Noon Energy’s Breakthrough Renewable Energy Storage Technology Lands $3M Seed Investment

Noon Energy Inc., developer of a revolutionary ultra-low-cost battery technology for long-duration energy storage, closed a $3 million Seed stage investment. Prime Impact Fund led the round and was joined by At One Ventures, Collaborative Fund, and Xplorer Capital.

“Long duration storage is the missing link to a fully renewable electric grid. This is a difficult challenge because storage times must be increased from the 4 hours typical of today’s batteries to 100 hours or more. No other efficient battery chemistry comes close to Noon’s low cost because it uses only the abundant elements carbon and oxygen to store the energy. It was once thought impossible to build a battery using only these elements. Thanks to Noon’s breakthrough technology, that is no longer the case.” – Dick Swanson, Founder of SunPower, and Director on Noon’s Board.

Today’s widely used batteries store energy in relatively expensive metals like lithium, cobalt, and vanadium. In contrast, Noon’s battery stores energy in the ultra-low-cost elements carbon and oxygen—storage media that cost well below $1 per kWh capacity, less than the cost of their containers. It does this at double the round-trip energy efficiency of hydrogen.

“Noon Energy offers a fundamentally novel battery technology with an extraordinarily low-cost entitlement. The technology could be substantially lower-cost than lithium-ion batteries at long durations, enabling intermittent renewables to be 100% ‘on-demand’ power. We are really excited by what Chris and the team are building, and are proud to have led the Series Seed round.” – Amy Duffuor, Principal at Prime Impact Fund, and Director on Noon’s Board.

Noon’s battery will provide long-duration stationary storage at a 10x lower storage cost than lithium-ion batteries, enabled by its earth-abundant materials and simple reaction chemistry. Sized at the 100+ hours storage capacity needed, it will make intermittent solar and wind power on-demand, 24/7 year-round, at a lower cost than fossil fuel generation and with zero emissions. Applicable to both grid-scale and smaller applications, Noon gives solar-plus-storage days to weeks of reliable storage capacity, increasing critical grid and site resilience. Additionally, its high energy density (double lithium-ion at full system level) will enable longer-range electric ships, trucks, and other vehicles.

“We have been looking for a sustainable battery solution with disruptive unit economics for a while and believe we have finally found it with Noon. By storing energy in the most earth-abundant elements, Noon not only reduces the cost of energy storage drastically, but also our reliance on mined metals like lithium and cobalt posing major social and environmental problems today. We are thrilled to partner with Chris and the team to bring this solution to the market.” – Laurie Menoud, Partner at At One Ventures.

“Noon team members and I had laid the groundwork at Columbia University and the Technical University of Denmark, where we developed CO₂-to-fuels electrolysis technology to store renewable electricity in the form of hydrocarbon fuels. Noon’s novel battery is based on the same core technology, with key modifications we invented. We have pulled together a world-class team and we are excited to partner with this awesome group of investors to bring our breakthrough storage technology to market.” – Chris Graves, founder and CEO of Noon Energy.

The same core technology is also currently on-board NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover and will soon begin producing oxygen for the first time by electrolysis of the CO₂ atmosphere on Mars. Noon’s founder helped develop this device as part of the NASA “MOXIE” science team since 2014.