Moxion Power gains $100M Series B funding to scale up Battery Mobile Generator units
A mobile energy startup which uses flexible battery storage units instead of diesel generators to provide temporary on-site power has secured a $100 million Series B funding round from big players in the commercial and industrial (C&I) decarbonization investment field.
Moxion Power gained the new funding led by Tamarack Global. Another new investors were the Amazon Climate Pledge Fund, the Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, Enterprise Holdings, Marubeni Ventures, Rocketship and Suffolk Technologies, as well as existing investor Energy Impact Partners.
The mobile energy storage company also received a multiyear purchase commitment from Sunbelt Rentals, which provides generators to many temporary work sites.
“Temporary power generation is a critical part of many industries including construction, film production, live events and disaster response,” Moxion co-founder and CEO Paul Huelskamp said in a statement. “As these industries look to decarbonize, there’s enormous demand for cleaner alternatives to the fossil fuel-burning generators have these industries have historically relied on.”
Huelskamp and Alex Meek, an original partner and Moxion’s president, came upon the idea for the battery-powered mobile units while hiking in northern California and came upon what they termed a loud and greenhouse gas-emitting diesel generator in the woods. The pair noted the acceleration of utility-scale and microgrid-sized energy storage capacity in the U.S. and merged that idea with the need for temporary, on-site power by many customers.
Moxion is constructing its first manufacturing facility at the former Ford Point Building in Richmond, California and hopes to commission a second domestically sited plant by 2024. Together, the two facilities would have a combined annual production capacity of more than seven GWh in electricity capacity, the company says.
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“Using carbon-free portable generators to provide the temporary power needed for construction sites, disaster relief efforts, and entertainment industry sets will be an important step in the fight against climate change,” said Matt Peterson, director of the Amazon Climate Pledge Fund, in a statement. “Amazon is committed to investing in technologies like Moxion’s, which has the potential to help replace fossil fuel-burning generators and transform the energy industry.”
Energy Impact Partners led Moxion’s Series A $10 million funding around last year. The earlier investment group also included Tamarack Global and Liquid 2 Ventures.
Earlier this year, Mercom Capital reported that venture capital funding for battery storage, smart grid and energy efficiency startups totaled $1.6 billion the first quarter, a 21-percent increase compared to the same period in the previous year. Corporate funding for battery storage companies more than doubled in 2021 with some $17 billion invested.
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(Rod Walton, senior editor for EnergyTech, is a 14-year veteran of covering the energy industry both as a newspaper and trade journalist. He can be reached at [email protected]).
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