Hydrogen-bromine flow battery firm Elestor raises EUR 30m, led by Equinor

Dutch electricity storage firm Elestor on Tuesday said it has attracted a EUR-30-million (USD 30m) investment led by Norwegian energy group Equinor ASA’s (NYSE:EQNR) corporate venture capital arm.

Elestor has developed flow batteries for large-scale stationary applications that use hydrogen and bromine as active materials. It says its technology provides for cost-effective and scalable storage of renewable energy generated by wind or solar power plants. As the battery generates hydrogen during the charging process, it also offers opportunities for integration with hydrogen infrastructures and electrolysers.

The company now wants to accelerate the commercialisation of its technology, up to a GW scale production facility.

“Technologies providing long-term energy storage at scale will play an important role in satisfying the growing need to stabilise power markets” remarked Gareth Burns, head of Equinor Ventures.

Besides Equinor, participants in the investment also include Dutch impact investor Invest-NL as co-lead investor, the venture capital arm of tank storage company Royal Vopak and Somerset Capital Partners, as well as existing shareholders EIT InnoEnergy and Enfuro Ventures.

Royal Vopak has expertise in storage and handling of energy and chemicals. “Royal Vopak has worked with Elestor for some time. Our joint ambition is to scale up the electricity storage capacity of flow batteries and then further develop it to industrial scale,” Leo Brand, director Vopak Ventures, said and added that long-duration energy storage is part of Vopak's strategy towards the storage and handling of new energies.

(EUR 1 = USD 1.000)

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