Gridtential Energy

Gridtential Energy has developed a proprietary absorbent glass mat (AGM) technology known as Silicon Joule as an alternative to lithium-ion. The company claims batteries incorporated with Silicon Joule are cheaper than lithium-ion batteries,, last more than 4x longer (1,600+ cycles compared to around 400), and weigh up to 30% less than conventional lead batteries. This results in a higher power density of around 1,300 W/kg compared to around 200 W/kg for conventional lead batteries, also maintaining over 99% recyclability. Silicon Joule replaces around 40% of the lead used in conventional batteries with silicon, making them lighter. Its unique combination of wafer processing and battery packaging innovations also allows performance improvement.

Gridtential Energy identified mobility and residential energy storage as the top use cases for its Silicon Joule batteries. Gridtential Energy also claims that Silicon Joule batteries can be manufactured using 90% of the equipment available in today’s factories, allowing the company to commercialize quickly in the future. As such, the company provides Silicon Joule reference batteries, development kits, bipole materials and non-exclusive licenses to its manufacturing partners.

Key customers and partnerships

Gridtential Energy has over 15 battery partners, including East Penn, Crown, Leoch and several OEMs, piloting the Silicon Joule tech. 

In April 2022, Gridtential Energy signed a product development agreement with Camel Energy, where the two companies agreed to work together to optimize the thin-plate cell design and manufacturing of advanced bipole batteries. In July 2022, the company partnered with battery component manufacturers Hammond Group and Wirtz Manufacturing to develop, pilot and produce ready-made components and equipment for companies producing advanced lead batteries while using Silicon Joule bipole solutions. 

 Funding and financials

Gridtential Energy’s most recent funding was in April 2021 , when it raised USD 12 million in convertible notes. The proceeds were to be used to develop an in-house production line for Silicon Joule batteries.