Metal-hydrogen battery manufacturer EnerVenue revealed on 28 March that it is opening a gigafactory in the United States for the production of metal-hydrogen batteries. This new factory, with over one million square feet, will be in Kentucky and is the site for the creation of their Energy Storage Vessels batteries which can store power and last up to 30 years.

Phase one of the project has been estimated to encompass 1GWh of production per year, and the company seeks to invest an extra billion dollars to further expand this output to more than 20GWh per year across all their US sites. They haven’t yet announced when production at the gigafactory will commence.

The Shelby County local authority offered property to EnerVenue, as well as a total of $20 million in wage tax rebates over 25 years and other incentives. The state of Kentucky offered their own $10.3 million in tax incentives to the company for the initial stage of development of the factory. Dan Ison, Shelby County judge-executive, expressed his belief that the factory would be an excellent source of jobs, offering local residents ‘lucrative career opportunities’, with EnerVenue predicting it will create around 450 full-time jobs.

EnerVenue’s metal-hydrogen batteries are most commonly nickel-hydrogen and have been traditionally used in the aerospace industry for energy storage. They are now being promoted for renewable energy storage, with EnerVenue claiming that their cost-per-cycle is far lower than lithium-ion batteries, as well as being safer with no fire risk.

Their customer commitments are at an impressive 7GWh, including agreements with Pine Gate Renewables, Nicon Industries’ Green Energy Renewable Solutions, and Sonnell Power Solutions. The US government has also noticed metal-hydrogen batteries and become more interested in them as part of the Department of Energy’s hydrogen storage goals.

2021 Image of EnerVenue nickel-hydrogen battery courtesy oF EverVenue