I’m Spencer Hanes, Vice President of International Business Development at EnerVenue.
My role is identifying and managing strategic growth opportunities for our metal-hydrogen energy storage solutions globally.
Before EnerVenue, I spent 16 years at Duke Energy working on renewable energy and storage development across more than 30 states and I served on the Board of Directors of the Energy Storage Association.
My background is in energy policy, law, and market development, so I spend a lot of time thinking about how new storage technologies fit into regulatory frameworks and real-world deployment scenarios.
Scale and duration are largely independent topics. The enabler of scale is simplicity.
EnerVenue has built a product offering that is modular and allows integrators and EPCs to flexibly build capacity depending on its business model.
Spencer Hanes
This modularity allows developers to execute everything from smaller C&I systems to large, grid-scale projects.
With reduced HVAC and fires suppression requirements, the system uses fewer components, which further simplifies design, installation and maintenance.
Duration is the rate of discharge.
When designing a project, understanding power and capacity requirements is key; therefore, proper sizing is paramount to deploying a successful design.
One significant advantage for EnerVenue in this area is our chemistry.
Our Energy Storage Vessels feature a 30,000-cycle design life.
That kind of durability changes the math because you’re no longer planning for augmentation.
Likewise, EnerVenue projects don’t need to be grossly oversized to account for capacity fade (degradation).
This further drives OPEX lower, which drives down the total cost of ownership and Levelized Cost of Storage, which are ultimately a more accurate assessment of a project’s cost.
Your nickel-hydrogen chemistry has been used in NASA applications for 30 years but was only brought to Earth very recently- what was this transition like?
EnerVenue’s core chemistry was first developed in the 1970s and has since proved itself in some of the most demanding aerospace environments imaginable, including the International Space Station and Hubble Space Telescope.
Spencer Hanes
Safety and reliability are, of course, non-negotiable in these applications.
When you can’t easily send a technician to fix something, that’s when you learn how durable a technology really can be.
But, space applications had (and have) far different economic constraints than terrestrial markets.
The batteries NASA used were built for very specific missions, and cost was secondary.
The breakthrough that made EnerVenue possible came from a lab at Stanford University, where our founder Dr. Yi Cui and his team reworked the design to substitute certain materials, dramatically reducing cost while maintaining- and in some ways improving- performance.
That’s what opened the door to commercial viability and the company was founded in 2020.
The transition wasn’t about wholly reinventing the chemistry but unlocking its economic potential by cost-reducing components while preserving the durability and safety profile that makes it so valuable in aerospace.
They factor in enormously. Fire safety is one of the central planning challenges, especially as systems get larger and move closer to populations.
Lithium-ion batteries carry well-documented risks around thermal runaway and fire propagation.
Spencer Hanes
Those risks have shaped an entire ecosystem of mitigation measures, including fire suppression systems, HVAC for thermal management, setback requirements, specialized permitting processes.
When you’re deploying in a commercial building or an urban utility application, those requirements add considerable cost and complexity.
Alternative chemistries like metal-hydrogen change that equation.
Our Energy Storage Vessels demonstrate superior safety relative to thermal runaway and fire propagation, which has been validated through observations following the UL 9540A test procedure.
Spencer Hanes
That means project developers and building owners aren’t forced to layer on fire suppression infrastructure at significant cost, design is simpler and maintenance is reduced.
It also opens up deployment options that simply aren’t practical with lithium-ion.
Whereas NFPA 855 limits the amount of certain battery chemistries, like lithium-ion, that can be placed in specific buildings, EnerVenue’s chemistry is not limited by the standard.
For utilities and commercial building operators, the fire safety calculus is shifting.
They’re starting to ask why they should accept the risk and cost burden when alternatives now exist that don’t require it.
The conversations are already changing and I think they’ll continue to get more sophisticated.
Fire marshals and authorities having jurisdiction are increasingly aware that not all batteries carry the same risk profile.
A few years ago, permitting conversations largely treated all battery systems alike.
They focused on fire suppression adequacy, spacing, ventilation, emergency response protocols, etc. Now we’re seeing more nuanced questions about chemistry itself.
I’d expect AHJs to ask: Does this chemistry present a sizable thermal runaway risk? What’s the fire propagation profile? Has it undergone UL 9540A or equivalent testing?
Spencer Hanes
What happens in an off-gas scenario and what’s the toxicity of those gases?
Does this system require complex fire suppression or is it inherently safer without it?
For lithium-ion, those questions trigger extensive mitigation requirements.
For chemistries like metal-hydrogen, the answers are fundamentally different.
That in turn can streamline the permitting process and candidly, reduces the liability exposure for everyone involved.
I think we’ll also see more alignment between insurance requirements and permitting as the market matures.
Insurers are paying attention to chemistry-specific risk and their underwriting standards will likely influence what fire marshals prioritize.
The financial impact of fire suppression infrastructure is significant, but the conversation extends far beyond components.
First, an asset owner must consider whether it can accept the potential for catastrophic financial and reputational loss that comes with a large-scale battery fire.
Spencer Hanes
The Moss Landing fire in January 2025 is a clear example of the stakes involved.
The EPA is now overseeing the largest lithium-ion battery cleanup in agency history.
The project owner has written off $400 million in damages, between 55% and 80% of the 100,000 battery modules were damaged and cleanup is ongoing.
Even beyond the direct costs, there’s been significant regulatory fallouts, California has already adopted changes to its fire safety law and standards for battery energy storage facilities (and some local authorities have restricted new battery projects in response).
Next, you need to consider the engineering, insurance, and operational work that goes into designing projects for optimum fire safety.
The financial impact is large and compounds over time.
Fire suppression systems for lithium-ion BESS installations can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars in upfront costs alone.
Spencer Hanes
Then you have ongoing inspection, maintenance and potential replacement cycles.
You also need to factor in the HVAC and monitoring systems required to manage thermal conditions, which are significant.
But, when you eliminate or reduce those requirements, you’re shrinking both CAPEX and OPEX from day one, and the longer-term implications matter even more.
With lithium-ion, a fire incident, even if contained, can mean extended system downtime, repair costs, regulatory scrutiny and potentially lost revenue.
Some projects have been completely shuttered after fire events.
Operationally, simpler systems are also more reliable.
Fewer points of failure, less maintenance and reduced dependence on suppression infrastructure that itself needs to function correctly in an emergency.
EnerVenue systems are ideal for environments where fire response infrastructure is limited, like remote industrial sites, microgrids.
At these sites, asset owners can’t shift fire risk to first responders; they bear that responsibility themselves and being able to reduce that risk through chemistry becomes a significant advantage.
