Deeya Energy, which makes large flow batteries to provide backup power to industrial plants, raised $15 million in a second round of financing, to support the construction of its factory in India and its continued R&D activities. It also named Vic Mahadevan as president and CEO. The company earlier raised $7.5 million for product development and global market expansion.
The initial focus of the company is the Indian telecom infrastructure market. The company will initially ship to this market in the second quarter of 2008. In 2009, Deeya will expand to focus on the worldwide solar and wind markets also.
“Deeya’s current focus is to be the supplier of choice to telecom operators in India with our innovative flow battery solution for cell phone tower energy back-up applications. This will allow the telecom operators to expand their market rapidly by deep penetration into India’s villages with a cost effective and high performance energy storage platform.”
Vic Mahadevan, CEO of Deeya Energy.
Deeya’s also claims its products will for the first time ever commercialize peak-off-peak load shifting, a market estimated to be worth $10B for electricity consumers and worth $160B for electricity producers and distributors. In addition, its products will enable commercial energy storage in renewable energy and UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) industries, presently estimated at $5B, and inadequately served mostly by the Lead-Acid batteries and diesel generators.
According to the company, Deeya L-Cells are suitable and economic replacements for Lead-Acid batteries and diesel generators for applications requiring 2-50kVA of power and 4-24 hours of backup. The life time of a Deeya L-Cell is 7 years, after which it can be refurbished with minimal cost to run for another 7 years, ad infinitum. The L-Cells require minimal or no maintenance during this period. They are temperature independent and can be placed in an outside environment. Most importantly, they can be charged very fast. A 4-hour system can be charged in about 2 hours.
Deeya L-Cells offer superior charging and discharging performance compared to other batteries and are significantly cheaper. The life time of a Deeya L-Cell is 7 years, after which it can be refurbished and recycled with minimal cost. L-Cells are estimated to be cost-competitive with lead-acid batteries, and about 10-20 times cheaper than NiMH, Li-lon and Fuel Cell options. Additionally, L-Cells contain environmentally benign materials and are infinitely recyclable, as opposed to the kinds of materials used in other batteries, such as lead-acid.
Vic Mahadevan was named president and CEO. Mahadevan most recently was a CEO of four year old NeoEdge Networks. Prior to that he was a CEO of Maxxan Systems, Inc., and Ivita. Mahadevan founded and built the Storage Division in Compaq Computer Corporation to a $4 billion unit. He is a graduate of University of Iowa and Indian Institute of Technology(IIT), Madras.
Flow batteries operate much like a conventional battery, storing and releasing energy through a reversible electrochemical reaction, but with an almost limitless number of charging and discharging cycles. They differ from a conventional battery in two ways 1) the reaction occurs between two electrolytes, rather than between an electrolyte and an electrode and 2) they store the two electrolytes external to the battery and the electrolytes are circulated through the cell stack as required. The great advantage that this system provides is the almost unlimited electrical storage capacity (MWh), the limitation being only the capacity of the electrolyte storage reservoirs.
Among others, Deeya is competing with Canadian VRB Power Systems who already has commercial orders here and here for its Vandium reflux flow batteries. Other suppliers include Cellennium (Thailand) Company Limited, Bangkok, Thailand and V-Fuel Pty Ltd, Sydney, Australia (vanadium bromide battery). Deeya has not revealed the chemistry of its flow battery, so no comments or comparisons can be made.
Deeya seem to be unspecific about what technology they are using for their flow batteries - zinc, vanadium, whatever.
Googling didn't help.
Posted by: DaveMart | January 10, 2008 at 06:08 AM
My main interest in the article was mainly in the chemistry involved.
Their initial order seems a better bet for generating revenue to support progress than say VRB who are exploring a market which does not yet exist.
Posted by: DavidJ | January 10, 2008 at 07:48 AM
Deeya’s also claims its products will for the first time ever commercialize peak-off-peak load shifting, a market estimated to be worth $10B for electricity consumers and worth $160B for electricity producers and distributors.
I think that the above claim is incorrect. NGK Insulators NAS battery is a commercial product which is already being used for load shifting. I do not think that these batteries are particularly cheap or that the sales volumes are high, but NGK is selling them for profit and not just setting up demonstration projects like VRB.
Posted by: Roger Brown | January 10, 2008 at 07:35 PM
Deeya’s also claims its products will for the first time ever commercialize peak-off-peak load shifting, a market estimated to be worth $10B for electricity consumers and worth $160B for electricity producers and distributors.
I think that the above claim is incorrect. NGK Insulators NAS battery is a commercial product which is already being used for load shifting. I do not think that these batteries are particularly cheap or that the sales volumes are high, but NGK is selling them for profit and not just setting up demonstration projects like VRB.
Posted by: Roger Brown | January 10, 2008 at 07:36 PM
Roger,
And it is claimed that the worlds largest flow battery is in Fairbanks Alaska, allegedly the size of a football field. There are at least of couple of other companies with various types of flow batteries in the market.
Posted by: bigTom | January 10, 2008 at 10:26 PM
There are at least of couple of other companies with various types of flow batteries in the market.
Tom,
Do you have any company names? I know a number of flow battery systems have been installed, but that is not the same thing as having a commerical product available. VRB is still doing demos. Regenysis went belly up, etc. Looking at the ESA website the only comany I found that seems to have a real commercial flow battery product (i.e. they have a phone number you can call to order one) was Premium Power. They are selling a relatively small Zinz Bromide battery for UPS systems.
Posted by: Roger Brown | January 11, 2008 at 03:34 PM
Roger,
I tried to link a pdf in, but firefox went weird on me. The university is testing a vrb flow battery. I assume it is climate related (Fairbanks is the coldest non Russian city of any size in the world).
yahoo search under "flow battery fairbanks" had several hits.
Posted by: bigTom | January 11, 2008 at 05:48 PM
Tom,
I found a story related to Fairbanks flow battery. This is a system from VRB Power which is still installing pre-commercial demos. I certainly hope that they eventually enter commercial production, but their web site gives no indication of how soon they hope to do so.
Posted by: Roger Brown | January 11, 2008 at 10:30 PM
commercial product which is already being used for load shifting. I do not think that these batteries are particularly cheap or that the sales volumes are high, but NGK is selling them for profit and not just setting up demonstration.
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Posted by: http://www.conjungo.com | April 11, 2008 at 03:41 AM
Does anyone know why the CEO at Deeya resigned after being on board only for a few months?
Posted by: MKG | May 19, 2008 at 06:53 PM
Deeya CEO Vic Mahadevan calls it quits after being on the job for only less than 4 months. The company has been looking for a CFO for 4 months, and now the CEO leaves. Way to go!
Posted by: John Roberts | May 27, 2008 at 05:34 PM
Please confirm if the Vic Mahadevan really quit...thank you
Posted by: Touissant | June 04, 2008 at 11:40 AM
Another company with a commercial flow battery product is Cellstrom GmbH (http://www.cellstrom.com)
Posted by: Adam Whitehead | August 06, 2008 at 08:06 AM
It's a Cr/Fe technology, check this out:
http://www.energystoragenews.com/Deeya%20Energy%20Iron%20Chromium%20Flow%20Batteries.htm
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There is no doubt about it. Energy drinks have soared in popularity all across the globe. Since the first of these drink first hit the market, the choices have grown
Posted by: energy drinks | June 07, 2011 at 12:39 PM
I wasn't familiar with flow batteries, glad I read this!
Posted by: dentist west hollywood | December 06, 2011 at 05:07 PM
Deeya sounds like a pretty good company.
Posted by: SEO Services | December 06, 2011 at 05:25 PM
Have they expanded like they planned on doing?
Posted by: parking sensor system | December 06, 2011 at 05:37 PM
They must be doing an alright job if they raised that much money...or they just have rich investors.
Posted by: Rug Cleaning Los Angeles | December 06, 2011 at 05:47 PM
Is it weird that Deeya hasn't revealed the chemistry of its' flow battery? Or do you think they're just trying to keep
their secrets so no one steals their methods?
Posted by: Tours in Venice | December 09, 2011 at 06:41 PM
Would you say Deeya is better than the Canadian company?
Posted by: acting classes los angeles | December 23, 2011 at 02:05 PM
I haven't heard of Deeya before
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