Good morning. I'm Julien Dumoulin-Smith, a Utilities and Alternatives Sector Specialist. On behalf of the firm, thank you so much for joining our battery and energy storage conference. I'm stepping in for the better-looking Julien for this session, and we're truly delighted to have Joe Mastrangelo, the CEO of Eos Energy Enterprises, join us today. As a reminder, if you'd like to submit a question, you can do it via the Veracast system. Alternatively, hit me on Bloomberg or email, and I'll get the question answered. With that, Joe, the floor is yours for some quick comments, and then we'll go to Q&A. Thank you, mate.
Yeah, thanks, Julien, and thanks, everyone, for joining today. It's always great to be able to talk about where we are as Eos in our trajectory of growing into a fully fledged operating company. It's a very exciting time in the energy storage industry, and I think in Eos we continue to make progress and build a differentiated technology. We love what's happening out in our factory outside of Pittsburgh here as we continue to ship product to our customers. You know, although it is cold here in New York today, I was just outside looking at one of our test systems, which is operating in these frigid temperatures with no heating. You know, proving once again in real world conditions that we have a robust technology. Looking forward to the discussion here.
Back to you, Julien, for the Q&A. You're on mute.
Thanks, mate.
Yeah.
You know, as I was saying, like, I'd love to get your thoughts on how you see the market dynamics shifting as it pertains to duration.
I think, Julien, what we see in the market is, you know, over the last 10 years, we've seen this march from minutes to hours. I think now when we're looking at where we're going, we're seeing, you know, an expansion of the use cases where energy storage is required from multiple hours to beyond, you know, into intraday trading. You know, what we like about our technology and where the market is going is, I think the number one challenge that we're trying to solve here is the intermittency of renewables.
To really solve that problem or enable the full utilization of renewables in our power grid is you need flexibility. You need flexibility to be able to operate across multiple use cases. As I've said since I, you know, I've come to Eos, energy has always been a mix, will always be a mix, and there are multiple technologies required for us to be successful in the challenge of decarbonizing our power generation. I think Eos plays into a large segment of that requirement as we look to the future.
Right. It'd be also fantastic if you could talk us through where you see capacity to compete with, you know, your product versus, you know, lithium-ion in the medium-term storage market. You know, as a follow-up, do you see your technology as a competitor or more of a complement? Thank you.
Yeah, actually, I'll start with the second part of that of your question to follow up, because I think it leads into the first part. Look, again, I go back to many use cases, multiple technologies required. I think we're a complement to what lithium-ion does. I think lithium-ion is very good at specific use cases, and we are very good at very different use cases. What we do well is we operate across a wide temperature range, ambient temperature range. So as I said, we can go down to, you know, - 15 degrees Celsius and up to 50 degrees Celsius ambient operating temperature without any additional heating or cooling. We can charge and discharge our batteries anywhere from three hours up to 13 hours.
With the same system, you can do cycles back-to-back where you do a three-hour, a five-hour, a nine-hour, a 13-hour. We've run the system that way. We provide flexibility across a wider operating range. What we've been working with our customers on is showing them how that flexibility generates revenue for them and gives them incremental use cases to increase the utilization of the energy storage assets that are installed out in the marketplace. You know, although we both do the same thing, we do that same thing very differently for very different use cases.
Right. Let's shift gears and, you know, start to discuss how, you know, recent market dynamics on storage has impacted your firm's position. Can you talk us through what you're seeing with regard to increase in input costs standpoint, whether it's related to logistics or even inflation on the lithium hydroxide from a competitive perspective? Thank you.
Yeah. Look, Julien, you know, I've been in the industry for 30 years and what I would say is from a supply chain standpoint, this is one of the more complex challenges that I've seen as we continue to manage and maintain a steady production out of our factory. You know, what it requires is there's some instances where, you know, we are going out and finding multiple suppliers for our raw materials input into our system to give us flexibility. At the same time we've gone long on some inventory items to make sure that we have supply on hand to keep our factory producing. You know, there's inflation across the board when you think about what's happening in the marketplace.
What we've been trying to do as we scale is make sure that we're building long-term strategic relationships with partners that wanna grow with us. What I would say, you know, when I think about where we're gonna be headed is I don't see this letting up anytime soon. What it just requires is a laser-like focus in how you plan your supply chain, but not just your own individual factory, but how you plan back into your supply base and forward into how you execute into the field. What you've got to be prepared for, and a hallmark of our company, is being able to react to circumstances, adapt, and overcome the challenges. We've been able to do that with a very flexible supply chain strategy which we've had in the company since day one.
Right. What about, with regards to the competitive intensity, increasing with the lithium-ion integrators, whether it be Fluence Energy, Stem, which may lead to, you know, ultimate pricing pressure on batteries?
Yeah. I mean, look, it's a large and growing market. Again, you know, I think when you look at the segment of the market that we're addressing, there is overlap between what those companies do. I think there's also complementary when you think about what you know as we look to the future, you know, what Fluence does is different than what we do. They are, you know, packaging lithium-ion technology in the systems and putting them out into the field, and Stem is operating and coming at it from a software standpoint. When we look at it, we have our own proprietary battery technology that has differentiated performance. We package that into a world-class operating system, and then we have a software stack that operates that technology.
We think when we look at what our technology brings to the market, it brings higher flexibility, it brings the ability to scale faster. When you go back to your question on, you know, raw materials and supply chain, you know, we are using all Earth-abundant, non-toxic materials in our batteries. It's a fundamentally different supply chain technology that operates differently and really expands the types of use cases that you can use energy storage. It's different and differentiated and has a great ability to scale. We like those aspects of how we can address the market.
Sure. As you noted, again, clearly we're seeing upward pressure on pricing of conventional technology. Has that changed any of your, you know, discussions with regards to your backlog?
Just to clarify, from what standpoint are you thinking about that question, so I make sure I answer it correctly?
Yeah, sure. Just more from the standpoint of, you know, given the pressure on pricing...
Yeah.
of, you know, of the conventional ones, you know, has that changed any of your conversations, as it pertains to, you know, your clients with your backlog at all?
Yeah. Look, what we find is, you know, we've got great relationships with our customers and what it requires, you know, go back to what I said before, you know, you've got to give good transparency as to where you are and when we need to place material orders or if we're doing a full AC system when we need to buy AC equipment. On the logistics side, it's really working with them to time everything. 'Cause not only is the raw material supply chain and logistics kind of bunched up a little bit, but you've also got to work with them on their approvals and their civil works to be ready for the equipment to hit the field.
It just requires a heightened amount of transparency on how we execute and transparency around what we're seeing in the marketplace and how do we cooperate, work together to bring the lowest landed cost to the project. Now, what the good news around the projects that we're executing on is these are firm projects that are moving forward. You know, we look at 2022 as the year that we execute on our backlog.
Sure. You know, let's, you know, discuss your current manufacturing capacity. What can you deliver today, and where do you expect to be in, you know, one-two years out? Thank you.
Yeah. Today we're, you know, our facility in Turtle Creek outside Pittsburgh, you know, it has an annualized capacity of around 250 MWh today. By the end of the year, we project that we'll be above 800 MWh of production outside of the facility. With optimization, we think over time we can grow that to be a GWh factory. Think about the manufacturing model of Eos. 1 GWh, 120,000 sq ft of standard manufacturing space, no clean rooms, nothing special as far as what we need to be able to execute for around a $50 million CapEx build, depending on where you start from in the facility.
What you... I think you'll see us in a few years as the company grows, we believe, with the way we've designed our supply chain and that low CapEx to expand, it's easier for us to co-locate facilities close to where demand is. I think what you'll see in two-three years with us is a couple more factories operating in the United States and probably some sort of international expansion as we see markets grow outside the United States.
Sure. Just as a follow-up, you know, you sort of touched on the inflationary impact that you're seeing. Has that changed the economics with regard to, you know, capacity expansion?
When you look at, like, that $50 million, we forecasted $50 million from when we went public, and we delivered on that. Delivered to the point of, you know, we show the equipment that we bought and the purchase orders and how we developed that capacity. You know, what we've seen, the more the challenges are, again, the timing around when you need to make those purchases. 'Cause the way that we built our factory was we took mostly standard manufacturing equipment with specialized tooling for our product to be able to manufacture. You can get the standard manufacturing equipment, the infrared welders, the fill stations and the test stations for the batteries themselves, and then the specialized tooling is where we need to do planning around that.
We just plan ahead of time, and really, when you think about it, what's happened is, like, if we were talking two years ago, I would say to you, we could build a gigawatt-hour factory in six-nine months. Today, I would tell you that timeframe is between nine-18 months, depending on the starting point of the facility they have. It just comes back down to better planning around how you execute.
Great. Let's move on to policy. You know, it'd be great if you can talk us through the current policy dynamics as a U.S. manufacturer, given what we're seeing.
Yeah. Look, right now, I mean, it's a mixed bag, you know. In what I would say, you know, we're seeing a large shift, and I think we saw yesterday coming out of California and the budget for California and allocating, you know, $380 million to long-duration storage in California is a great step in the right direction as California targets, you know, 100% renewable power generation. I think our technology plays a big role in that mix and in that allocation. We saw the same thing coming out of New York recently. State by state, we're starting to see traction and people realizing that you need assets that can do more than what we're doing today around the traditional two-four-hour duration and get into longer duration.
On a federal level, you know, the BIF that was approved at the end of last year is critical for us to be able to continue to develop technology and bring in domestic technologies. I think the shame of all this would be as energy storage becomes an important technology in the energy mix, we, as a country, have always led in that technology development until you get to recent times when you look at things like solar. I think this is an opportunity for us as a country to reestablish that technology leadership in the long-duration storage. There's more than just Eos out there as a company that can do this.
When I look at what we're debating right now in Build Back Better, we don't need Build Back Better to necessarily grow our company, as we look at the market dynamics, but Build Back Better is gonna help us establish a domestic supply chain around an important technology. You know, our product today is, you know, 80% of U.S.-sourced raw materials into our technology. I think us being able to establish ourselves, along with others as technology leaders in the space is going to be critical. I would love to see the investment tax credit move forward for standalone storage because I think that's going to be an accelerator for this technology like we saw in solar, you know, five, 10 years ago, and what we saw in wind going back 15, 20 years ago.
This is what we need to really accelerate the growth of these technologies and establish a clear domestic supply chain for them that we can export to the world like we've historically done in this country when you look at, you know, energy technology development.
Sure. As it pertains to the BBB, what benefits, you know, do you see your business that, you know, that are obvious and not so obvious? Thank you.
Yeah. The biggest one is investment tax credit to accelerate standalone storage, and I think the other piece of this is we are, you know, an American company with a predominant American supply chain, and we strengthened that American supply chain at the end of last year when we signed our supply agreement for zinc- bromide with Tetra, another U.S. company moving into the clean energy technology space. I think the way the bill is structured, it allows companies like Eos or ESS as another one that you can think about grow and jump that gap from a technology development company into a full-scale operating technology.
Then the way that we've designed our manufacturing, going back to what I talked about before, we can take that U.S. technology to the world and really have, you know, a product that was invented, designed, tested, and built in the U.S. provide a better decarbonized future in the energy value chain. It's pretty exciting when you think about what it could do for this country as we continue to look for energy independence and what it can do as we look to move to lower carbon footprint in power generation.
You know, given your conversation, do you have any sort of sense of where things sit with regard to BBB, you know, on that front and anything you're hearing?
Nothing that I think anybody else, I mean, I'm not hearing anything that anybody else isn't hearing or reading about. I think we've got to go through the legislative process here and the debate that has to happen, but I just hope that we don't lose sight of the opportunity that we have as a country right now to establish a leadership position. What I would say is, you know, when we look at what we're trying to do and what this bill does for us and does for the country, you know, we took a facility in East Pittsburgh that was a former Westinghouse facility that was empty. At 250 MW, we created over 100 jobs. This is real job creation in an area of the country that needs it.
Now, all of our suppliers, when you look at them, going back to this U.S. supply base, the majority of our suppliers are within a five-hour truck ride from our facility. We're creating jobs directly and indirectly around what the future of energy is gonna be. What I hope is that we can have the debate move forward and realize that there is a real opportunity right now for us to create clean energy tech jobs in areas of the country that need them.
When you come and talk to the people on the shop floor, what I love about working with that team out in Turtle Creek is they value the job that they have, they value the challenge in front of them, and they love creating this new company in an area where you probably wouldn't have thought about it. Surrounded by old steel mills and old manufacturing facilities, you now have this bud, you know, this little shoot, you know, of green tech coming out of it and there's more to come if we handle the how we wanna bring this forward for the future.
Great. Thank you. I've just got a question come in. Could you please discuss the number and operating record of units deployed? A follow-up would be number of units being manufactured, and then discuss the pipeline. Thank you.
We talked about, you know, we have discharged, you know, over 330 MWh of power. We have millions of cycles on our systems. We have systems installed out in the field, both of our current technology and prior technology, and continue to ship. As we talked about before, you know, we have a 250 MWh capacity coming out of our factory. We are not operating at that full capacity, so there's room for us to grow as we ramp up and deliver our backlog. When you look at our pipeline, you know, what I would say is the way that we define our pipeline is a little bit different. You know, we don't include you know.
We look at things we're working on as idea generation, and then what we call pipeline are things where you have a use case that you can provide a technical and financial proposal to a customer. That stands today at over $3 billion. We continue to grow that and develop that for the future. We're going to see that, I think, over time, as the dynamics shift and people realize that you need more than one technology to deliver on the use cases. You'll see that pipeline grow as we move to the future. We like what we see, and we've spent a lot of time over the last few years educating customers around the capability of what our product can do, and I think we're just gonna grow that pipeline over time.
Right. Let's pivot on to, you know, technology and manufacturing front. It'd be great if you could give us a rundown on, you know, your Gen 3 offering. Thanks.
Yeah. Gen 3 is an evolution of what we have. The raw materials that go into Gen 3 today are the same as what's in our Gen 2.3. Basically, what we've done is, you know, the last 18 months have been spent around ensuring quality product coming out of our factory. In order to be able to do that, you gotta ensure that you've got quality raw materials or input going into the factory. As we've done that, we've realized that one of the sacrifices that was made early on in the development of our product is the surface area or size of our product is larger than what we need to be able to deliver the energy that customers are requesting.
Really what we're doing on our Gen 3 product, our Z3 product, is shrinking the size. Behind me is a cutaway of a Gen 2.3 container. There's 144 batteries that go into a 20-foot shipping container. They're about the size of a window air conditioner. The Z3 then shrinks down to the same form factor that you see with lithium-ion. It also looks like a computer server, and you can then fit a higher performing battery, more of them into the same space.
You go from 144 batteries to over 400 batteries in a space of a container. Output goes up, and when you look at a 40-foot footprint, we then double our output. It just allows us to deliver more with less as we move forward. Again, evolving the technology, not revolutionizing the technology, of how we deliver performance to our customers.
Great. When do you expect to be making sales on these units?
The plan is to begin to manufacture as we get into the second half of this year. As we previously discussed, we have product on test and we've manufactured product which we showed in our last earnings release. It's pretty exciting 'cause we had a concept of what the product could look like in March, and we have product on test in December, which is a phenomenal performance by our technology team.
Sure. As a final question, you know, I'd love to get your thoughts on, you know, what your strategic priority is gonna be over the next 18 months. Thank you.
Yeah. Look, we wanna continue to work with customers to grow our install base. The biggest challenges for us, you know, on the things that we control that allow that to happen is to increase the capacity of our factory and reduce the cost of the product to compete. You know, we feel like given our raw materials and our bill of material for our product, we have a product that competes both on performance and total lifecycle cost, both on the CapEx and the operating side. Just continue to tell that story to customers and investors, and show them that we're an operating company with a factory that's shipping product every day.
All right. Well, Joe, thank you so much for your time. It's certainly been insightful. Best of luck this weekend with Ben and the Steeler Nation. I hope they do really well. To the audience, thanks very much for tuning in. Go get some lunch and be ready for our next panel session: What roles does very long duration play in the grid? Joe, thank you again for your time.
Thanks, Julien. Thanks, everyone, for listening.
Okay. Thank you.
Bye.