March 6, 2015 – Caterpillar Inc. announced it has made an equity investment in Fluidic Energy as part of an agreement to develop advanced energy storage solutions for emerging markets.

Caterpillar and Fluidic say they will work together to develop solutions that use rechargeable metal-air technology for telecommunications and other microgrid applications in emerging markets and remote locations where power from the utility grid is unreliable.
 
Metal-air energy storage technology developed by Fluidic Energy “enables extended runtimes, offers a modular architecture for scalability, delivers long-life performance in an environmentally friendly package, and supports remote monitoring for real-time site visibility, battery control and monitoring, and uptime analysis,” says the company.
 
Fluidic Energy says it has installed more than 35,000 energy storage cells delivering load-shifting benefits in over 550,000 real-world cycles at commercial customer locations globally since 2012.
 
“Rechargeable metal-air solutions will consistently store energy at the lowest cost, and Fluidic Energy is the only company in the market that has successfully commercialized this disruptive technology for energy-storage systems,” says Steve Niehaus, Caterpillar vice-president with responsibility for the Electric Power Division. “The solutions we develop with Fluidic’s management team and industry-leading research and development resources will offer a powerful complement to our comprehensive suite of distributed generation solutions that supply power stability for emerging economies.”

Jointly developed energy storage solutions from Caterpillar and Fluidic Energy should be available through the Cat dealer network later this year, according to Caterillar.