The energy storage industry is seeing an increase in terms of new and innovative products, partly due to the entry of large companies from different sectors entering the energy storage sector. Among the benefits of energy storage are that in addition to storing electricity that is not consumed at the time of generation, they facilitate greater integration of renewables, help reduce line congestion, improve the quality of electricity supply and optimise the consumption curve.
Big players enter the sector: Mercedes Benz and Lockheed Martin
Daimler AG, parent company of Mercedes-Benz, which already made energy storage batteries for cars, has decided to make the leap to households and has announced that it is making batteries for energy storage in private homes or for industrial purposes for example, following in the footsteps of its competitor Tesla.
The Group Lockheed Martinthe giant of the aerospace industry and military is increasing its energy profile in an attempt to enter the energy storage market with an offering of lithium-ion battery systems in addition to its chemical flow batteries.
Funding for startups in the sector
Energy storage companies, have raised more than $ 4.5B since 2011, with a peak in 2014 of $$1.7B, due to the financing round closed by Alevo Although the amount raised was higher in 2014 than in 2015, the number of rounds was higher in 2015.
Among the large companies that have closed rounds in 2015 we find GogoroThe company is an electric motorbike company that runs on two lithium-ion batteries, manufactured by Panasonic, and an infrastructure of charging stations where the batteries can be changed.
Gogoro has closed a $130M round in November 2015, adding to the already $50M, which it had already raised earlier.
Vionx Energy has raised $63M between 2015 and 2016, has a new grid energy storage solution that optimises flow battery technology.
Trends in the energy storage sector
Among the fastest growing sub-sectors are home energy storage solutions with players such as Tesla and Mercedes Benz, mentioned above, and wireless charging of mobile devices.
In the wireless charging sector for mobile devices, we find
Energous, WiTricity, Ossia, UBeam, WiCharge and Evatran. The sector has raised almost $ 150 million in the last 5 years.
In addition to these sectors which are growing considerably, innovative companies are appearing in new niche markets to solve problems such as the need to create micro-batteries for small devices like hearing aids, watches, life-saving medical devices, Z Power Battery which has raised $ 64M is one example.
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