EnerVenue has opened a high-volume production line for its nickel-hydrogen battery, designed for up to 30,000 cycles and aimed at long-duration solar and grid storage.
A water-based battery designed for up to 30 years of operation has moved from pilot projects to high-volume production. California-based EnerVenue says its new facility in Changzhou, China, is the world’s first high-volume manufacturing line for its Aqueous Metal Cell (AMC), a nickel-hydrogen battery designed for stationary energy storage.
EnerVenue says the first conforming cell came off the production line at the end of September 2026. The first phase of the facility is rated for 250 MWh of annual production, with capacity planned to rise to 1 GWh in 2027 and reach multiple GWh in 2028. At full automation, the line is designed to produce about 300 fourth-generation cells per day.
The company says the AMC is designed for up to 30,000 charge cycles, equivalent to three full cycles per day for about 30 years, without scheduled capacity augmentation. EnerVenue has also fully commissioned and tested 150 kWh battery racks at the facility.
The battery uses a nickel-hydrogen architecture rather than lithium-ion chemistry. Nickel-hydrogen cells have previously been used in spacecraft, including the Hubble Space Telescope and International Space Station, where long cycle life is important. EnerVenue says it has adapted the chemistry for terrestrial energy storage using lower-cost materials.
Inside the cell, the positive electrode uses nickel hydroxide, while hydrogen is produced and stored inside a sealed vessel during charging and consumed during discharge. The electrolyte is water-based and alkaline rather than the flammable organic electrolyte used in lithium-ion batteries. EnerVenue describes the AMC as hermetically sealed and says its water-based chemistry eliminates the risk of thermal runaway.
The company says the cells contain no lithium or rare-earth materials, with nickel and other materials designed for recovery at end of life. The fourth-generation AMC retains the nickel-hydrogen architecture, although EnerVenue’s public material does not specify the hydrogen storage pressure.
Each cell undergoes 41 quality checks across 11 test and measurement stations before leaving the factory, according to EnerVenue’s head of production, TJ Hua. The company’s current AMC documentation lists more than 90% peak round-trip efficiency. Its Energy Rack packages the cells into a 150 kWh, 1,500 Vdc system, while the individual AMC cell has a 3.0 kWh capacity.
EnerVenue positions the technology against long-duration storage options such as pumped hydro, flow batteries and compressed air. Rather than competing solely on upfront cost per kWh, the company argues that its long cycle life can reduce replacement and augmentation requirements over a storage project’s lifetime.
The trade-off is that nickel-hydrogen technology is aimed at stationary storage rather than portable devices. The company’s current production announcement does not provide a gravimetric energy-density figure, so direct comparisons with lithium-ion on energy density should be treated cautiously.
The 30,000-cycle figure is EnerVenue’s stated design rating, not independently reported long-term field-test data. The production announcement also does not disclose a production price per kWh or detailed operating-temperature range. Independent certification and extended field data will be important for assessing performance outside controlled deployments.
India is expanding battery energy storage alongside its solar build-out, but EnerVenue’s announcement does not mention India, and the company has not announced an Indian customer or local availability for the AMC. Its potential use in Indian projects would depend on delivered cost, certification, import requirements, local support and performance under site-specific conditions.
If the 30,000-cycle design life is demonstrated in long-term field operation, EnerVenue’s nickel-hydrogen technology could provide another option for stationary storage as India adds more solar generation.
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