Gridtential, Hammond Group and Wirtz Manufacturing Agree to Launch Production of Biplate Electrodes for Silicon Joule Batteries

New production capabilities will speed time-to-market for next gen silicon hybrid batteries

SANTA CLARA, Calif., July 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Gridtential Energy today announced that it will partner with battery component manufacturers Hammond Group and Wirtz Manufacturing Co. to develop, pilot and produce ready-made components and equipment for makers of advanced lead batteries employing Silicon Joule bipole solutions. 

Together, the companies will develop and produce the biplate inside a Silicon Joule battery that greatly simplifies the production process for battery makers, combining time-consuming steps and saving the production cost of stacking and adding active materials. Gridtential's 15 current development partners will be able buy biplates directly and easily incorporate them into their volume factory lines. The biplates will be the first ready-made component for Silicon Joule enabled batteries, and the first in a line of manufacturing solutions Gridtential will deliver to its battery production partners.

"We are always looking for ways to help our production partners make batteries faster and at lower cost for their OEM and end-customers," said CEO John Barton. "The partnerships with Hammond and Wirtz will merge three production steps our partners would have to take into a single, ready-made product. These are just the first two partnerships in what we expect will be a series of manufacturing line products for battery makers."

Battery makers are racing to meet demand for higher performance, safe, recyclable batteries, for low-voltage EV in the transportation industry, as well as for growing sectors like home energy storage and backup power for datacenters and telecommunications. As they scale up production capacity, ready-made components like Silicon Joule biplates will play an essential role in accelerating the supply chain and bringing higher performance lead-based batteries to compete with lithium-ion technologies.

"Our ready-made biplate solutions speed up the commercialization timeline for many of our partners, and we are targeting 2023 or 2024 for commercial production launch," Barton said. "That timeline sounds a lot better to battery makers than some of the unproven, experimental technologies that are still a decade away from commercial production and very capital intensive."

Gridtential is the creator of Silicon Joule®, breakthrough silicon hybrid technology that combines silicon wafers with traditional lead battery solutions. Providing a lower-cost, safer, greener alternative to lithium-ion that is inspired by solar technology, Silicon Joule dramatically improves cycle life, power delivery, and discharge rate while reducing weight by 30%, delivering superior performance for deep-cycle and power applications including personal electric vehicles, renewable energy storage systems and hybrid automotive.

Gridtential Energy provides Silicon Joule reference batteries, development kits, bipole materials and non-exclusive licenses, enabling manufacturing partners to easily adapt their factories to provide high-performing, higher voltage 24V, 36V & 48V batteries to their customers for the hybrid-automotive, Low-Speed EV (LSEV), energy storage system (ESS) and telecom backup markets, all without gigascale capital investments.

Silicon Joule has more than 15 battery partners and several OEMs. Based in Santa Clara, Calif., Gridtential's investors include The Roda Group and 1955 Capital.

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Josh Green
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SOURCE Gridtential Energy, Inc.