Impact Spotlight: Form Energy
The cost of renewable energy sources has decreased dramatically, with electricity from solar PV dropping by 86% between 2010 and 2020 and the cost of onshore wind falling 56% in the same period.¹ Between 2000 and 2020, record breaking investment allowed renewable power generation to increase 3.7-fold to 2800 GW of capacity worldwide. However, renewables only make up 29% of electricity generation globally.
The clean energy transition is being held up by lack of reliable storage infrastructure to overcome the intermittency of solar and wind. The world is still building coal and natural gas plants to couple with renewable sources to bridge the “gaps” and keep the average cost of energy low, however this system cancels out much of the renewable benefit by limiting the overall GHG emissions reduction, and it leaves host countries exposed to potentially unstable energy supplies.
Somerville, Massachusetts-based Form Energy has created a solution to cost-effectively plug this gap without the use of coal or natural gas. Traditional lithium-ion batteries are optimal for shorter term applications, such as regulating grid frequency or serving hours-long energy needs. They are built for several thousand charge cycles over their lifetime. However, they are too expensive by 10X to provide ride through for longer periods of intermittency, such as multiple days of extreme weather or extended periods of low renewable generation. Therefore, a new category of ‘multi-day’ energy storage is needed, to cost-effectively bridge these longer gaps and enable the renewable generation to be reliable and available year-round, no matter the weather.
Form Energy is developing a multi-day energy storage technology known as an iron-air battery that will enable the grid to run on low-cost renewables every day of the year. Form’s iron-air chemistry utilizes metallic iron as the anode and operates on a basic process of reversible rusting. While discharging, the battery breathes in oxygen from the air, which converts iron metal to rust (iron oxide). This oxidation releases electrons that can then be fed directly to the electrical grid. While charging, the application of an electrical current converts the rust back to iron and the battery breathes out oxygen, creating a closed loop capable of multi-day storage.
Because of this uniquely low-cost and scalable approach, Form’s multi-day storage technology could provide the foundation for 100% global renewable energy, all day, every day.
Form’s first announced commercial product is a rechargeable iron-air battery capable of storing electricity for 100 hours at system costs competitive with legacy power plants. Form’s battery systems are grouped together in modular megawatt-scale power blocks that connect to existing grid infrastructure, paving the way to affordably power the grid with clean energy at scale. In deploying the system, in its least dense configuration, a one-megawatt system requires about an acre of land. Higher density configurations can achieve more than 3MW per acre. Depending on the system size, tens to hundreds of these power blocks will be connected to the electricity grid.
Form Energy is led by CEO Mateo Jaramillo, who led the creation of Tesla’s Energy Storage group. Form is currently developing a 1-megawatt grid-scale battery for Minnesota-based Great River Energy, to be commissioned in 2023 and recently announced a collaboration with Georgia Power on a project application of up to 15 megawatts/1500 megawatt hours of energy storage systems to be in the utility’s service area. These projects will demonstrate the repeatable and scalable block of Form’s battery system.
Read more:
¹IRENA (2021), Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2020, International Renewable Energy Agency, Abu Dhabi.
