Long Duration Energy Storage Council Welcomes Eleven New Members Demonstrating Continued Diverse Interest in Using LDES Technologies to Enable a Secure, Low-Carbon Energy Future
The Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) Council, a global CEO-led organization focused on replacing the use of fossil fuels to meet peak demand with zero-carbon long duration energy storage, today welcomes an additional eleven new members. The organization now has a total of 47 diverse companies in regions across the world representing the full spectrum of the energy transition – including technology innovators, equipment providers, renewable energy companies, utilities, investors, and end-users.
Joining the LDES Council are six new anchor members: Compass Datacenters, INNIO, Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, Reliance, Shell, and The Voith Group; as well as five technology members: Breeze, Brenmiller Energy, EnergyNest, Invinity Energy Systems, and SaltX Technology.
The addition of these new members builds upon the strong momentum the LDES Council has gained since launching in November 2021 at COP26 in Glasgow. The diverse perspectives and broad range of experience offered by the new LDES Council members will add tremendous value as the organization works to support governments, grid operators and major electricity users in the global adoption of cost-effective long duration energy storage to replace the use of fossil fuels.
In 2022, the LDES Council is prioritizing research into a number of decarbonization topics, led by Working Groups formed from member company representation. Below a summary of the 2022 Working Groups:
24/7 Clean Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs): There is growing demand for “24/7 Clean PPAs” which are both a key to driving full grid decarbonization and managing price volatility risks. LDES technologies are a core enabler of cost-efficient round-the-clock clean power. This working group brings together energy consumers, power producers, and technology providers to unlock and accelerate the delivery of 24/7 Clean PPAs.
Net-zero heat: Heat decarbonization is poorly understood and underrepresented in global efforts despite constituting nearly half of global energy consumption. A comprehensive fact-base on net-zero heat along with a standardized perspective on heat decarbonization pathways and cost benchmarking will help illustrate the market potential of thermal LDES technologies, and improve optimization of energy systems overall through coupling of power, heat, and hydrogen.
Regulatory and policy toolbox: LDES will have a key role to play in delivering a net-zero carbon and secure energy future. However, policy support is required to scale the industry and deliver this dual imperative. This working group focuses on detailing a set of policy and regulatory tools that could be implemented to accelerate commercial maturity of the LDES sector.
Financing vehicle: The LDES Council is creating two vehicles to support the deployment of first-of-a-kind, long duration storage projects. The objective is to accelerate the commercialization of LDES technology. The Council has received strong interest from existing members in 1) creating a platform to function as a marketplace to match off-takers, developers/providers of storage technologies and equipment, and investors, as well as 2) launching an equity fund to provide catalytic capital to a portfolio of LDES projects and access to shared learnings across a number of performance metrics.
Other working groups under formation include Net-zero mining, T&D optimization, and the optimization of Germany’s Power System. Additionally, over the next month the inaugural Board of the LDES Council will be formalized and announced. To learn more about the LDES Council, reach out to info@ldescouncil.com.
On the topic of joining the LDES Council, new members made the following comments:
Celine Mahieux, Vice President for Power Technology at Shell, remarked, “Collaboration will be key to shaping a flexible grid that integrates increasing renewable power capacities. I am proud to see Shell become an active member of the LDES Council to work together with governments and grid operators in developing long duration energy storage technologies. We are convinced that their deployment at scale is essential to meet variable power demand in a future net-zero energy system.”
David Scaysbrook, Managing Partner at Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, noted, “Long duration storage is the last but critical element we need to solve the 24/7 renewables puzzle. The ‘holy grail’ of achieving around the clock, carbon free electricity to decarbonize our world depends on solving this technically and financially. The LDES Council is an important and much needed accelerator of the technologies needed to provide LDES and an ideal forum for the project developers and investors who will build this critical infrastructure, and the customers who are demanding 24/7 carbon-free power. Through our membership of the Council, Quinbrook looks forward to contributing to this meaningful initiative.”
Larry Zulch, CEO of Invinity, added, “In the world of energy, no area is more exciting than large-scale energy storage. From a few installations a decade ago to a market Barclays Bank says is “likely to approach the trillions,” energy storage makes wind and solar available around the clock. The transition to renewables requires coordinated support for long-duration storage, and Invinity is pleased to participate in the leading and most innovative organization providing that support across markets, across countries, and across technologies, the LDES Council.”
Doron Brenmiller, Chief Business Owner of Brenmiller Energy, concluded, “We are honoured to join the LDES council. We hope to share from our experience and expand our horizons to develop new ideas. We expect to join forces with leading utilities, corporations, and technology providers to discover more ecological and economical ways to reduce carbon emissions by implementing thermal energy storage, which will have great influence in shaping the path to net-zero.”
About the LDES Council:
The LDES Council is a global, CEO-led organization that strives to accelerate decarbonization of the energy system at lowest cost to society by driving innovation, commercialization, and deployment of long duration energy storage. While supporting the deployment of long duration energy storage, the LDES Council is independent of any specific technology and its members span the spectrum of innovation and include companies working on electrochemical LDES, mechanical LDES, thermal LDES, and chemical LDES. The LDES Council provides fact-based guidance and information to governments, industry, and broader society, drawing from the experience of its members, which include leading energy companies, technology providers, investors, and end-users. McKinsey & Company serves as a knowledge partner to the Council.
About Our New Members:
Breeze Breeze reuses the existing infrastructure of oil and gas pipelines to store energy for months at a time. Our products can reuse power plants without generating greenhouse gases (GHGs) or using water. This severely decreases GHGs and saves half of all water used in industrialized countries. This allows our CAPEX and OPEX to be very low, we can start right away, and we help solve the intermittency issue that is slowing the transition rate of renewables. Brenmiller Energy:
Brenmiller Energy provides sustainable thermal energy storage solutions. The technology is based on storing high temperature heat in media of crushed rocks, which is captured from renewable sources, and delivers clean and stable thermal energy on demand. Since 2012, the company has developed, manufactured, and sold its solutions to customers in the power and industrial sectors. The company was founded by Avi Brenmiller, former CEO of Siemens CSP and Solel, and a team of experts in the field of renewable energy. The company is traded on Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange and has raised over $90M.
Compass Datacenters Compass, one of Inc. Magazine’s 5000 fastest growing companies, makes lives better by providing the world’s technology leaders a secure place to plug-in wherever they grow. We provide custom, move-in ready data centers from the edge to core. Our facilities serve hyperscale, cloud and enterprise customers while featuring our hybrid-colocation model for ultimate flexibility and control.
EnergyNest: EnergyNest offers a flexible and cost-effective thermal energy storage (TES) system for customers in power generation-, energy-intensive manufacturing and renewables industries. The thermal battery solutions decarbonize energy supply by electrifying industrial heat, and by recovering and repurposing waste heat into energy on demand. EnergyNest also provides large-scale energy storage to solar thermal- and other zero emission power plants. Founded in 2011, the company is headquartered in Billingstadt with offices in Hamburg and Seville and is ranked #3 in Global TOP100 Carbon Reducing Innovations by Mission Innovation. We power the global energy transition of industry with clean energy on demand, nest by nest.
INNIO: INNIO is a leading provider of renewable gas and hydrogen-rich solutions and services for power generation and compression at or near the point of use. With our Jenbacher and Waukesha products, INNIO helps to provide communities, industry and the public access to sustainable, reliable and economical power. We deliver innovative technology driven by sustainability, decentralization, and digitalization to help lead the way to a greener future. Headquartered in Jenbach, Austria, the business also has primary operations in Welland, Ontario, Canada, and Waukesha, Wisconsin, U.S.
Invinity Energy Systems: Invinity Energy Systems manufactures utility-grade energy storage to meet the requirements of commercial, industrial, and network-scale customers around the world. Invinity’s long-duration batteries are based on patented vanadium flow technology and do not catch fire or degrade with use, making them a proven, economical choice for a broad range of applications. Invinity has commercial projects in Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia, with significant operations in Vancouver and Edinburgh and offices in London and San Francisco. Invinity Energy Systems plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE:IES).
Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners is a specialist investment manager focused exclusively on renewables, storage and grid support infrastructure and operational asset management in the US, UK and Australia. Quinbrook is led and managed by a senior team of power industry professionals who have collectively invested c. USD 8.2 billion equity in energy infrastructure assets since the early 1990s, representing a total enterprise value of c. USD 28.7 billion or 19.5 GW of power supply capacity. Quinbrook's investment and asset management team has offices in Houston, London, Jersey, and the Gold Coast of Australia. Quinbrook has completed and actively manages aa diverse range of direct investments in both utility and distributed scale wind and solar power, grid support, biomass, battery storage and ”smart grid” projects in the US, UK and Australia.
Reliance: Reliance Industries Limited is a Fortune 500 company and the largest company in India. Right from its inception, Reliance has invested in path-breaking technologies and game-changing businesses. It has a reputation of wading into uncharted waters and undertaking audacious ventures – ones that reap large dividends for both India and Reliance. Jio is a testimony of everything that is unique in Reliance. Prior to the launch of Jio, naysayers had said that data won’t find takers in India. Jio proved them wrong. While it took 25 years for the Indian telecom industry to build its 2G network, Jio built its 4G network in just three years. We are now focused on building platforms that will herald the Fourth Industrial Revolution and will create opportunities and avenues for Indians to realize their true potential. We are also committed to the highest level of environment stewardship, reflected in our target to become a net-zero carbon company by 2035. We are building world-class manufacturing facilities for solar, hydrogen, mobility, and storage technologies, having dedicated more than $80bn investment towards that purpose this decade.
SaltX Technology: SaltX Technology is a Swedish clean tech company that has set out to solve the problems of renewable energy supply, demand, and timing. The company develops and sells a patented long duration energy storage solution. Our society must shift to renewable energy – we have made it our mission to make it happen.
Shell: Shell is an international energy company that aims to meet the world's growing need for more and cleaner energy solutions in ways that are economically, environmentally, and socially responsible. Shell uses innovative and advanced technologies to produce and distribute energy in more efficient, reliable, and sustainable ways. Shell also invests in power, including from low-carbon sources such as wind and solar; and new fuels for transport, such as advanced biofuels and hydrogen.
The Voith Group: The Voith Group is a global technology company. With its broad portfolio of systems, products, services, and digital applications, Voith sets standards in the markets of energy, oil & gas, paper, raw materials and transport & automotive. Voith’s operating business is bundled in three Group Divisions: Voith Hydro, Voith Paper, and Voith Turbo. A large proportion of the world’s paper production is manufactured on Voith paper machines. A quarter of the energy generated worldwide from hydropower is produced with turbines and generators from Voith Hydro. Voith’s drive components are found in applications all over the world, both in industrial plants and in road and rail vehicles, as well as on the waters.