Colorado utility Xcel Energy will test the use of Ambri’s liquid-metal energy storage technology in a demonstration project of calcium-antimony liquid metal batteries’ ability to interact with renewable energy.

MRI Global’s Solar Technology Acceleration (SolarTAC) will be the host site for the demonstration project to test Ambri’s battery technology as part of Xcel Energy’s carbon reduction goals of becoming carbon neutral by 2050.             

Molten metal batteries are not destined for lightweight mobility applications, but together with several energy storage systems (ESS) technologies are looking to tap into the grid energy storage market. While dwarfed by automotive applications, Project Blue forecasts ESS demand to ramp up rapidly in line with projected wind and solar energy generation and based on the current technology landscape lithium-ion batteries are sweeping up the majority of ESS market share.

For antimony, a key metal in Ambri’s liquid metal battery, ESS would add a new growth market potential to its portfolio, the other being solar energy where antimony improves the light efficiency of panels. However, solar applications are very niche and Project Blue estimates less than 1% of antimony demand is captured by solar PVs. The antimony market remains driven by lead-hardening in lead-acid batteries for metallurgical uses and flame retardants for antimony oxides, both of which have faced substitution over the last decade.