The rapid expansion of wind and solar power has created a unique challenge: utilities often have more electricity than they can use. At times, they even pay other power plants to stay idle. The race is on to find cost-effective ways to store this surplus energy, making renewable power available around the clock and potentially driving coal and natural gas out of business.
Enter Cache Energy, a startup with a fresh approach to energy storage. Unlike traditional methods that store power as heat in materials like sand or bricks, Cache stores energy in chemical bonds within lime-based pellets. Founder and CEO Arpit Dwivedi refers to this innovative method as “coal without consequences.”
“It’s a low-cost solid that can produce heat and utilizes similar infrastructure built for fossil fuels,” Dwivedi told TechCrunch.
The pellets are versatile and can be stored in piles or silos, transported via conveyor belts, or shipped in rail cars. Dwivedi notes that as long as they’re covered— even with something as simple as a tarp— they can retain their energy charge indefinitely.
Cache Energy, founded in 2021 while Dwivedi was completing his PhD at the University of Illinois, has been operating in stealth mode until now. The company aims to replace fossil fuels in providing heat for homes and industries.
Cache starts with calcium hydroxide, a widely available material used in various industries, from papermaking to food processing. Initially, the material is a fine powder, which isn’t ideal for energy storage, so Cache developed a method to bind it into durable pellets.
The size of the pellets is crucial for efficiency. If they’re too small, they could blow away; if too large, they hinder the energy storage and release process. After extensive testing, Cache found the ideal pellet size.
When heated, the pellets release water vapor, transforming into calcium oxide, or quicklime— the “charged” state of Cache’s energy storage system. To release the stored energy, the pellets are rehydrated, producing heat with an overall system efficiency of around 95%, according to Dwivedi.
Cache’s pellets can generate heat up to 550 degrees Celsius, making them suitable for most industrial processes, as well as heating commercial and residential buildings. Dwivedi explains that a single shipping container of pellets could heat a few office buildings through winter. The company is also developing a new version that can reach 900 degrees Celsius, broadening its industrial applications.
The startup recently secured $8.5 million in seed funding and plans to raise a Series A by year’s end. Investors include Cantos, Climate Capital, Evergreen Climate Innovations, and others. Cache currently has one pilot reactor with a customer, and future funding will be used to deploy more reactors.
Cache is focused on keeping its equipment and materials affordable. Using off-the-shelf parts, the pellets cost around 20 to 40 cents per kilowatt-hour at their current production rate of about 500 kilowatt-hours per hour.
The viability of Cache’s technology hinges on electricity costs. In regions where wind and solar power are abundant, the pellets could be charged inexpensively, creating a profitable energy storage solution.
If Cache’s pellets prove durable in real-world applications, they could be charged in sunny, windy regions like Texas or Arizona, then transported across the country to power industrial facilities or heat buildings. Dwivedi even envisions a future where Cache trucks deliver pellets to homes, much like heating oil trucks do today in the Northeast. This innovation could be a major step toward decarbonizing one of fossil fuel’s last strongholds: heat.
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