EDISON, NJ—Eos Energy Storage, a maker of non-lithium-ion grid-scale batteries, last week inked a deal with Holtec International to create a manufacturing joint venture to produce Eos’ Znyth aqueous zinc batteries. Called Hi-Power, this venture is an extension of a strategic partnership that has been in place since August 2018.
The new company “will leverage a combination of Eos’ proprietary, automated battery design and Holtec’s more than 30 years of market-leading automation and manufacturing experience to build a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Pittsburgh,” according to a press release.
Rick Springman, Holtec’s vice president of international projects, says the move into battery manufacturing is in addition to the company’s nuclear program. Beyond manufacturing, Holtec will also help Eos sell the batteries.
Eos’ move to gigawatt-scale manufacturing follows years of slow progress toward commercialization. The company was founded in 2009 but did not finish developing its battery chemistry until 2015, when field testing began with the energy giant Engie.
The Engie test program led to an order for a 1-megawatt/4-megawatt-hour storage system in Brazil in 2017. That same year, Eos confessed to having problems in scaling up its battery systems.
Eos has already established two manufacturing locations and produced 3,000 of its second-generation batteries.