The hunt for alternatives to the lithium-ion battery, which is widespread today, is in full swing. Right in the middle: the German startup VoltStorage, which has dedicated itself to the iron-salt battery (iron-salt technology). In 2022 there was already a round of financing of 24 million euros for the company founded in 2016 by Jakob Bitner, Michael Peither and Felix Kiefl. Now a fresh 30 million are added, as a loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB).
It is now planned to roll out the production of the batteries widely. However, this is not about batteries for electric cars, which is what most other battery startups are working on, but about stationary energy storage systems that can temporarily store renewable electricity from solar or wind power plants. According to the company, these batteries should only be about a tenth as expensive as conventional lithium-ion batteries.
According to CEO and co-founder Jakob Bitner, energy suppliers are showing great interest, including in Europe. The first larger orders should be able to be announced by the end of the year. For this purpose, Volt Storage will move to a new, larger location in Munich, where the development and production of the batteries for commercial use will take place. For larger quantities, the construction of an additional mega factory will be necessary. According to the Handelsblatt, the company is well equipped until the next major round of financing.
Work on the iron-salt battery. © VoltStorage
No controversial raw materials necessary
VoltStorage’s competitors are also planning to build a large factory in Germany to meet the increasing demand for storage options for renewable electricity. With the iron-salt batteries, however, one wants to have an independent technology that has advantages over others.
“The technology is particularly environmentally friendly because no rare raw materials or even conflict raw materials from crisis or war zones are used for the production of these innovative storage batteries,” says VoltStorage. The raw materials used are “also available in Germany in almost unlimited quantities”, so you can “significantly reduce the previous dependence on China in particular”.
The so-called redox flow technology should also have advantages in operation – even after 10,000 charging cycles there is no loss of storage capacity, and the storage medium consists of non-combustible components. Meanwhile, you see again and again that lithium-ion batteries become a problem when they burst into flames. The disadvantage is that these batteries do not allow high charging and discharging currents (therefore they have longer charging and discharging times), which is why they are not suitable for electric cars.