Energy Renaissance, Australia’s first lithium battery manufacturer, goes into administration

Lithium ion battery storage company Energy Renaissance, which recently marked a decade anniversary, has apparently collapsed.

Few details are available, but an ASIC notice dated August 13 states that Stewart William Free and Bradd William Morelli have been appointed as administrators to ER Industrial Pty Ltd, formerly trading as Energy Renaissance.

@AuManufacturing requested comment from the company on Thursday afternoon, and will update this article if and when more information is provided.

Energy Renaissance runs a factory at Tomago, NSW and had plans to scale up to a “gigafactory” with capacity to create 5 gigawatt hours of energy storage annually. Its focus was scalable Battery Energy Storage Systems, with hardware and software created in Australia for harsh local requirements, and catering to “commercial and industrial grid connected and off grid applications.”

In a Q and A dated July 15 to mark the company’s decade anniversary, founder and Managing Director Brian Craighead was asked about the biggest difficulties so far. He answered:

“One of the biggest hurdles has been competing with overseas manufacturers who can offer lower prices due to government-subsidised products and economies of scale. Overcoming the perception that imported products are always more cost-effective has been a significant challenge.”

Picture: a SuperStorage product made by the company (supplied)

Further reading

Episode 16 — Mark Chilcote from Energy Renaissance

Energy Renaissance close to opening battery Giga-factory

Ministers visit Energy Renaissance battery project

Energy Renaissance announce new chair ahead of planned 2021 factory opening

Energy Renaissance plans massive Darwin battery factory

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