Ceres Power to take 8.4% stake in long-duration energy storage company

Ceres Power Holdings PLC (AIM:CWR, OTC:CPWHF) has signed joint development and equity agreements with RFC Power, a long-duration energy storage company.

The AIM-listed fuel cell and electrochemical company said it had been in discussion with RFC for some time and Mark Selby, its chief innovation officer, will now join the board of RFC to support the commercialisation of the latter’s technology.

In exchange for providing advice and expertise to RFC, Ceres will receive an 8.4% shareholding in RFC. Ceres has the opportunity to assess RFC’s technology in this period and if the technology proves compatible with its own strategy, it has a 12-month option to acquire the balance of the outstanding share capital in the company for up to £25 million. This comprises a 50% initial payment on exercise and a 50% deferred payment based on commercial success, both payable in Ceres shares.

RFC is an early-stage company that has a strategy to develop the world’s lowest-cost flow battery – a hybrid between a fuel cell and a battery that decouples power from energy.

The technology was spun out of Imperial College London in 2017, with a patented hydrogen manganese chemistry promising low cost, high round-trip efficiency and an extremely long cycle-life.

“As a licensing business committed to delivering clean energy for a net-zero future, it is imperative that alongside delivering our fuel cell and hydrogen electrolysis business, we continue to drive innovation to create future value, both through investment in our own technology and partnering in new areas such as energy storage, which are aligned with our purpose,” said Phil Caldwell, the chief executive officer of Ceres.

Tim von Werne, Caldwell’s counterpart at RFC, said the partnership with Ceres will accelerate RFC’s technology development “and enable us to bring our long-duration energy storage technology to market at the pace required to meet this global demand”.

Story by ProactiveInvestors