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Las Vegas, NV – 23. January: The largest national roof on the roof in Las Vegas, NV. (Brian Van der Brug / Los Angeles Times Vitti Pictures)
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This week, Las Vegas hosts the largest clean energy fair in North America. Re + It gathers over 40,000 participants through solar, storage, hydrogen, EV infrastructure and grid sector, including a strong installation of international companies. In order for someone to want to break into a clean technical space or deepen their industrial network, this is the best one place to start.
If I was a job seeker in pure technology, I wouldn’t miss this event. Re + offers a rare opportunity to get to know people who shape the industry, especially those with employment powers. Expo Hall are filled with exhibitors ranging from initial studios in early stairs to establish players with large pipelines of commercial projects. Is your focus battery, solar or EV charging, there is in the industry.
This year, my attention was attracted to three companies dealing with one of the most difficult issues of the sector: battery innovation. What these companies are commitment to improving the resistance of the grid, although each occupies a radically different approach to chemistry for batteries.
1. Complete energy: Lithium-ion batteries grids
Headquarters in California, full energy is a fast-continuous independent electricity producer solely focused on storage. With 4 GV development pipeline, it is built by batteries-treated projects not as additional equipment for solar strings, but as independent means of central infrastructure for the network’s stability and performance.
Chris McKissack, General Manager of Full Brand, is in need to transfer the public perception to the battery storage. “Early events in the industry are manifested by a bad publisher,” he said. “There is no public what nothing happens.” In other words, today’s projects are designed with robust security systems, informed of decreasing incident rates and firmly production standards and designers.
The Cardvod Cardvod project portfolio is the case in point. It is widespread throughout Southern California, includes projects such as Ortega (20 MV / 40 MVH) facility in Lake Elsinore and desert-karis (20 MV / 40 MVH) in Palm Springs. These projects reflect the community development model that includes local actors early and consistently. Ortega, for example, a priority of community concerns through conservation efforts that met wildlife standards and wildlife upgrades and local infrastructure, including waterlines for adjacent companies and improved landscape.
Fullmark also invests in local labor, harmonization with domestic content requirements and a recent emphasis on appraisal programs. “The license is to exercise the community,” McKissack said. “We must include communities early, rent locally and demonstrate benefits, whether it is through a reliability, economic activity or development of labor.”
The technological company relies on its ownership platform for the shipment of Medea to manage its portfolio with minute-minute optimization for safe and efficient operation. This operational excellence has become adapted to the utilities increase in electricity demand. “Each three percent of GDP growth carries in approximately 1.5 percent of electric requirements growth,” McKissack said. The batteries are now central to manage the grid offer and demand.
2 cmblu energy: organic batteries without lithium
CMBLU EnergyWith its headquarters in Germany and spread in the United States, it develops batteries that replace critical minerals with carbon-based molecules. Its organic solidflow technology is designed for storing long-term, targeting commercial and useful customers who need performance beyond what lithium-ion usually offers.
“The energy density of our product is now on a pair with lithium-ion batteries,” said Giovanni Damato, President Cmblion Energy, Inc. CMBLA Battery uses a mixture of liquid electrolytes based on carbon and stationary polymer solid materials. The tank has 60 percent of water and completely avoid flammable materials. “The tank is filled with polymers who look like a coffee grain,” Damato said.
Chemistry enables flexible system design. Operators can increase any power or duration, depending on the need. The technology is intended for five to ten hours of discharge, with the potential to reach 24 hours. Components (tanks, polymers, pumps) are standard industrial parts, many of which can be found locally in the United States.
CMBLU has pilot projects in Arizona and Wisconsin. One is with a project of the salt of the river at Phoenik, where the growth of the given center accelerates electric demand. The second is a demonstration place in Milvaukee in partnership with Epri. These projects are intended to show how CMLU’s non-lithium chemistry can be integrated with utility infrastructure and reducing the risk of permit.
The company sets production in the United States and has plans for a facility with four annual gigawatta-hours. Its design reflects the broader shift in the storage industry to safe abundant materials, simpler seat and compatibility with domestic supply chains.
3. ExoVatt: Thermal battery for data centers
Ekovatt takes a completely different approach. Instead of electrochemical reactions, its battery stores electricity as heat in materials with high temperatures and later turns it back into electricity. The Ekovatt system is built into standard shipping containers, which makes it modular and easy to scale. Once you understand how to produce one battery, you repeat the same process over and over again. The CEO of the company appointed an ambitious goal: delivering energy storage in one cent per kilowatt-hour.
The company is focused on the supply of data centers. Pilot installation in Florida is planned, and Ekovatt targets the production of 10 million containers over the next five years. This is translated into the production of one unit every 16 seconds, running in full capacity, 24 hours a day.
The system uses common industrial components and avoid critical minerals. Since it is based on thermal principles, it is not subject to the same failure regimens or time deadlines as lithium-ion batteries. The approach is intended for commercial high consumption applications that require consistent, shipping power on the scale.
Closer look at battery innovation
Lithium-ion, organic flow and thermal storage Each offer offers cost, performance and security. The battery sector is a competitive landscape in which more chemicals serve different market segments. There is no consensus that technology will dominate in five years, but the competition is useful. It drives innovation and adopts attention to bring chains, permission and operational flexibility.
Events like RE + offer a unique opportunity to see these technologies foreign shoulder along the shoulder. Whether you’re looking for a job, build a company or looking for clients or partners, that happens. The mood in clean technology is far from collapse and dark. What you will find here maturing industries ready for the competition.
