Energywire highlights Maryland Energy Innovation Institute, Ion Storage Systems in Battery Race

A recent article published by Energywire on April 9th, highlights several high-tech start-up companies and their goal of mastering solid-state battery technology, which substitutes a solid pathway instead of a liquid one for charged particles that deliver the battery's energy.

Exerpt from the article:

In Maryland, Ion Storage Systems LLC also began inside a university with support from ARPA-E. But unlike in Colorado, the state's clean energy support structure was still under construction.

Ion Storage Systems' executive chairman and founder, Eric Wachsman, is also a University of Maryland professor and director of the Maryland Energy Innovation Institute, a 3-year-old project to channel funding to new companies that show a potential to crack into energy markets. The institute received $1.5 million in state funds during the most recent budget cycle. Proposed legislation would increase it to $2.1 million, half of what the institute backers are hoping for.

"The institute is focused on how can we leverage a small amount of state money to help attract bigger federal and private investment," Wachsman said. "We're realistic. If we can get to $2.1 million, that's a step forward."

His company's approach uses a ceramic structure between the positive and negative electrodes. "It has much higher energy density than any battery on the market today, and because it's ceramic, it's nonflammable," Wachsman said.

"So we completely avoid all the safety concerns with conventional batteries."

For the complete story in Energywire, click here.

Published April 9, 2020