Graduating from an accelerator program backed by the federal government helped improve the performance of a Holland-area energy storage startup’s battery components and prepared it for commercialization.
Jolt Energy Storage Technologies LLC, which has been developing organic energy storage materials for power grid applications, was selected in 2020 to participate in the third cohort of the Shell GameChanger Accelerator. The program is operated by the multinational energy giant in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Car Battery Inverter
Jolt Energy received a $250,000 grant as part of the program, which is commonly referred to as GCxN. The accelerator provides startups with financial support and advanced energy expertise as well as access to NREL’s world-class researchers and facilities.
Since its founding in 2014, Jolt Energy has been developing low-cost storage components that are made from organic materials and used for large-scale flow batteries that would allow utilities to store and deploy electricity produced from intermittent sources like wind and solar.
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The organic materials would serve as an alternative to more widespread lithium ion batteries, and help eliminate the reliance on metals such as nickel, cobalt, manganese, iron and copper that must be mined, processed and refined at great cost.
“We hope to have a product in the field — a real cell battery in the field — in the next year and a half,” said Jolt COO Jack Johnson, who co-founded the company with Thomas Guarr.
Johnson also co-founded Holland Township-based mobile lithium-ion energy technology startup Volta Power Systems in 2014, serving in various leadership roles until stepping away from day-to-day operations in 2023 to grow his role at Jolt as head of business development.
Guarr has served as the director of research and development at the Michigan State University Bioeconomy Institute-Holland’s Organic Storage Laboratory. Jolt operates out of the institute, which is housed in a former pharmaceutical research and development and pilot production facility near Lake Macatawa.
Jolt connected with the GCxN opportunity through work with Argonne National Laboratory. The GCxN program typically spans about two years, but Jolt’s cohort was stalled by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Having graduated from the accelerator, Johnson said it was beneficial for Jolt to work with a reputable group of professionals in a national lab setting and demonstrate the competitiveness and cost effectiveness of the startup’s materials.
McKinsey & Co. in an August 2023 report forecasted nearly 500% growth in the need for battery energy storage system capacity through 2030, highlighting a need for diversified and rapidly scalable technology solutions.
“The need is high. The demand is there,” Johnson said. “There just isn’t any technology that’s low enough cost to make it all work. And we’re coming in with this opportunity that shows that we can build it.”
According to Johnson, the startup will continue to focus on its trajectory toward commercialization while also raising $5 million in capital from an ongoing Series A funding round to help bring the technology to market. Johnson also anticipates hiring about six additional team members this year.
The company will then focus on preparing the materials for applications in large-scale redox flow batteries.
Jolt leaders say the use of organic materials in technology for widespread societal needs draws inspiration from a well-known, nearby advanced manufacturer.
“We hope to be the next Gentex,” Johnson said, noting the electrochromic organic compounds the Zeeland-based manufacturer has used in auto-dimming mirror applications.
“That innovation back in the mid 1980s created Gentex, using organic base compounds that are electrically active, and here we’re trying to do something very similar,” he said.
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