The drive to decarbonize our economies by means of electrification and clear vitality continues to generate momentum round battery applied sciences, as storage has a key position to play in enabling the inexperienced transition. Whereas renewables are clear sources of vitality in comparison with burning fossil fuels, their energy output isn’t all the time constant. Within the case of photo voltaic — which has seen an enormous rise in deployments in recent times — as soon as the solar stops shining on the photovoltaic cells, the electrical energy era will get shut off.
One resolution for regulating the variability of photo voltaic vegetation is to retailer vitality when there’s a glut (throughout daytime). This fashion, the saved energy might be made obtainable at different instances, together with to serve durations of upper demand — that are additionally, sometimes, later within the day when there’s much less sunshine round.
Moonwatt, a clear tech startup based in September final yr within the Netherlands, is engaged on a battery-based vitality storage system that’s co-located with, and optimized for, solar energy vegetation to assist them handle this variability. The workforce designed devoted battery enclosure {hardware}, inverter energy electronics to hook up with the grid and the software program wanted to combine and handle the storage system.
The startup says its method will allow photo voltaic vegetation to extend their income by having the ability to promote extra photo voltaic vitality (together with when the value of vitality is extra enticing) and reduce prices on the plant stage as a result of the design mutualizes a number of the electrical infrastructure. Goal photo voltaic vegetation are these producing at the least a number of hundred kilowatts of vitality — so mainly something aside from residential photovoltaics deployments.
Notably, Moonwatt’s system is being constructed round sodium-ion cells for the batteries that can retailer the photo voltaic vitality. The know-how presents an attractive different to lithium-ion since manufacturing depends on cheaper (and simpler to supply) uncooked supplies, serving to to maintain prices down.
Whereas sodium-ion batteries can have measurement and weight challenges owing to being decrease density than lithium-ion cells — ensuring purposes difficult (akin to mobility/EVs, the place weight is a crucial consideration) — the know-how has been gaining traction as a decrease value storage possibility for renewables the place situations are extra favorable, given these are stationary installations at websites with loads of house to put in equipment.
Getting extra juice out of PV
Moonwatt’s pitch to solar energy vegetation is that their vitality storage system permits them to extend their capability issue as much as 80%. Vegetation that purchase in will be capable of double their inner charge of return (IRR), additionally they counsel.
“Principally, what we enable our associate to do is to double their return,” co-founder and chief business officer, Valentin Rota, tells TechCrunch. “So in AAA [credit-rating] nation, I might say a mean PV [photovoltaic] asset is round, let’s say 8% to 12% return — IRR — and we’ll carry the asset as much as round 20%.”
The startup’s founding trio — together with CEO Zukui Hu and CTO Guillaume Mancini — met whereas engaged on battery tech for Tesla virtually a decade in the past. They’ve continued working collectively since then at completely different employers and throughout numerous tasks, together with gaining expertise on small-scale, off-grid photo voltaic storage.
“We began to see this software first beginning on what we name micro grids, so often a small grid-resistant generator,” recounts Rota. “However as the price of batteries went down and the price of storage went down truly these purposes began to reach in larger international locations on larger grids, and it’s actually pushed by the basic tempo of photo voltaic.”
The founders had additionally labored collectively at battery producer Freyr (since rebranded as Ti Power). And as soon as they noticed prices transferring in the proper path Rota says the spark for establishing Moonwatt — named for an lively play on ‘moonshot’, we presume — was realizing that they might mix their data of battery {hardware} and making use of battery applied sciences to energy up photo voltaic storage features.
“We realized that this software — photo voltaic storage — is the spine of the long run world energy grid, however there is no such thing as a product devoted to it but,” he says. “In order that’s what Moonwatt is about: it’s about making the primary solar-dedicated battery storage product.”
As the quantity of photo voltaic vitality being produced globally continues to surge the startup’s guess is that the trade will begin on the lookout for devoted storage relatively than making do with a “cookie cutter” product.
Moonwatt’s “large differentiators”, per Rota, embody using sodium-ion battery know-how — which he says presents higher scalability, value discount and carbon footprint discount than lithium-ion.
The design of their storage system additionally makes use of a distributed structure (relatively than being centralized), making it simpler for vegetation to combine as he tells it. He additionally says the method they’re taking permits for larger effectivity and a discount in the price of dispatchable electrical energy due to connecting storage a lot nearer to panels which are at peak output.
“Our overarching aim, utilizing these three options, is to scale back the price of electrical energy of those dispatchable photo voltaic vegetation,” he provides.
Seed funding to step on the gasoline
Whereas it’s nonetheless early for this (simply) months-old enterprise and its prototype product, Moonwatt has now closed an €8 million seed funding spherical (round $8.3 million at present change charges) to step on the gasoline and get their storage tech to market — beginning with a pilot set up that’s being deliberate for someplace in Europe subsequent yr. They then count on to be ready to do their first business deployments in 2027.
The seed spherical is co-led by Daphni and LEA Companions, with participation from Founders Future, AFI Ventures (by Ventech) and Kima Ventures, alongside strategic enterprise angels and prospects.
Commenting in a supporting assertion, Paul Bazin, Associate at Daphni, suggests Moonwatt’s method is “the breakthrough the trade has been lacking.”
“Renewable energy progress has exceeded all expectations, however we’re approaching a tipping level the place it received’t be capable of scale additional with out higher vitality storage,” he mentioned. “Created by trade veterans, Moonwatt is fixing this with a differentiated storage product constructed particularly for photo voltaic.”
“We very a lot nurture an ambition to be a gigawatt-hour participant, a large-scale participant as a result of we need to make an impression,” Rota additionally tells us. “And with the size comes prices. And we all know that on this trade it’s a bottom-line-driven enterprise, so now we have to be value aggressive.”
Rota says the choice to concentrate on photo voltaic vitality boils all the way down to enticing economics and the already broad uptake of any such renewable vitality.
“Photo voltaic is attention-grabbing as a result of it’s — on a price per megawatt hour foundation — very aggressive and getting extra so,” he notes. “However it’s additionally that photo voltaic is a little more ubiquitous. It’s being deployed in additional than 120 international locations per yr already.”
Optimizing only for photo voltaic means the startup can totally concentrate on making design selections which are supposed to assist vegetation get essentially the most out of their asset, together with in relation to shrinking the prices of connecting their vitality to the grid.
“Wanting forward, the way in which to scale back [solar energy] prices is by decreasing the general stability of plant prices. So you could cut back the variety of transformer cable, and so on. And the way in which you do that is you couple the photo voltaic and the storage, not at medium voltage stage, however truly at low voltage stage — actually subsequent to one another,” he suggests.
“By doing so, they share the identical electrical infrastructure to hook up with the grid. And if we prolong a bit the view to extra like a rustic stage, this optimizing using grid capability can be one thing we should do. As a result of, in the present day, a stand alone photo voltaic plant makes use of its grid capability solely about 20% of the time, however once you add storage behind the meter, you possibly can actually shift vitality utilization round so that you make a extra environment friendly use of this grid capability.”
The startup enterprise at hand can be about serving to photo voltaic vegetation swap from being builders with a feed in tariff to — “virtually” — turning into vitality merchants with a versatile asset, he provides.
