Clean-tech startup company Form Energy announced last week an additional $405 million in financing, allowing it to expand its newly built factory where it makes a unique type of large-scale battery for long-term energy storage on the electric grid.
“This technology, iron air, is low cost enough that you can discharge for 100 hours,” Form Energy CEO and co-founder Mateo Jaramillo told Newsweek. “That’s the duration that we need to be able to really drive increased reliability in the electric system.”
Energy storage has become one of the biggest recent developments in the country’s electric grid system. Banks of massive batteries allow grid operators to better manage many of the challenges of meeting peak times of demand for electricity and integrating intermittent power from renewable sources such as wind and solar.