With each of our innovator stories, we get a chance to meet the people behind EU-funded ideas, which have the potential to change our future for the better.
This time, we invited Samer Nameer, the co-founder and Chief Sustainability Officer of Enerpoly, a startup that develops zinc-ion batteries for scalable energy storage solutions, to tell us more about the company’s sustainable innovation. Enerpoly was one of the 30 startups that participated in our first Multicorporate Matchmaking Event earlier this month. It was selected by all three corporates (Medtronic, Galp and Vestas Ventures) and pitched on both Energy and Health days.
Enerpoly was supported by the EU with over €1.6M so far via different R&I projects, i.e. ENERZ.
Corporate Matchmaking events are important for SMEs in Europe to meet and initiate dialogue with large, established companies. These events help open the door to potential collaborations that could lead to future partnerships, sales, and/or a better business strategy.
Tell us more about yourself and your work?
I’m Samer Nameer, co-founder and Chief Sustainability Officer at Enerpoly. I focus on company strategy and execute our sustainability and CSR practices. I also support in operations such as the production of our batteries.
What problem is your product solving and what makes its solution unique?
Today’s batteries cannot adequately address affordability, reliability (safety and supply risks), and sustainability over the battery lifetime.
Zinc-ion batteries are unique in addressing these issues. First, we use abundant materials, such as zinc, that are available globally and facilitate the cost-effectiveness of our battery solution. Then, we selected only materials that are non-flammable, non-volatile and non-toxic to ensure the safety of our product as well as reduce the need for energy- and cost-intensive precautionary engineering. Finally, the similarity of our chemistry to alkaline batteries (AA, AAA) means that we fit into an existing, established recycling infrastructure.
The zinc-ion battery can be a sustainable long-term solution that enables the transition to renewables in Europe. We are building a future where everyone has access to clean energy.
How did you start your journey, and where are you now on the road to achieving your ambition?
Dr. Mylad Chamoun and I co-founded the company, Enerpoly, in 2018. Mylad had made an extraordinary breakthrough into the zinc-ion battery chemistry during his PhD research. We took the results to industry leaders in energy in Sweden to understand the market potential. Their excitement and feedback had us understanding that the energy storage market was underdeveloped and lacking a technology uniquely suited for it as lithium-ion suits electronics and electric vehicles. We believed that by realizing zinc-ion batteries, we could accelerate stationary energy storage deployments.
Since then, Enerpoly has raised €4.5M from the European Commission (EIC Accelerator & Eureka Eurostars), the Swedish Energy Agency, and private investors. We brought in 11 more people who saw our vision. We built and optimized a pilot battery production line to produce commercial-sized zinc-ion batteries. We have secured partnerships with prominent stakeholders in the value chain and found integrators ready to use zinc-ion batteries in their devices. Today, Enerpoly is working with battery integrators to pilot the zinc-ion technology.
What’s the biggest impact EU-funding has had on your journey so far, and can you specify an outcome?
Thus far, we have received €2.56M from the European Union and Swedish agencies. They were our first partners, and their funding has been fundamental in growing the company and commercializing our innovative battery technology. With the funding we received, we scaled the technology from laboratory to commercial scale, configured the technology to work with industrial standard production methods, and built and optimized a production line in our industrial lab in Stockholm. We also grew our team and secured valuable stakeholders across the value chain to support us.
Have you already tested your product with clients? What was it like?
Our customers, battery integrators, have evaluated our technology specifications and seen our internal testing. They deem the zinc-ion technology to be promising and have offered feedback on the battery cell and pack design to make it easier to integrate into their stationary energy storage devices. They see our zinc-ion technology, with its low levelized cost, fitting in the current market gap for mid-to-long duration storage applications (e.g., 2–10-hour discharge durations.). Furthermore, the guaranteed safety of our zinc-ion batteries allows for usage in urban dense areas where fire requirements are stringent. Finally, the low carbon impact of our batteries and the reliable supply chain have been of high interest to customers considering new innovative battery technologies.
What is your company’s greatest achievement to date?
The main reason most battery startups fail is because they are not able to scale their technology out of the lab or find their technology has lost its advantage by the time they do because it hasn’t kept up with market developments.
From the start, we sought to make the zinc-ion technology compatible with the industry standard production method used for lithium-ion batteries. The thin-film roll-to-roll process has seen years of research and optimization and has been the main reason for the major cost declines seen with lithium-ion batteries. We have successfully shown that we can scale the zinc-ion technology using the thin-film roll-to-roll production method. Our team has worked hard and built the expertise to overcome the many technical obstacles in adapting our technology to this scalable process.
How do you see your company making a difference in the future?
Enerpoly is committed to making a difference in several key areas.
Recent events have shown us Europe needs to quickly accelerate its renewable energy and energy storage deployments, as well as ensure its energy technologies have accessible or local supply chains. Zinc-ion batteries can support Europe’s battery and energy autonomy. We can reduce reliance on critical, imported raw materials and decrease supply chain risks.
We focus on sustainability. We are committed to increasing the circularity of our batteries and of our production. We make decisions, such as using non-critical, safe materials, that reduce the overall climate impact of battery manufacturing and energy storage use. There are ambitious climate impact goals being set and we need to do our part in reaching these goals.
Lastly, we are committed in building an ecosystem for zinc-ion batteries, including for sourcing materials or a skilled workforce. We are working closely with universities, research institutes, science parks, and industry partners to develop talent and foster innovation in this field.
You participated at the first Dealflow.eu Corporate Matchmaking Event and met all three corporates! Can you tell us more about how this opportunity was and how it could benefit your company?
Corporate Matchmaking events are important for SMEs in Europe to meet and initiate dialogue with large, established companies. These events help open the door to potential collaborations that could lead to future partnerships, sales, and/or a better business strategy. Making the connection with the right people at a large corporation is often difficult, and we are thankful to Dealflow.eu for organizing this successful event.
The meetings with Galp, Vestas Ventures and Medtronic helped us understand how next-generation batteries and energy storage are important in various industries, be it for an oil and gas company, a wind turbine producer or a medical device maker. We look forward to continuing discussions with these players.
How would you define success and what keeps you going in the pursuit of it?
Success is achieving my goal of making a positive impact on the world while staying true to my values. Living as an entrepreneur is like riding a roller coaster with several ups and downs. What keeps me going is not the possible money or fame, but about making a meaningful contribution to peoples’ lives and taking a step forward for society.
With stationary energy storage solutionsI see a need in the market, I see customers who could benefit from my technology, and I realize the difference this technology that I’ve helped create can make in the world so I cannot stop working on this.
Article published by EurA AG.
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