The largest U.S. homebuilder, Horton World Solutions (HWS), has signed a contract with Canada's Salient Energy to install its zinc-ion battery energy storage system in more than 200,000 homes planned by HWS. HWS pointed out that due to the many problems with lithium-ion batteries at present, it chose to use zinc-ion batteries to build residential battery energy storage systems.
The partnership will allow Salient zinc-ion battery energy storage systems to be eligible for deployment in the more than 200,000 homes it plans to build.
The company describes itself as a sustainable home builder whose proprietary composite frame building system enables best-in-class energy efficiency and construction quality.
"Energy storage is a key part of building zero-carbon homes," they said. "But current lithium-ion battery storage systems have a lot of issues and will be exposed to fire risks, which further adds to the time and complexity we need to get permits. Avoid this risk. In addition, lithium-ion batteries are in short supply and are at risk of supply chain disruption, which makes them difficult to be an integral part of our design and planning. Salient's zinc-ion battery energy storage system can address both of these problem, so we decided to take it."
Salient Energy's zinc-ion batteries have a water-based design that eliminates fire risks and are made from zinc and manganese metals that can be mined and processed in North America and are abundant worldwide.
The company claims that its zinc-ion battery energy storage system has the same power, performance and footprint as lithium-ion batteries, which means it can serve as a drop-in replacement for lithium-ion battery energy storage systems currently on the market. For use with residential solar systems.
Interest in zinc-based batteries as an alternative to lithium-ion batteries appears to have increased in recent months. Just last week, zinc-air battery energy storage system producer Eos Energy Enterprises received a $200 million investment commitment to commercialize and scale up production. Another producer of zinc-air battery energy storage systems, E-Zinc, also raised $25 million in a Series A round in early April.
