Photoncycle has raised €15 million in Series A funding to support commercial deployment of its seasonal energy storage systems in Denmark and the Netherlands
The company’s technology stores excess solar electricity from summer as solid-state hydrogen for use in winter for electricity and home heating
Photoncycle says each of its systems can store up to 10 MWh of seasonal energy
Photoncycle, the Norway-based energy storage startup, has raised €15 million in Series A funding for the commercial deployment of its seasonal energy storage systems (ESS) in Denmark and the Netherlands.
Photoncycle’s patented technology is a seasonal solid-state hydrogen-based ESS designed mainly for homes with installed solar panels. It can store excess solar electricity produced in summer for use later in the winter months for electricity and heating by converting it into solid-state hydrogen stored underground.
With this feature of using energy stored and used between seasons, Photoncycle says its technology differs from lithium-ion batteries, the current market favorite that allows for daytime electricity storage to be used during nighttime, power outages, or on cloudy days.
The Norwegian company admits its ESS has lower electric efficiency than short-duration batteries, but says the system recovers heat during operation. It can be paired with a heat pump to be reused for home heating. Each Photoncycle ESS unit can store 10 MWh of seasonal energy, it adds.
The startup targets the Netherlands, as the country has one of the highest rates of solar panel adoption in Europe. Excess electricity generated by solar homes is currently fed into the grid. Once net metering phases out in 2027, Dutch homes would prefer to continue using their self-generated solar power rather than rely on the grid, explains Photoncycle. It would also lower pressure on the grid, it adds (see Netherlands Set To Abolish Net Metering Scheme From 2027).
The company plans to offer the system through a subscription service under which it will install the unit at the customer’s property. The system can work with existing or new solar panels. The company will handle operations, maintenance, and energy trading with the aim of reducing upfront costs for households while providing them with predictable long-term energy prices.
Photoncycle was founded by Bjorn Brandtzaeg, a visiting fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where the company was incubated.
It plans to build 1.4 TWh of annual manufacturing capacity, and aims to achieve commercial operations of Phase I by 2027. The Series A funding will be used to scale manufacturing and support commercial deployment in Denmark, followed by the Netherlands.
Its €15 million funding round was led by NordicNinja and Voima Ventures. Existing investors Lifeline Ventures, Eviny Ventures, Luminar Ventures, and Momentum also participated in the round.
In April 2024, it had secured seed funding of €5 million from Nordic venture capital firms (see Photoncycle Prepping For Market Launch With Seed Funding).