)
Battery technology group Vaulta has struck a key partnership with US-based sustainable energy innovator eFinery Energy that could power up the Brisbane company's ambitions to cut battery waste globally.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the companies paves the way for Vaulta to scale its cutting-edge lithium battery technology in the US with the partners targeting lofty ambitions of unlocking up to 5 gigawatt hours of energy storage opportunities.
Vaulta, which was founded by product design specialist Dominic Spooner in 2019, plans to integrate its innovative manufacturing processes and smart battery management systems with eFinery’s extensive portfolio of microgrids, last-mile energy systems and behind-the-meter applications.
Spooner says the agreement provides Vaulta with a pathway to potentially break into the US market at a time when the company is gaining traction on its home turf in Australia and New Zealand.
“They’re not a massive partner in their own right but they are the right partner for us to grow together,” Spooner tells Business News Australia.
“We also see it as an expansion of skills and capability. That’s how we have won customers to date – by being good at what we do and knowing more about batteries than our competitors."
After establishing Vaulta on a mission to eliminate battery waste, Spooner spent three years in research and development to create on-grid and off-grid battery solutions for residential and commercial uses, including traffic infringement infrastructure, defence, telcos and support for specialty light electric vehicles.
Vaulta didn't secure its first customer until 2022, but in the past year Spooner reveals that the business has been gaining momentum with four-times revenue growth recorded over the past year alone.
In eFinery Energy, Vaulta says it has found a partner with an application that is “quite unique”. The company is dedicated to developing scalable energy storage and microgrid solutions to power the next generation of sustainable energy infrastructure in the US.
“A lot of the work they do is in power for remote locations and they also work in data centres, the scale of which doesn’t exist in Australia,” says Spooner.
“The fact we have a partner that sees the benefits of repairable battery design and has a pathway to the market in that area is the exciting bit for us.”
Since inception Vaulta has manufactured all of its proprietary battery products in Australia. The company says its products distinguish themselves through rapid assembly, cost efficiencies and advanced repair, reuse and recycling features which set new standards for sustainable energy infrastructure.
But through the agreement with eFinery Energy, Vaulta will explore the export and licensing of its advanced lithium energy storage manufacturing processes to the US.
With the US energy storage sector set for "exponential growth", the partners have targeted the deployment of up to 5 gigawatt hours of energy storage capacity to fuel the transition to a "cleaner, more resilient grid while creating significant economic opportunities".
The non-binding agreement is initially set for six months, but Vaulta says it "underscores a shared commitment to advancing sustainable energy tech and expanding manufacturing capabilities across North America".
“Partnering with Vaulta allows eFinery to access state-of-the-art battery technology, enabling us to deliver reliable, scalable, and sustainable energy solutions,” says Michael Gurin, CEO of eFinery Energy.
“This alliance solidifies our commitment to transforming energy markets and creating lasting value for customers and communities.”
While residential and commercial energy storage solutions represent about half of Vaulta’s current business revenue, Spooner says the partnership plans to leverage the company’s technology to explore the potential to extend the life of batteries produced by other manufacturers with the broader aim of reducing waste across the sector.
Among the company’s key products is the Vaulta Dashboard which provides full traceability for batteries from the factory to end of life.
“That means down to the cell level we are able to capture serial codes that go right back to the date of manufacturing and we can essentially get every single cell’s information for the duration of its life,” says Spooner.
“We are making the assumption that batteries with more data analytics during their first life will be worth more as a second life battery than ones without. It’s a bit of a gamble but that’s the assumption we are making.”
Vaulta sees traceability as essential to how batteries are valued and ultimately their longevity, while advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) over the past two years means that much of this process can now be automated.
"We’ve been working on AI and ML-driven IoT (Internet of Things) to manage performance, traceability and anomaly detection," says Spooner.
“That’s huge and it’s taking a real glass-half-full approach. We have to try not to bite off too much in one go, but the applications (eFinery Energy) is working in certainly have scope for big things."
The plan is to apply the technology to existing systems that are already in the field, giving them a "new layer of traceability, support and performance management".
“That has been a really big penny-drop moment for us in the last 12 months. Deploying batteries that can be repaired is a great way to reduce battery waste and there are so many batteries out there at the moment," Spooner says.
“Not everyone is going to buy our batteries, and that is perfectly fine, but what we can do is complement this rather than compete with it.”
)
