Germany-based energy firm Kraftblock announced that it has raised €20M in a Series B funding round.
Shell Ventures, the venture capital arm of energy giant Shell, led the round with the participation of five other global investors, including Finindus and A&G Energy Transition Tech Fund.
With the new investment, Kraftblock plans to expand its human resources and production capacity.
Established in 2014, Kraftblock works to resolve the climate crisis through its patented thermal storage technology. Its inventive storage can store temperatures up to 1,300°C. The system can store energy for as long as two weeks.
This system eliminates the need to use fossil fuels in powering plants. It also solves the challenge that other green energy sources pose, which is inconsistency.
For instance, a manufacturing facility that relies on solar energy may encounter operational issues on non-sunny days. On the other hand, manufacturing activities consistently generate thermal energy.
Kraftblock’s storage has high thermal conductivity, meaning that it can facilitate heat transfer.
Heat is automatically transferred through the medium to the storage material when excess occurs. In times of need, a cold transfer medium will extract heat through the granulate.
The startup claims the storage solution is highly efficient because of its compact size, allowing a storage capacity of up to 1.2 MWh per m³.
The construction of the storage system also has minimum impact on the environment with most of its parts being recycled steel slag.
The company also claims that the system is durable compared to other energy storage solutions, having an expected service life of over 40 years.
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