Highlights:

• Altech has launched the design of the CERENERGY® 60 KWh SAS battery pack (ABS60), ideally suited for renewable energy and grid storage space.
• Altech says the larger ABS60 pack containing 240 cells will reduce module assembly and connecting costs.
• The battery packs are planned to be manufactured as a standard product.
• In September 2022, Altech executed a joint venture with Fraunhofer IKTS to commercialise Fraunhofer ’s revolutionary CERENERGY® SAS Battery project.

Altech Chemicals Limited (ASX:ATC and FRA:A3Y) has unveiled the CERENERGY® Sodium Alumina Solid State (SAS) 60 KWh battery pack (ABS60), which is designed for the renewable energy and grid storage markets. The battery design launch comes under the Company’s battery joint venture with Fraunhofer IKTS, a world-leading German organisation for applied research.

© 2022 Kalkine Media®, data source: ATC update dated 7 November 2022

A 100 MWh SAS battery plant (Train 1) is being developed by the Altech-Fraunhofer joint venture on Altech’s site in Saxony, Germany.

The ABS60 battery pack

The ABS60 battery pack, which is fire-proof, is safe to install indoors, where lithium-ion batteries are prohibited.

© 2022 Kalkine Media®, data source: Company update dated 01 November 2022

The bigger the better

After discussions with prospective off-takers for the 100MWh CERENERGY® battery project, the proposed battery pack has been changed from the earlier envisioned 10 KWh, to a 60 KWh battery pack (ABS60). Accordingly, the new one is rated at a higher voltage of 620 volts and 100 amp hour (Ah).

Altech says the bigger ABS60 battery pack (i.e. the 60 KWh pack) will enable more efficient installation in applications pertaining to renewable energy storage and grid storage. It will also reduce module assembly casing and connecting costs.

The previously planned 10 KWh modules used six Battery Management System (BMS) processors, whereas the newly planned pack uses only one. There is a cost advantage of using one BMS processor versus six.

Not only that, the number of fuse and disconnectors used by the newer, larger 60 KWh battery will also decrease by the same factor in comparison with the 10 KWh one.

CERENERGY® ABS60 battery packs ideal to store renewable energy

Lithium-ion batteries have generally been used by utilities to store renewable energy upon sunset or when the wind stops blowing.

Source: Company update dated 07 November 2022.

However, the existing utility-scale storage systems can only discharge energy for up to four hours at a time. This means that these systems fail to provide widespread power for a longer period of time (for example, over the entire night’s period). Hence, middle- and long-duration batteries giving sustained power for extended periods of time are the need of the hour.

Altech says CERENERGY® ABS60 battery packs are designed to fill this gap. This is because the newly designed Altech ABS60 battery packs are slated to take ~6 hours to charge and discharge over a similar period. However, they do possess the capacity to discharge quicker, in less than 3 hours, if need arises.

The charging and discharge characteristics of these battery packs match closely with the power generation patterns of the sun, says the company.

The way ahead: ABS60 battery packs to be manufactured as a standard product

Targeting the renewable energy and grid storage market of Europe, Altech’s site in Germany will be designed to manufacture ABS60 battery packs as a standard product.

Per previous estimations by Fraunhofer, the cost of producing CERENERGY® batteries would be ~40% lower than that of lithium-ion batteries. This is because no lithium, graphite, copper, or cobalt is required to make CERENERGY® batteries. Costs will be verified in the Bankable Feasibility Study that Altech is currently undertaking.

Going forward, Altech’s design team will be advancing heat transfer modelling and optimising insulation design.

ATC shares were trading at AU$0.105 in the early hours of 8 November 2022.