Dive Brief:
- Form Energy has begun construction on a factory expansion that will add nearly 300,000 square feet to the Weirton, West Virginia, facility where it manufactures long-duration energy storage systems, the company said Oct. 14.
- The news comes less than a week after Form announced the closing of a $405 million Series F fundraising round and a memorandum of understanding with GE Vernova that will involve “strategically collaborating on manufacturing operations, supply chain operations, financing, and sourcing, as well as leveraging GE Vernova’s Advanced Research Center capabilities,” a company spokesperson said.
- The moves bring the battery maker closer to its goal of a 1 million square-foot manufacturing footprint with 500 MW/ 50 GWh in annual production capacity by 2028, the spokesperson said.
Dive Insight:
Form Energy aims to commercialize an iron-air battery system that can “store electricity for 100 hours at system costs competitive with legacy power plants,” the company says. The technology uses atmospheric oxygen to oxidize (discharge) and deoxidize (charge) iron powder housed in a water-based electrolyte.
Form CEO and co-founder Mateo Jaramillo told Utility Dive in 2021 that the company’s technology is “in a different category” than other long-duration storage technologies, which typically discharge over periods of eight to 24 hours.
Form began trial production earlier this year at its 550,000 square-foot manufacturing facility in Weirton and plans to begin commercial production by the end of 2024, according to its website. The facility, dubbed Form Factory 1, sits on 55 acres formerly occupied by a steel mill.
Form expects to complete the expansion project by the end of 2025, the company said. The expanded facility will be approximately 850,000 square feet, within reach of Form’s longer-term goal of 1 million square feet by 2028, Form said.
Form will need the additional capacity. The company has announced 14 GWh of long-duration storage projects to date, representing approximately 18 months of production at Form Factory 1, the spokesperson said.
Form’s $405 million fundraise, which included investments from GE Vernova, Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Energy Impact Partners, will “[enable us] to boost manufacturing capacity and grow our operations to deliver even more iron-air batteries to customers nationwide,” Jaramillo told Utility Dive today.
Form broke ground in August on its first commercial pilot, a 1.5 MW/150 MWh project developed in partnership with Minnesota utility Great River Energy. That facility is expected to begin operation by the end of 2025, the Form spokesperson said.
Form is pursuing several other projects across the United States:
- A memorandum of understanding with Puget Sound Energy to explore a potential 10-MW/1-GWh deployment in its service territory as soon as the end of 2026;
- A 5-MW/500-MWh project, funded in part by a $30 million grant from the California Energy Commission, at a Pacific Gas & Electric site in northern California;
- A 10 MW/1-GWh demonstration project in New York, funded in part by a $12 million grant from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority;
- A self-developed deployment of 85 MW/8.5 GWh in rural Maine, funded in part by a $147 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy; and
- A partnership with Xcel Energy’s Minnesota subsidiary for a 10 MW/1-GWh deployment paired with up to 710 MW of solar.
Correction: A previous version of this story had outdated information about the storage medium in Form Energy’s iron-air battery system. It uses an iron powder.
