Down to Earth: start-up backed by Hong Kong tycoon Peter Lee aims to commercialise battery technology used in space

EnerVenue, a rechargeable batteries start-up co-founded by Full Vision Capital, the family office of Hong Kong tycoon Peter Lee Ka-kit, aims to build multiple plants in the US and China to commercialise an old battery technology deployed in outer space for use here on Earth.

The California-based company has developed processes to lower the total life-cycle costs of energy storage systems based on nickel and hydrogen that were used for decades in extreme aerospace conditions, so that they can compete with existing products, said Alan Chan Ying-lung, managing partner at Full Vision, which has incubated six low-carbon energy ventures now worth more than US$6.8 billion.

“The cost of our systems will be very competitive to the existing utility-scale energy storage products in the world,” Chan said on the sidelines of the One Earth Summit, a sustainability conference in Hong Kong, on March 25. “On a life cycle basis, EnerVenue’s storage is cheaper than the lithium-ion battery, and has superior durability, safety, versatility and sustainability.”