Amara Raja partners US-based Gridtential Energy to develop Silicon Joule bipolar battery tech

Amara Raja Batteries, one of India’s leading industrial and automotive battery manufacturer has announced collaboration with US-based Gridtential Energy, the inventor of Silicon Joule bipolar battery technology.

Under the technology evaluation agreement, Amara Raja Batteries and Gridtential Energy will assemble and test Silicon Joule bipolar reference batteries using Amara Raja’s active material to determine improvements in cycle life, energy density, battery efficiency, charging rates and manufacturability.

Gridtential Energy provides non-exclusive licenses for Silicon Joule technology, enabling manufacturing partners to easily adapt their factories to provide high performing, higher voltage 24V and 48V batteries for the hybrid-automotive, low-speed electric vehicle (LSEV), energy storage system (ESS) and home back-up markets – all without giga-scale capital investments. The Silicon Joule bipolar technology is claimed to enable an innovative class of advanced lead batteries with silicon at its core. The company says it is a design-driven, low-cost, high-performance, patented energy storage solution that provides improved power density, cycle life, dynamic charge acceptance and wider temperature range, with up to 40 percent lower weight, while retaining full lead-battery recyclability.  This is all accomplished while leveraging existing technologies from mature industry supply chains – allowing rapid scaling through existing lead-battery infrastructure.

John Barton, CEO, Gridtential Energy said: “We are pleased to be working with the talented team at Amara Raja Batteries, a progressive energy storage company on the leading edge of lead-based battery technology innovation in India. We believe that Silicon Joule advanced lead battery technology is a perfect fit for the Indian market, offering a high-performance, low-cost solution. We are excited by the opportunity to show that our advanced lead technology offers superior price-performance and confident that this will prove to be a successful platform for Amara Raja.”

The partners say that industries from automotive to grid energy storage are searching for lower-cost, sustainable power solutions to meet diverse energy needs. With Silicon Joule bipolar battery technology from Gridtential Energy, that combines the benefits of lead batteries with silicon-enabled, high-performance characteristics, Amara Raja Batteries, will be prepared to meet the global challenge.

Jaydev Galla, vice-chairman and MD: “As an organisation committed to innovation, entrepreneurship, and pursuit of excellence, Amara Raja is always interested in exploring new ways to serve our customers with advanced products. The unique Silicon Joule Bipolar technology from Gridtential holds significant potential to deliver enhanced value to our customers. And very importantly, Gridtential helps meet our environmental commitment based on lead battery recyclability greater than 99 percent.”

S Vijayanand, CEO, Amara Raja Batteries: “We are very positive about the economic value of lead-based batteries in the Indian market and Gridtential Silicon Joule Bipolar technology can bridge the gap between current lead-based batteries and increasing demand for new energy storage applications. We look forward to seeing the results our teams can achieve working together on realising more of the performance potential of lead-based batteries.”

Gridtential is focussing on applications ranging from hybrid automotive to grid storage, back-up power for cloud computing, material handling equipment and many others. Collaborating with a 600GWh-scale global manufacturing base and a near-100 percent recycling infrastructure, The company and its licensing partners are planning beta and then commercial production of the Silicon Joule enabled batteries across the next two years.

Also read: Amara Raja Batteries records Rs 661 crore profit in FY2020, up 37%