Albion Technologies Secures capital charge-up from Britbots

By Nicky Godding

7 February 2022

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Bristol based Albion Technologies Limited has secured major investment from robotics investment company Britbots as part of a £850,000-round which is still open to other angel investors interested in backing energy storage start-ups.

Albion Technologies develops battery energy storage systems that allow surplus electrical energy to be stored in nearby renewable power generation facilities, such as solar or wind farms. Operators are increasingly looking to incorporate storage systems so that they can feed the nationwide power grid more persistently than previously has been possible.

The company says its technology offers price-performance benefits to renewable electricity generators versus competitive products from East Asia.

In particular, the application of artificial-intelligence to battery conditioning allows output levels, after many thousands of charging cycles, to remain extremely high. Furthermore, the relative simplicity of the component materials within the Albion batteries, avoiding the use of rare-earth metals, results in a more sustainable and scaleable supply-chain than is typical in this sector.

Albion proposes to introduce automated control features as part of a next generation “Smart” Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), delivering superior energy yield and fire safety for operators, as well as extending national grid security more generally.

A pilot installation of Albion’s Smart BESS,planned for later this year, will validate the delivery of over 95% of the energy capacity from each battery cell, therefore increasing the energy charge storage and discharge delivery, versus the status quo, by over 30%. Early testing also indicates a near doubling of the effective battery lifetime to 12,000 cycles or more. Having demonstrated the capabilities of the technology in the pilot and other modest-scale deployments in 2022, Albion expects to benefit from a strong order book for 2023.

Sir Robert Bucher, CEO of Albion said: “Smart BESS directly supports the goals of the UK COP26 initiatives by allowing accelerated attachment of renewable solar and wind power and by extension ultra-fast EV charge station networks to the UK national grid. This program is a necessity to stablise the power infrastructure and eliminate diesel generators and their emissions.“

Dominic Keen, Managing Partner of Britbots added: “We are enthusiastic about our investment made in Albion Technologies and look forward to working with Robert and the team to scale-up the business over the forthcoming years as the market for energy storage systems grows.”

By Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe.

After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts.

She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.