ANL research sustains $180m energy fund

US government-owned research lab Argonne National Laboratory has entered a research agreement with a $180m battery technology fund backed by speciality chemicals supplier Albemarle and energy companies Equinor and Exelon.
Hanon Systems, a distributor of energy management technologies for automotive vehicles, has also committed to the fund, which was founded in 2017 under the moniker Volta Energy Technologies.
Volta aims to uncover promising battery-related technologies which could potentially be of use to its limited partners, which hope to complement their in-house research and development in the area.
Argonne’s role includes providing resources to help Volta’s portfolio companies develop their applications. Volta also claims to have access to research from all US national labs and major universities in the country, in addition to some institutions in the UK, Germany, Japan and China.
Advanced battery technologies are considered crucial to the operation of power grids that use renewable energy prone to more frequent fluctuations in output than traditional energy sources. Other applications include the manufacturing of more robust electric vehicles (EVs).
Volta is focused on the chemistry, materials and manufacturing of batteries, as well as associated technologies such as artificial intelligence and EV charging products.
The fund has so far invested in four businesses and has more deals currently under negotiation. Its portfolio includes solid-state battery technology developer Ionic Materials, which is also backed by the Alliance Ventures fund formed by carmakers Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi.
Gareth Burns, vice-president of Equinor and managing director of Equinor Energy Ventures, the firm’s $200m corporate venturing fund, told Fortune: “If there were a viable long-term utility-scale storage solution [for renewable energy], that would be a major game-changer for the energy business. [But] actually picking the right storage solution is very difficult.”