An international council focused on energy storage — and a net-zero fossil fuel emissions future — recently gave an Albuquerque startup a global platform.
Albuquerque-based Breeze Inc., which also has operations in Alberta, Canada, is a member of the Long Duration Energy Storage Council. As a part of that council, Josh Wiart, an engineer for Breeze, helped lead a presentation in Novemberon long-duration energy storage at COP27 — the United Nations' annual framework convention on climate change.
The Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) Council formed at COP26 in November 2021. It's a nonprofit organization that connects different stakeholders in the energy storage ecosystem.
There are 41 technology provider companies and 24 anchor members from around the world — including BP, Shell and Siemens Energy — in the council. Breeze joined in February, nearly two years after it was incorporated in April 2020.
"They're developing the industry," said Chris Connors, a principal for Breeze, about the LDES Council. "If you look at the membership of it, it's a whole bunch of technology providers like us, but it's also capital people that are there and users of the energy that want to be participating.
"And then there are fossil fuel [companies] who are in the energy business and trying to figure out how to fit [long-duration energy storage] into their model," Connors continued. "That's the way we can develop the industry, by getting everyone involved."
Long-duration energy storage allows electricity generated from renewable sources to be stored and discharged over extended periods of time. This is important, Wiart said during the COP27 presentation, when the sun isn't shining or wind isn't blowing, for example.
Breeze wants to use existing, underutilized infrastructure, like pipelines and power plants, to more efficiently produce, transport and store electricity. It's in the process of developing a prototype of its technology that could be finished by the end of January, Connors said.
The LDES Council connects stakeholders around long-duration energy storage technologies like the one Breeze is developing, said Larissa Fair, North American communications director for the LDES Council, in a Dec. 22 email to Albuquerque Business First.
"We project a need up to eight terawatts of installed capacity of LDES technologies by 2040. We need the diversity of technology that LDES offers to work with renewables like wind and solar to reach the net zero goals that many countries have mandated.
"Not only that, but with LDES as a core component in the clean energy transition, we can expect up to $540 billion U.S. dollars per year of system-level savings, supporting by eight terawatts of LDES by 2040 and $4 trillion USD in cumulative investments," Fair said in the email.
Mike Orshan, a board member and co-founder of Breeze, said the company is "doing all three actions" in the energy cycle — creating electricity, transporting electricity and storing electricity. It does this using compressed air that can be transported through or stored in idle pipelines. Orshan currently works as the vice president of U.S. sales for PVH, a solar tracker company based in Valencia, Spain.
Because Breeze wants to reuse existing infrastructure with its technology, Orshan said that the capital expenditure for future projects would be relatively low.
"We can get the really low cost of energy, we think the lowest cost of storage energy and the lowest cost of transporting energy," Orshan said.
Breeze is currently wrapping up a seed round of funding for $250,000. Once its prototype is ready, Breeze wants to launch a Series A funding round with a goal of raising $7 million, Orshan said.
"To justify and show that it works, many of the VCs and prospects want to see a working system," Orshan said about the prototype. "So it's a prerequisite."
This article has been updated to clarify details about the LDES Council's membership.
