One big battery from this Bay Area startup can run dozens of homes during the crisis and are recharged from the sun and grid.
Imagine you can go to your local hub to charge your car when power is generated. That’s what California tech enthusiasts are assuming.
The company produces 6 feet x 4 feet, providing ultra-fast charging for electric vehicles (EVs), and the company has also developed its own software. The main goal is to provide backup energy that can provide electricity hundreds of miles away in five minutes, Kamal said.
“The software can communicate directly with the electrical utility server, and can use existing data to plan for accurate electrical outages, and store and supply energy when the electrical network is acquiring a crisis or ‘flex alert’ event in the Gulf region,” he said.
Kamal said there are two types of batteries. One is a 40 kilowatt battery that can power up to 40 homes a day. The second is a 100 kilowatt battery that can power 80-90 homes. The battery is charged from the sun or the grid.
The idea for a Community Battery came when Kamal was writing his paper at Michigan University of Technology and was working on an electric vehicle at BMW. He sought to create a business model based on distributed energy storage and fast charging without compromising the health and lifespan of the battery.
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Kamal pointed out that current electric grids are very old and need to be updated or converted to modern needs.
“We’re a blaming electric grids and we need the technology to convert them to keep working, and that’s what we’re trying to do here,” he said.
While developing his ideas, Kamal participated in various renewable energy events and eventually met his co-founder at hackathon events. Together, they started the company in 2020.
One of their biggest challenges is trying to procure materials domestically to reduce costs.
“It’s one of the important things you need to solve. You know, especially with power chips, batteries, the global supply chain is global and you want to reach domestic products and beat prices,” he said.
The company’s products have been introduced in places such as Los Angeles, Detroit and New York. They were also sent to Boston for unworking US Air Force operations.
“So the Air Force is trying to turn non-stick electric vehicles into electricity so that cargo can be transported from one place to another. In general, we expect that on runways, we can work with very little power and do very fast EVs (charges) because there is little grid infrastructure. “That’s a big deal for us. We started to make that happen. And we started working with other departments of the (Domestic Defense) too.”
The company also works with fleet operators such as dairy businesses and logistics companies.
