Australia’s two biggest clean energy financiers are putting money into a new venture by Melbourne-based start-up Relectrify that proposes to re-use electric vehicle batteries for household storage.
Relectrify says it has developed “advanced battery control technology” that reduces the cost of repurposing EV batteries, while boosting performance and lifetime.
The technology combines both power electronics hardware and battery optimisation software, which overcomes the problems of having one “dud” cell in a field of many from large scale batteries.
It says that that once EV batteries reach the end of their life, and struggle to provide the driving range and acceleration required of motor transport, there is still 80 per cent of their storage capability that can be used in household situations. That means a further 2,000 cycles.
The company has raised a total of $1.5 million in “pre-Series A” financing, a type of financing used by start-up companies.
This includes $750,000 in early stage equity investment from the $200 million Clean Energy Innovation Fund (CEIF), which to date remains the single initiative on clean energy yet achieved by the Turnbull government. The CEIF is jointly managed by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).