny, Switzerland, says its "heritage in battery technology" dates back to 2004 and notes that the past decade has seen continued investment in the core battery technology and in software development for what it calls the Alevo Analytics Suite. The investment in the combined research and development, together with the acquisition and fit-out of the manufacturing supply chain, represents a start-up investment of over $1 billion, the company says, which has been met through private investments and equity funds. The CEO and chairman is Norwegian serial entrepreneur Jostein Eikeland (sometimes called the "Cloudfather" because in 1996 he coined the phrase "application service provider", which evolved into "software as a service" and subsequently the "cloud").

The basic development work on the Alevo battery was done at laboratories in Karlsruhe and Dormagen - described as "the largest inorganic battery research facilities in the world." Having quickly identified issues associated with organic materials, leading to undocumented and irreversible side reactions, it was concluded that it would be impossible to develop a thermodynamically stable system that contained organic materials. By focusing its research on the use of inorganic materials within the battery, Alevo achieved two key properties: thermodynamic stability, which enables the battery system to always return to the same state following each complete charging cycle; and minimisation of battery degradation.

In 2012 a test unit successfully exceeded 10000 charge/discharge cycle and Alevo knew it had the makings of a utility-grade battery.

Target markets

Two key target markets for Alevo, in addition to the USA, are China and Turkey.

Alevo and China-ZK, a 51% private funded body dealing with energy infrastructure in China, have recently signed a strategic agreement to promote and commercialise Alevo's technology products and data analytics services in China.

China-ZK will assist Alevo in liaising with the central and local authorities as well as state and private enterprises. China- ZK will also assist Alevo in funding the establishment of manufacturing facilities in China for production of GridBanks as well as the nickel foam substrate that is key to its battery technology.

Under the agreement a GridBank pilot project will be carried out in conjunction with the Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory for Distributed Energy Systems and a GridBank unit is due to be shipped to China shortly.

Meanwhile, in Turkey, Alevo has signed a JV distribution partnership deal with finance, investment and management company TSG and infrastructure service provider RBM. A GridBank is due to be shipped to Turkey in the first quarter of 2015.