Aquion Energy and Eguana Technologies Partner on Integrated Energy Storage Model

Aquion Energy and Eguana Technologies (TSXV:EGT) announced Thursday the successful completion of a field trial that combined their products.
The former manufactures proprietary Aqueous Hybrid Ion (AHI™) batteries and battery systems that are used in long-duration, stationary energy applications. Meanwhile, the latter designs and manufactures power controls for energy storage systems, delivering grid-edge power electronics for fuel cell, photovoltaic and battery applications. The recent trial tested the efficacy of Aquion’s AHI™ high-performance batteries in Eguana’s Bi-Direx inverter.

Clean energy

Both companies place an emphasis on creating environmentally friendly solutions to energy problems. For example, Aquion’s non-flammable and non-explosive AHI™ batteries are free of toxic chemicals and heavy chemicals. They are also the sole batteries that hold Cradle to Cradle certification. Products with that certification are expressly intended for residential solar, green architecture, off-grid and microgrid, energy management and grid-scale uses.
Euguana’s Bi-Direx inverter is also notable for its low environmental impact. It is designed to connect distributed low-voltage generation and storage systems with smart grids and microgrids. According to Thursday’s press release, “the Bi-Direx inverter combines the highly flexible ‘AC coupled’ design, which enables complete flexibility to retrofit or build out systems incrementally, with the highest round trip electrical conversion efficiencies in the power industry. Bi-Direx moves seamlessly from grid-interactive to grid-independent operating modes and is easily integrated with advanced battery technologies.”

Successful partnership

By coupling these products, Aquion and Eguana can work together to provide an integrated energy storage model. The companies hope to use this combined product to provide standalone and backup battery power, village power, remote microgrids, diesel optimization and military power on demand. Together, both companies will market and support their remote energy storage solution to their target market of system integrators, OEMs and other companies deploying such systems.

Investor response

The market reacted positively to Thursday’s news, with Eguana’s share price increasing 7.14 percent to reach $0.075 by market close. However, the company is still trading near its 52-week low of $0.06, a significant decrease from its annual high of $0.52.
Meanwhile, Aquion is a privately held company. Key investors include venture capital firms Advanced Technology Ventures, Bright Capital, Constellation Technology Ventures and Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers. Other are Shell Technology Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS.A), and Total Energy Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of French oil, natural gas and solar energy company Total (NYSE:TOT).