Australian startup Allegro to ramp flow battery capacity after AUD 17.5m funding round

Newcastle-based battery storage startup Allegro Energy has announced completion of an AUD 17.5 million ($11.7 million) A series funding round led by United States-based venture capitalist The Grantham Foundation and Australian energy major Origin Energy.

Allegro manufactures water-based redox flow batteries and supercapacitors it says are “non-flammable, fully recyclable, and have no reliance on scarce materials or complex supply chains.”

Allegro co-founder and CEO Thomas Nann said the funding round, which included Australian investors Melt Ventures and Impact Ventures and US group Lightbank, presents the company with strategic and growth capital.

“These funds will help us rapidly accelerate our manufacturing capacity,” Nann said. “We are thrilled to be among the companies to have been given global recognition by The Grantham Foundation while also successfully drawing critical local capital and strategic support from some of the leading names in the renewable energy space.”

At the core of Allegro’s batteries and supercapacitors is the company’s microemulsion electrolyte which the manufacturer says has overcome the voltage limitations that typically hinder water-based energy storage solutions, offering an advantage in the large-scale, long-duration market.

“This enables energy storage that is much less expensive and much safer than competing technology, opening up the ability to address needs at global scale,” Allegro said.

The Grantham Foundation’s Sam Lefkofsky said Allegro’s technology has the potential to transform long-duration energy storage. “We welcome the opportunity to support this revolutionary technology which we believe is poised to change the conversation around clean storage and lead to a rapid adoption of cheaper, cleaner, and more abundant energy,” he said.

For Origin, involvement in the funding round follows an investment in 2023 which secured a 5% stake in Allegro in tandem with an agreement to develop a pilot redox flow battery at the Eraring power station site in Hunter Valley, in the state of New South Wales.

The pilot battery will initially be sized at 100 kW/800 kWh but Origin has flagged plans to increase its capacity to 5 MW with 12 hours (60 MWh) of energy storage capacity. The first stage of the project is expected to be completed in 2024.

From pv magazine Australia.