Clean tech startup scores $35M funding for new aluminum-based energy system

Voya Energy, a California-based clean technology startup, received $35 million investment to develop their new energy system that uses aluminum-based metal fuel to create energy with zero emissions. The new power source is being developed initially to support data centers, industrial operators and other large energy users that struggle with limited local capacities and permitting challenges. “Voya is developing an entirely new solution: generators powered by aluminum-based fuel that can deliver clean, quiet, and dependable electricity wherever it is needed,” Richard Wang, co-founder and CEO of Voya Energy said in a press release. “This financing gives us the resources to turn that vision into a commercially deployable product.” The financing was led by Energy Impact Partners, with participation from John Doerr, Mantis VC, StepStone, Founders Fund, Overmatch, Seven Stars and others. New demandAs data centers continue to expand in the US and demand more energy, worry about the environment impacts also grows.Local communities are concerned about how these new developments will affect small towns in the US, worrying about noise and air pollution. Voya’s aluminum-based project claims to be a new way to bring reliable power to the industry, without needing to worry about permits, studies or new infrastructure and with less impacts in the communities.“Voya is pursuing one of the most ambitious and consequential ideas in energy: transforming an abundant, globally traded metal into a practical fuel for reliable power,” Shayle Kann, Managing Partner at EIP said. Voya will pilot the project in companies across industrial manufacturing, data centers, emergency response and energy infrastructure starting in 2027. The ultimate goal, the company says, is to over time make metal fuels a replacement for fossil fuels in different applications, especially for on-site critical power.How it worksThe project combines a proprietary aluminum-based metal fuel with a purpose-built generator that converts the fuel directly into electricity through an electrochemical process.Low-grade scrap aluminum is formed into pellets engineered for storage, transportation and use in the generator system. The electrochemical process is enabled by Voya’s proprietary electrolyte and metal-air cell technology.It requires no combustion, produces no air emissions at the point of use and can operate independently of the utility grid.“Our long-term opportunity is not simply to build another generator. It is to establish metal fuels as an entirely new energy category—one that can deliver dependable electricity across industries and applications anywhere on Earth,” Wang added.Voya’s current design is expected to deliver up to two megawatts of electricity from a generator in a standard 20-foot container, paired with a separate 10-foot fuel container capable of holding approximately 100 megawatt-hours of stored energy. The system is designed to provide approximately 100 megawatts of generation capacity and 10 gigawatt-hours of stored energy per acre, the company said.(With files from Bloomberg)Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com