CMBlu Energy receives $106.7 million strategic growth investment from infrastructure technology company STRABAG SE
October 27, 2023
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Petaluma
California
United States
CMBlu Energy (CMBlu), a designer and manufacturer of long-duration Organic SolidFlow™ battery storage systems, announced that STRABAG SE, the global infrastructure technology group, is making a $106.7 million (€100 million) equity investment in CMBlu.
The new capital will accelerate CMBlu’s battery development and manufacturing scale-up, while cementing strategic alignment with STRABAG’s construction and infrastructure business. The partnership provides a major boost for the commercialization of safe, sustainable, and secure energy storage technology to enable an affordable and resilient transition to a decarbonized energy sector.
This is STRABAG’s first investment in an energy storage technology developer. The funding accelerates CMBlu’s deployment of its technology, addressing a crucial growth opportunity for the global energy transition. The partnership will also benefit electric utilities, power producers, and large energy customers, enabling them to integrate renewable energy with long-duration energy storage.
“STRABAG and CMBlu Energy are highly complementary organizations with similar missions and philosophies,” said Dr. Peter Geigle, CEO and founder of CMBlu Energy. “This funding will enable us to expand production capacity in Europe and establish a manufacturing facility in the U.S. CMBlu will especially benefit from the broad experience and execution capabilities that STRABAG has in large infrastructure projects. We’re extremely pleased to receive this investment, which boosts our business, validates our technology, and paves the way for rapid growth, both in Europe and the U.S.”
CMBlu Energy, together with collaboration partners, is currently working on multiple pilot projects in the U.S. and Europe to prove out its large-scale energy storage solutions. These include publicly announced projects with WEC Energy Group in Wisconsin, Salt River Project in Arizona, and several other sites in Europe.
For STRABAG, this investment expands their portfolio of progressive companies and start-ups that are working towards a climate-neutral future.
“The game changer for the energy transition is safe and sustainable long-duration storage that can make renewable energy available when needed,” explains Klemens Haselsteiner, CEO of STRABAG. “With our investment in CMBlu, we are breaking new ground in the construction industry. In order to reach one of the most important goals in our company’s history – becoming climate-neutral by 2040 – we want to become a full-range supplier of energy services for our projects. Together with CMBlu, we will deliver large energy storage projects in a standardized construction design– faster, easier, and more efficiently.”
CMBlu Energy is the first company to develop a battery that combines the advantages of two proven technologies – redox flow batteries and solid-state batteries. Organic SolidFlow offers independent scaling of power and energy, without sacrificing energy density. The technology is based on safe, abundant, and recyclable organic materials, resulting in an energy storage system that can be affordably scaled and adjusted to the application and customer. CMBlu systems do not rely on conflict or rare materials. Unlike lithium-ion batteries, the company’s SolidFlow storage systems are safe, sustainable, and secure, while providing the essential characteristics of performance, reliability, and affordability.
“To become reality, the energy transition will require storage capacity measured in terawatts,” added CMBlu’s Dr. Geigle. “Only with very large storage capacities can GHG reduction goals be met. Our Organic SolidFlow batteries can be scaled up to the gigawatt-hour range, which enables the balance between renewable energy supply and essential energy demand – even without wind or sun.”
About STRABAG
STRABAG SE is a European-based technology group for construction services, a leader in innovation and financial strength. Our activities span all areas of the construction industry and cover the entire construction value chain. We create added value for our clients by taking an end-to-end view of construction over the entire life cycle – from planning and design to construction, operation and facility management to redevelopment or demolition. In all of our work, we accept responsibility for people and the environment: We are shaping the future of construction and are making significant investments in our portfolio of more than 250 innovation and 400 sustainability projects.
Through the hard work and dedication of our approximately 79,000 employees, we generate an annual output volume of around €17 billion. Our dense network of subsidiaries in various European countries and on other continents extends our area of operation far beyond the borders of Austria and Germany.
Working together with strong partners, we are pursuing a clear goal: to design, build and operate construction projects in a way that protects the climate and conserves resources. More information via www.strabag.com.
About CMBlu Energy
CMBlu Energy is a leading designer and manufacturer of safe, sustainable, and secure long-duration battery energy storage systems. CMBlu’s patented Organic SolidFlow™ technology solutions are made of earth-abundant, non-lithium raw materials. The company aims to manufacture domestically at high volume, delivering energy storage solutions for a range of industrial applications from utility-scale to commercial customers. CMBlu employs over 190 people in Germany and the United States. For more information, visit www.cmblu.com.
