Dive Brief:
- Investors have pulled support for Imergy Power Systems, and the company is putting itself on the auction block in the wake of SunEdison's Chapter 11 bankruptcy and the end of a deal to install 1,000 batteries in India.
- Last year, SunEdison announced it would purchase 30 kW vanadium flow batteries from Imergy as part of a rural electrification effort in that country, but the the company's financial collapse scuttled the project.
- Greentech Media reports Imergy has fired its employees, ceased operations and has put all of its assets and intellectual property up for sale.
Dive Insight:
Greentech Media sees recent history repeating in Imergy's decision to close up shop, noting that venture capital-funded solar projects often failed—and while the storage market is booming, this likely won't be the last "energy storage startup obituary."
GTM obtained an offering issued by Sherwood Partners, hired by Imergy to "market and sell the Company’s assets, including all of its valued intellectual property assets." The offering indicates the company has released its staff and ceased work, after investors chose "not to continue to support the Company’s ongoing operations.
SunEdison, which filed for bankruptcy in April, was also an equity investor in Imergy.
In addition to the the Indian microgrid partnership, the two companies announed last year that they were collaborating on a 5-MW, 20-MWh flow battery storage system for Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator. The project was due to kick off in the first half of 2017.
SunEdison's woes began after its stock began to plunge following an acquisition spree in 2015 that sent the company into severe debt. The company's stock was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in May.
The storage project in India would have used Imergy's vanadium flow batteries store solar energy in SunEdison's rural electrification and solar powered minigrid projects.
