Why it matters
Form Energy's commercial product is an iron-air battery built to store and discharge energy for up to 100 hours, using iron, water, and air. The battery-technology page says discharge takes in oxygen and turns iron metal to rust, and charging reverses that reaction. The company presents the duration as a way to cover multi-day weather and grid stress, and it claims a cost that is a fraction of lithium-ion's, with no thermal-runaway mechanism and no heavy metals. Those cost and safety lines are statements on the product page.
The about page's 2026 progress list puts agreements at about 800 MW / 80 GWh. Named pieces are a 300 MW / 30 GWh system with Xcel Energy for a new Google data center in Minnesota, a 12 GWh agreement with Crusoe, and a 10 MW / 1,000 MWh project in northwest Ireland. The about page spells that Irish partner FutureEnergy. The same page says Form employs over 1,000 people in West Virginia, Massachusetts, and California. The gigawatt-hour figure is a book of agreements, not installed capacity.
History
The about page says five people founded the company in 2017: Mateo Jaramillo, Ted Wiley, Billy Woodford, Yet-Ming Chiang, and Marco Ferrara. Jaramillo is chief executive, Wiley is co-founder and president, Woodford is chief technology officer, Chiang is chief science officer, and Ferrara is chief digital officer. Navneet Govil is chief financial officer and Wes Sloan is chief operating officer.
The same timeline runs from a Somerville lab and a $9 million Series A in 2018 to a 1.5 MW Great River Energy pilot agreement in 2020, a $240 million Series D in 2021, and, in 2022, a 15 MW Georgia Power agreement, the Weirton factory decision, and a $450 million Series E. In 2023 it records contracts with Xcel Energy, Dominion Energy, the California Energy Commission, and NYSERDA, plus a grid-connected test system in the Sacramento Valley. In 2024 it says Form completed Form Factory 1 as a one-million-square-foot plant, fielded a Bay Area grid-connected system, passed UL 9540A testing with no flame or thermal-runaway propagation, was selected by the Department of Energy for an 85 MW / 8,500 MWh project in Maine, and closed a $405 million Series F that took total funds raised past $1.2 billion.
Technology
The battery page describes modules of iron and air electrodes in a water-based electrolyte, set in enclosures about the size of a shipping container and grouped into megawatt-scale blocks. It says the least-dense layout uses half an acre for one megawatt, and that denser layouts would exceed 3 MW per acre. The page also says the chemistry can be sited without special geology and is meant to sit alongside lithium-ion rather than replace short-duration batteries.
The 100-hour rating, the cost comparison with lithium-ion, and the claim of no thermal runaway are company design statements on that page. They are not an independent cost audit or a utility operating record.
Factory and agreements
The Form Factory 1 page, read on 3 Nov 2026, calls the Weirton plant a one-million-square-foot facility employing over 500 people, on the former Weirton Steel site. The same page says that by 2028 it will expand to around 850,000 square feet, support more than 750 employees, and reach at least 500 MW of batteries a year, and that two new electrode lines and a cell assembly line are under construction. The 2028 area target is smaller than the one million square feet that page, and the 2024 about-page milestone, already state. The factory page gives no current annual output.
The 2025 about-page milestone says Form deployed its first iron-air system for commercial demonstration with Great River Energy, and that entry gives no commercial-operation date. The 2026 list then names the Xcel and Google system, the Crusoe agreement, the Ireland project, and the larger 80 GWh book.
Capital
On the about page, the 2026 Series G is a $750 million round led by T. Rowe Price and is said to bring total equity raised to over $2 billion. Earlier entries put Series E at $450 million in 2022 and Series F at $405 million in 2024, with Series F described as taking total funds raised then to over $1.2 billion. The page states those round sizes and leaves any pre-money valuation unstated. The shift in wording, from funds raised after Series F to equity raised after Series G, is the page's own.
Cambridge and Darbytown
Great River Energy's Cambridge page still describes a 1.5 MW system that can deliver its rated power for 100 hours, and it still says the project is expected to operate by the end of 2025. That wording was on the page on 3 Nov 2026. Form's about page, read the same day, places a commercial demonstration with Great River Energy in 2025 and gives no later date. The 2020 line on that timeline still calls the original agreement a 1.5 MW pilot.
The September 2026 EIA-860M workbook, released 23 Oct 2026, lists a different inventory. Planned generator BA1 at Cambridge CT Hybrid plant 2038 is a battery with a 1 MW nameplate, net summer and winter ratings of 0.8 MW, status U (under construction, at most 50 percent complete), and a planned month of December 2027. BA1 is absent from the operating sheet. Darbytown plant 7212, Virginia Electric and Power, shows four operating gas turbines at 92.1 MW nameplate each and no battery generator on the operating or planned sheets. The next EIA-860M release is scheduled for 24 Nov 2026.
What to watch
Cambridge still has three public accounts. GRE's page says 1.5 MW and the end of 2025. Form's about page says a 2025 commercial demonstration and gives no completion date. The September 2026 EIA row says 1 MW, status U, and December 2027. Each page still carries its own figure.
The factory page's 2028 targets are at least 500 MW a year and more than 750 people, beside a current claim of over 500 employees and a floor-area target below the one million square feet already claimed. The about page's roughly 80 GWh of agreements becomes hardware only if that ramp produces it. The factory page posts no current output number.