Australian battery manufacturer seeks funds for significant expansion as home battery market booms

Western Australia energy system specialist Magellan Power is seeking $15 million in fresh capital to scale up its Perth-based business, including its recent launch into the booming Australian home battery market.

Magellan says it is looking to fund “a significant expansion” of its operations, which currently includes the manufacture of about up to 2 MWh of battery systems a year at its Bibra Lake facility.

Money raised through a fundraising round would also support construction of a new, 15,000 square meter headquarters and manufacturing facility in Perth’s south, the company says.

Magellan, which was founded by Masoud Abshar in 1991, originally specialised in the design and supply of uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems designed “to suit harsh Australian operating conditions.”

The company has since broadened its focus to take in energy storage, including the local manufacture and recycling of mostly commercial, industrial and community-scale, or stand-alone, battery energy storage systems.

The May launch of its first residential energy storage offering, Karri, was neatly timed to ride the wave of the federal government’s Cheaper Home Batteries scheme, which launched on July 01, leading already to consumer demand that has smashed all forecasts.

According to the latest data, the first few weeks of Australia’s battery rebate have seen around 1,000 registrations for new household batteries per day, with an average size of 18 kilowatt hours (kWh).

As Tristan Edis writes here, both the registration numbers and the battery sizes are far higher than expected – a turn-up he says could come down to lower battery prices and soaring customer bills.

Edis says that if this rate of home battery rebate registrations continues for the rest of 2025, it could deliver around 250,000 battery systems, and 4,500 megawatt hours (MWh) of storage by next June.

Magellan has not yet started production of the Karri home battery, but Abshar says everything is ready to go and the company expects to produce around 500 units in 2025. He says Magellan has had “huge interest” in the new product from a red hot market.

“After 30 years in this business, I’ve learned that timing is everything,” says Abshar.

“The [federal and state home battery] subsidies have created awareness and credibility for battery storage across all sectors. Industrial customers who might have waited are now moving forward because they see government backing the technology.”

As well as home batteries, Magellan is also about to start production of community batteries, modular energy storage systems that range between 100 kW to 1 MW.

“We’ve developed the community batteries in collaboration with the University of WA, through the [Future Battery Industries Cooperative Research Centre],” Abshar told Renew Economy on Thursday.

“So this expansion is about Karri, it’s about community batteries and it’s about our 4R program [battery repair, refurbishment, repurposing, and recycling,” he says.

On the 4R side of the equation, Abshar says Magellan has four post doctorates working the “very complex” stream of battery repurposing, which he says will focus on used EV batteries.

“It’s very complex. [You have to] find out exactly what the state of charge and the state of safety of the [used] EV batteries are… so that we can decide what application it would go to, for a second life.”

For the investment round, Abshar says Magellan is seeking interest from both patient capital and investors that can help develop the business.

“This investment will allow us to meet growing demand from mining, transport, defence and utility sectors while contributing to Australia’s circular economy through battery recycling,” he said in a statement.

“We are planning to expand production, expand geographically and produce new products in multiple sectors.

“We can design, engineer, manufacture, recommission and most importantly recycle batteries right in Western Australia, on an industrial scale.

“As a part of the big picture, what we are doing is about broadening economic diversity in Western Australia and providing employment and training opportunities for Australians, so we don’t get left behind in the manufacturing arena,” Abshar says.

“This is something that has been a problem in the past but is now a tremendous opportunity and we’re happy to be a part of it.”

If you wish to support independent media, and accurate information, please consider making a one off donation or becoming a regular supporter of Renew Economy. Your support is invaluable.