Malta Closes $50 Million To Commercialize Its Long-Duration Energy Storage System

By Noah Long ● Mar 6, 2021
  • Malta — a pioneer in long-duration energy storage — recently announced it has raised $50 million in a Series B round of funding.

Malta — a pioneer in long-duration energy storage — recently announced it has raised $50 million in a Series B round of funding. This funding round was led by integrated energy group Proman with participation from new investor Dustin Moskovitz and existing investors Alfa Laval and Breakthrough Energy Ventures. 

Malta is known as being a developer of grid-scale long-duration thermal energy storage solutions. The company was incubated at X, the Moonshot Factory (formerly Google [X]).

The Malta Pumped Heat Energy Storage (PHES) system utilizes well-understood thermodynamic systems in a novel energy storage application. And the PHES system converts electricity from any source, either directly from a generation facility or from the grid, to be stored as thermal energy. 

And the Malta system is able to satisfy a daily or weekly load cycle by efficiently storing up to 200 hours of energy storage though early systems will focus on current market applications in need of 10- to 12-hour durations. And in addition to dispatchable renewable energy, Malta’s PHES technology generates heat for industrial and district heat applications.

KEY QUOTE:

“Our goal continues to be to create a scalable storage solution that will accelerate the expansion of renewable energy while improving grid stability and resilience. We are gratified by our investors’ recognition of our achievements and their confidence in our ability to execute on this exciting new phase.” 

— Ramya Swaminathan, CEO of Malta Inc.

“There is an exponential global need for long-duration, low-cost energy storage solutions, and we are excited to work with the Malta team and our new partners to progress Malta’s highly scalable and technically robust solution.  Alongside our investment, Proman will bring complementary design, engineering and construction expertise to the Malta PHES technology as we begin work with Malta on a commercial scale plant.”

— David Cassidy, Chief Executive of Proman, Malta’s lead investor

“The promise of fully dispatchable renewables is dependent on long-duration energy storage solutions. We are excited about the progress the team at Malta has made and the impact this system will soon have on reducing carbon emissions globally.”

— Carmichael Roberts of Breakthrough Energy Ventures

“We believe that thermal storage will play an important role in the energy transition. After working with the Malta team for the past two years on novel heat exchanger design and development, we remain excited about this solution and the potential impact it can have on climate change.” 

— Susanne Pahlén Åklundh, President of Alfa Laval’s Energy Division

“Malta’s innovative application of well-established technologies and materials could accelerate the roll out of long duration storage to support the transition to fully dispatchable renewable energy.” 

— Dustin Moskovitz