Ruya bets $ 110 million on renewable energy storage

The SoftBank Vision Fund has taken its first steps in the world of energy storage technology by investing $ 110 million in Energy Volt, a company based in Switzerland, which encourages many countries to use renewable energy for reduce their carbon emissions. In the fight against climate change, the main challenge is to find a way to store energy for later use, especially at night or during periods of high demand.

Energy Volt claims that its technology, inspired by the applications of physics and mechanical engineering of hydropower plants, makes it possible to store and use renewable energies at a price lower than the cost of fossil fuels at any time of the year. the day. Most competing solutions focus on a form of storage in batteries, be it lithium-ion, sodium sulfate, lead, etc.

Although costs have dropped by about 40% since 2015, Wood Mackenzie explained that most of them worsen over time. "Energy Volt solves an old and complex problem of large scale renewable energy storage," said Akshay Nahita, managing partner of Softbank Investment Bank. "Energy Volt is an ideal complement to Softbank's current energy investments and we are excited to promote the company's global development."

Energy Volt began operations in late 2018 and is badociated with CEMEX, Mexico, and India, Tata Power, to carry out the test phase and then build its first commercial site. Nahita said that although Softbank generally invests at a later stage of the company's development, she believes that Energy Volt can grow quickly and that it may not be necessary to Arrange for further funding.

The potential gains are considerable: the global energy storage market is expected to reach 22.2 gigawatts in 2023, up from 5 gigawatts by the end of 2018, according to a report from Global Data and Data Analysis released in may. "A Vision fund sharing our pbadion for fighting climate change through innovation in energy storage technologies," said Robert Baconi, CEO and co-founder of EnergyVolt.