Bringing NASA’s Metal-Hydrogen Batteries to Grid Storage
Enervenue’s CTO details how a NASA legacy is powering the future of energy.
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In the closing session of Technology Networks’ Advances in Battery Research 2025 online symposium, Dr. Majid Keshavarz, chief technical officer of the battery producer Enervenue, told the audience how his team is commercializing a long-overlooked NASA battery technology for grid-scale applications.
With an emphasis on safety, longevity and cost-effectiveness, metal-hydrogen batteries, he said, could be the missing link in the transition to distributed, renewable energy.
A space-age legacy, reimagined
“Our mission is to provide energy storage for power plants, businesses and homes,” said Keshavarz, whose company is based in Silicon Valley.
Enervenue’s technology builds on the nickel-hydrogen batteries used by NASA for over four decades in space missions, including the Hubble Space Telescope and the International Space Station.
While these batteries were known for their exceptional reliability, they were prohibitively expensive, costing around $20,000 per kilowatt-hour (KWh). Keshavarz and his team, working closely with Stanford University and incubated through Innotech, focused on redesigning the battery to dramatically reduce material and manufacturing costs without compromising performance.
Catalysts, separators and scalable design
Central to this transformation was replacing platinum – the standard but costly catalyst – with a new transition metal-based alternative.
“The cost of this catalyst is very low, about $22 per kilogram, compared to platinum at $30,000 per kilogram,” Keshavarz noted.
This breakthrough enables high catalytic activity for both hydrogen evolution and oxidation reactions, without the need for dual catalysts.
Enervenue also addressed scalability challenges. The team replaced NASA’s zirconium oxide separator with porous polyolefin material.
“It has to be hydrophilic enough so it can act as a reservoir for electrolytes,” Keshavarz explained. The battery’s pressure vessel also evolved from stainless steel to lightweight composite materials, slashing costs while maintaining strength.
High durability meets harsh environments
Durability and environmental adaptability are standout features. Enervenue batteries have undergone rigorous testing, with thousands of cells deployed in varying climates, from the scorching heat of Phoenix, Arizona, to the freezing cold of Denver, Colorado.
Even under extreme conditions – up to 60°C and 5C charge/discharge rates – the batteries outperformed their lithium-ion counterparts.
“The NCA [nickel cobalt aluminum] reaches 80% of its initial capacity after 70 cycles,” Keshavarz emphasized. “We ran [our battery] for 2,000 cycles and we only lost 5%.”
In longer trials, Enervenue batteries have run over 80,000 cycles with less than 4% capacity loss. This could translate to a 30-year lifetime at 3 cycles per day, ideal for pairing with solar energy systems that also come with multi-decade warranties.
Safety by design
Safety is paramount, particularly for utility-scale installations in power plants, where a fire outbreak could wreak havoc. To ensure such scenarios are avoided, Enervenue subjected their batteries to third-party tests, including nail penetration, ballistic impact, overcharge and bonfire simulations.
In each case, the batteries performed safely, releasing only steam and inert gases under stress, with no fires or explosions.
“The vessel is hermetically sealed. When it shorts, it heats itself, but it consumes the flammable hydrogen, therefore it does not propagate and releases steam,” Keshavarz explained.
This level of passive safety makes the technology particularly appealing to utilities and regulators concerned about cascading failures seen with lithium-ion systems.
Flexible formats and simple deployment
Enervenue offers modular battery designs with plug-and-play capability. Each 6-foot-tall, 3-kilowatt-hour vessel is part of a rack system that can be scaled from 900 KWh to 2.7 MWh clusters. These are stackable, forklift-movable and require no heating, ventilation or air conditioning for operation, further reducing installation and maintenance costs.
The company is also pioneering a warehouse-based solution that stacks racks vertically to maximize energy density in indoor installations. “It takes just one acre to put 400 MWh of battery together,” said Keshavarz.
Real-world validation
Enervenue’s batteries are already in the field. Early deployments include Duke Energy in North Carolina, Wellhead Electric in Colorado and Schlumberger in Texas. They’ve also expanded internationally to Australia, Germany, Denmark, parts of South America and the Middle East.
“This is what customers are asking for,” Keshavarz said. “They want a simple installation, plug-in and play. They don’t want to pay for labor in the field labor.”
Looking ahead: A role in the energy transition
While the company currently focuses on cylindrical formats, new shapes and tank-stack separation designs are under patent and investigation. But the core goal remains the same: to enable safe, durable and scalable energy storage that matches the lifespan and performance of solar generation.
“The grid is getting old,” Keshavarz concluded. “The cost of solar has dropped significantly and what's missing is energy storage, but energy storage that is safe and complements solar.”
“Solar panels are now warranted for 30 years, so you need a body that lasts that long too, and that's where this technology shines.”
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