Rechargeable Alkaline Battery Deployment — Sanjoy Banerjee, Executive Chairman of Urban Electric Power
Led by Founder, Executive Chairman, and CEO Sanjoy Banerjee, Urban Electric Power develops non-toxic, thermally safe, long-duration batteries made of plentiful elements such as zinc and manganese, and has the backing of university, government, strategic, and financial investors.
Listen to the Podcast
BUSINESS
What does Urban Electric Power do? What makes you unique versus the competition?
Our company has commercialized a series of discoveries by researchers at the City University of New York’s Energy Institute, which make the familiar household alkaline battery's chemistry rechargeable.
These won the EPA's Green Chemistry Award and recognition and funding from the Department of Energy; the Electric Power Research Institute; and cleantech incubators, such as the Clean Fight.
We compete in the rapidly expanding residential, commercial, and utility market for long-term storage of electricity. Here our technology has numerous advantages over the Tesla Powerwall, for example, which uses a lithium-ion battery.
Our batteries are:
Far cheaper than lithium-ion batteries, making them an economical choice where constant charging and discharging is not required, such as in backup systems that protect homes, and vital systems like computer servers and refrigerated food storage, from grid power outages.
Zinc alkaline with manganese, the third-most-common element on earth, as well as zinc being relatively plentiful. These can be sourced from far more places than lithium, for which the U.S has virtually no domestic sources, and China controls 80% of refining. We do not require cobalt, whose extraction in Africa involves human rights abuses.
Recently passed UL 1973 and 9540a certification for fire safety, recognizing that they don't suffer from "thermal runaway" like fire-prone lithium-ion batteries do, and can be used safely in dense urban environments. So, we can provide day-to-day reliability, and add resiliency after natural disasters such as hurricanes, without elaborate fire suppression systems that other technologies require.
Offer a nontoxic chemistry, unlike lead-acid batteries, which are still relied on around the world for energy storage and yet are a major reason that one in three children in the world is exposed to lead poisoning. They also replace diesel generators, with their noise, emissions, and need for refueling — our batteries recharge either from grid power or a solar array.
Are easily scalable, from a unit that can fit in a 2x2-foot area of your garage or basement, to commercial-size arrays such as the ones we're now installing for a major university supercomputer center in California; a Native American power utility; a dairy farm in New York; and a factory in the Netherlands.
How are you funding your growth — e.g., revenue, VC, CVC, government grants, M&A?
What are 1-2 lessons you’ve learned along the way?
The company was formed originally with support from the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E program, as well as state support from NYSREDA and collaborations with Sandia National Labs. From there, we raised strategic investments from partners who could help the company grow through manufacturing expertise and sales channels. We’re focused now our building our customer pipeline and launching a Series C capital raise sometime in 2022. A couple of lessons for any startup include these: Fundraising is everything, and if you’re in the hardware space, focus on investors that understand the challenges of a hardware company and can provide somewhat patient capital. If we could go back to the beginning, we would focus less on development and more on revenue generation at an earlier stage.
Outside of your current business, what other 1-2 climate or sustainability sectors seem like promising areas in which to start a business? What might those solutions look like?
Hydrogen and next-generation nuclear are quite promising. Utilizing new processes to generate hydrogen from renewable sources and smaller distributed reactors have shown progress that could be a part of our solution to move towards decarbonization.
PERSONAL
If you had to start over, what are 1-2 tips you’d give yourself in order to be faster, more effective, and higher impact?
I would try to be more computer “savvy” and make better use of, and keep up to date with, the increasingly sophisticated IT facilities offered to more effectively manage my work.
What are some habits and routines that keep you focused, healthy, and sane — e.g., meditations, exercise, productivity hacks?
To relax, I used to play tennis and ski, until broke my knee skiing, after which I work out regularly. But with my knee replacement, I’m hoping to go back to skiing.
What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you — outside of your own family?
I can’t name a single act, but there has been a whole series over many years. One that stands out is the education I received from the Jesuits during my school years, which taught me the value of kindness, tolerance, self-discipline, and rational thinking.
Learn more.
Apply to join our Climate CEO Mastermind peer group — Through peer-to-peer sharing of best practices in monthly video calls and annual meetings, we focus on faster business growth, better decision making, bigger thinking, investor savvy, and stronger networks. Our current members represent $5B+ of market value for tackling climate change. (Amazing human beings, too.) Founded by Dr. Chris Wedding — with $1B of investment experience, 60,000 professional students taught, 25 years of meditation practice, certification as a Mastermind Professional, and too many mistakes to keep to himself — our cohorts function like your own personal advisory board.
Sign up for our weekly newsletter — Climate startups, finance, personal optimization, and attempts at humor.
Note:
THE TORCH is an interview series from Entrepreneurs for Impact. We profile CEOs and investors mitigating climate change. Our goal is to highlight their work and inspire others. As we deal with multiple crisis, from Covid and racial injustice to climate change and economic recession, we need some of this positive light in what seem like dark times. Onward and upward.