Energy transformation is the most important thing in the world in the next 30 years. Seven years from now, the output value of renewable energy will be three times the current scale, with an annual value of US$650 billion (approximately NT$19.6 trillion), making it the most promising business opportunity.
How can companies seize this wave of business opportunities? The answer is, whoever wins the battery wins the world.
As for the battery, the comparison is who has the longest battery life.
Because of this, Form Energy, founded by former Tesla vice president Mateo Jaramillo (Mateo Jaramillo), has become the top 10 new start-ups in the United States in 2022, and won the breakthrough energy of the global giant Bill Gates Technology (Breakthrough Energy), Temasek Holdings, and the global steel giant ArcelorMittal (ArcelorMittal), etc., have raised a total of more than 830 million US dollars (regarding NT$25 billion).
Most power plants currently use lithium batteries for energy storage, but they are expensive and can only store electricity for 4 to 6 hours at a time. Form Energy defeated the world’s invincibles by creating a super battery that can store more than 100 hours of electricity; and the cost is only one-seventh (regarding 14.3%) of lithium batteries.
Jaramillo was in charge of Tesla’s stationary energy development. Currently, the company’s battery energy storage products, such as household battery powerwall and mobile battery powerpack, are all from his hands.
In 2017, he left Tesla, where he had been for seven and a half years, to start a business. “It’s the biggest opportunity I can think of that will create a lot of wealth in the next phase of the world,” Jaramillo said.
The most mined and cheap iron as raw material
No need to compete with electric vehicles for materials
Moreover, when others are desperately grabbing lithium ore to make batteries, he uses iron—the cheapest and most common material on the planet to make “iron-air batteries.”
A set of iron-air batteries is regarding the size of a washing machine plus a dryer. Its principle is that when the battery is discharged, it absorbs oxygen, rusts the thin iron plate soaked in it, and releases electrons; when it is charged, the current restores the rust. Breathe out oxygen. It’s like letting a piece of iron complete charging and discharging between exhaling and breathing.
Compared with lithium batteries, which must rely on the import of scarce precious metals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite, and the resources are monopolized by a few countries such as China, which affects the sensitive nerves of the energy security of the United States, iron is the most mined metal on the earth, and the price Cheap.
“It’s very difficult for you to compete with the EV industry for the same materials,” Jaramillo said. In the past two years, the global price of lithium mines has soared tenfold due to the scramble for batteries for electric vehicles.
2 iron-air battery systems will be born!
20,000 electric vehicles powered by one battery
In fact, using iron to store electricity is not a new trick. It was an electric vehicle research conducted by the United States in response to the oil crisis in the 1970s. Unexpectedly, half a century later, it was found and updated by Form Energy from the dust of history, and used to help power plants transform energy.
The company will pilot two coal-fired power plants that will be decommissioned under Xcel Energy, one of the largest power companies in the United States, and build two iron-air battery systems. A single battery can provide continuous power for 100 hours, and a total of 1 million kilowatt-hours of electricity. It is estimated that by 2025 Years online.
How big is 1 million degrees? Tesla’s best-selling Model 3 battery has a capacity of regarding 50 degrees to 82 degrees. In conversion, an iron-air battery system can be equivalent to 20,000 Model 3 batteries; or, supply 2,841 households in Taiwan for a full month. electricity.
However, more batteries are needed to replace coal-fired power plants.
At the end of last year, it announced that it would build its first battery factory in Weirton, a withered steel city on the “rust belt” in the United States.
The city was born and named because of the Wetton Steel Company. It was once the largest enterprise in the coal state of West Virginia, and Wheaton was once the wealthiest city in the state, but half a century later it was defeated by globalization and declared bankruptcy in 2003.
Who would have thought that 20 years later, the dying Iron City would turn over due to rust.
At the press conference, Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia said excitedly: “This will bring high-paying jobs and new economic opportunities. That’s when I negotiated the “Reducing Inflation Act.” What I have always said is: the way forward is innovation, not elimination.” Because he cast a key vote, the United States passed the “Reducing Inflation Act” last year, promising to invest US$369 billion (approximately NT$) within 10 years 11 trillion) energy transition. Before that, he was the number one voice once morest the bill.
They named the battery factory Form Energy One, and it is expected to start construction this year and turn it into business next year. The battery cost will not exceed $20 per kWh.
Meaning, its price is only less than one-seventh of the lithium battery.
Mark Jacobson (Mark Jacobson), director of Stanford University’s Atmospheric and Energy Program, told US energy media Utility Dive that this is a “major breakthrough” that has never been seen before. Avoiding blackouts, and at a lower cost than previously thought, will allow us to move away from fossil fuels, nuclear and bioenergy sooner than expected.」
(Author: Wang Qianying; this article is sponsored by “Business weekly“Authorized to reprint; the source of the first picture:Form Energy）