Canadian energy innovator e-Zinc raises $2.3m to accelerate commercialization of its breakthrough energy storage technology

Canadian energy innovator e-Zinc raises $2.3m to accelerate commercialization of its breakthrough energy storage technology

Published: 18-01-2021 17:20:00 | By: Pie Kamau | hits: 4035 | Tags:

e-Zinc, a Toronto-based energy storage innovator, announced it has raised $2.3 million in a closed round led by BDC Capital's Cleantech Practice.

e-Zinc has developed a breakthrough technology for grid-scale energy storage that stores energy in physically-free zinc metal. By decoupling power and energy, the company scales energy capacity at a fraction of the cost of lithium-ion batteries, enabling the technology to economically deliver energy over a period of multiple days. This low-cost, flexible, and long-duration energy storage solution will enable the world's energy markets to be fully powered by renewable energy.

James Larsen, CEO, e-Zinc: "Markets like CaliforniaNew York, and many others have made commitments to be 100% renewable in 15-20 years from now. This necessitates energy storage technologies with durations of multiple days, as opposed to batteries which are only capable of multiple hours. e-Zinc's solution is a critical component to achieve our dreams of a carbon-free energy grid. BDC's investment and team will help accelerate the commercialization of our energy storage solution, allowing us to successfully deploy our company's first pilot projects."

Seamus O'ReganCanada's Minister for Natural Resources: "Breakthrough Energy Solutions Canada brings together the public and private sectors to build Canada's clean energy future. e-Zinc's energy storage technology is an example of how innovation will get us to net-zero by 2050."

Jérôme Nycz, Executive Vice President, BDC Capital: "We are excited to support e-Zinc – a winner of Breakthrough Energy Solutions Canada – to commercialize its novel technology for cost-effective, long-duration energy storage and help decarbonize the world's energy markets."

This financing completes a year in which e-Zinc successfully raised an equity round of $3.5 million in January, led by Energy Foundry, and also secured $6.5 million in non-dilutive grant funding, including a $1.6 million investment from NRCan's Breakthrough Energy Solutions Canada. The company intends to deploy its first in-field system in May 2021 with Faromor at their facility in Stratford, Ontario. This project is financially supported by Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) and NRCan.

e-zinc.ca