Noon Energy Pilot project

Executive Overview

The Noon Energy Pilot Project is a demonstration of Noon Energy's carbon-oxygen reversible solid oxide fuel cell battery technology, operating at a test site in San Joaquin County, California, co-funded by the California Energy Commission (CEC) under the EPIC programme with an award of $2.17 million. The pilot system stores energy by electrochemically splitting CO₂ into solid carbon and oxygen during charging, and reversing the reaction during discharge — storing energy as chemical bonds in elemental carbon rather than in metal-ion intercalation chemistry. The pilot system has operated for thousands of hours and demonstrated over 200 hours of continuous storage capacity, exceeding the original 100-hour target. The system is housed in standard shipping containers. Noon Energy was founded in 2018, is based in Palo Alto, California, and raised a $28 million Series A in late 2022. A larger commercial-scale system was being commissioned as of early 2026.

How It Works & Differentiation

The battery uses a reversible solid oxide electrochemical cell: electricity splits CO₂ into solid carbon (deposited in tanks) and oxygen (stored separately) during charging; during discharge, carbon and oxygen recombine through the solid oxide cell to produce CO₂ and electricity. Energy is stored in the chemical bond of carbon — one of the highest-energy-density storage media available — at a projected storage media cost below $1 per kWh. System-level cost is targeted at $20 per kWh, comparable to Form Energy's iron-air target and dramatically below lithium-ion ($300/kWh) and flow batteries ($600/kWh) at equivalent duration. The containerised system has a footprint 20–200 times smaller than comparable flow batteries and pumped hydro for the same storage capacity, and 2–3 times smaller than lithium-ion. Power and energy scale independently — power blocks are added to increase output; tank size extends duration without cost per kWh penalty — making 100-plus hour deployments economically rational.

Commercialization & Traction

The CEC-funded pilot has progressed from TRL 4 toward TRL 6 over its 2021–2026 project term, with demonstration system commissioning completed in 2025. Noon Energy has identified hyperscalers and industrial load growth (including AI data centres) as primary near-term commercial targets, where the compact footprint and multi-day duration create specific site-constraint advantages. The company has not publicly disclosed utility offtake agreements or Series B financing.

Scalability & Strategic Context

Noon Energy's carbon-oxygen chemistry occupies a distinct position in the long-duration storage technology landscape: it targets energy densities and storage media costs that would make it significantly more compact and potentially lower-cost than iron-air systems at equivalent durations, if manufacturing targets are achieved. The technology's practical challenge — solid oxide cells operating at high temperatures require careful materials engineering for multi-thousand-hour cycle life — is the same challenge that has historically limited solid oxide electrolyser deployment at scale. The CEC pilot data will be the primary evidence base for whether the technology's theoretical performance translates at the module level; the demonstrated 200-plus hour discharge result is the first credible validation that the chemistry works outside laboratory conditions.