Malta Inc., a pioneer in long-duration energy storage, this week announced that Chevron Technology Ventures and Piva Capital have joined Proman, Alfa Laval, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and Dustin Moskovitz in its oversubscribed Series B financing, increasing the round to over $60 million. The new capital will be used to advance the company's commercialization strategy.

"We are thrilled to have Chevron Technology Ventures and Piva Capital investing in Malta. Our mission is to make renewables dispatchable. The Malta system can achieve this by storing days of electricity that is available whenever needed," said Ramya Swaminathan, CEO at Malta Inc.

The rapid increase in demand for data centers, and the 'electrification of everything', combined with coal-fired power plants and nuclear sites going offline have led to increased global demand for long-duration energy storage at grid scale.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, in 2020 19% of US electricity generation came from coal-fired power plants, but it produced 54% of all the sector emissions. The decommissioning of 50+ coal fired power plants expected in the U.S. by 2030 will need to be matched by renewables and other power generation sources, combined with longer than 12 hours of energy storage to maintain grid stability at scale. This creates a $60 billion opportunity to replace coal fired power plants in the next nine years. The worldwide demand for long-term energy storage is multiples of this figure by 2030, and it is expected to continue to rapidly grow over time to enable 100% renewable penetration, a crucial element to achieve net-zero by 2050.

"Malta has the potential to be a key enabler of grid stability as renewables have become a greater portion of the energy mix," said Barbara Burger, Vice President, Innovation and President of Technology Ventures at Chevron. "This is the latest investment from our recently launched $300 million Future Energy Fund II, which focuses on industrial decarbonization, emerging mobility, energy decentralization, and the growing circular carbon economy."

"At Piva Capital, we identify, invest in, and support visionary entrepreneurs and companies that are solving the world's most critical problems facing industry and energy," said Ricardo Angel, Managing Partner of Piva Capital. "There are many solutions working to meet the rapidly growing demand for long-duration energy, however, Malta has developed the most reliable solution to sustainably power the world's growing energy needs. When combined with a top-notch management team and a strong syndicate and partners including Alfa Laval, Proman, and Siemens Energy, Malta is well-positioned to be the leader in the market."

Malta, which was spun out of X, the Moonshot Factory (formerly Google [X]), has developed a Pumped Heat Energy Storage (PHES) system. This new approach leverages thermodynamic systems to provide long-duration, large-scale, cost-effective, and safe energy storage. It converts electricity from any source, either directly from a generation facility or from the grid, to be stored as thermal energy. The company's technology is able to satisfy a daily or weekly load cycle by efficiently storing up to 200 hours of energy. In addition to dispatchable renewable energy, Malta's PHES technology can generate heat for industrial and district heat applications.

Source: Malta Inc.