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Columbia Falls Tech Company Ramping Up Production of Large-Scale Batteries

ViZn Energy Systems ready to deliver state-of-the-art batteries to global market

By Dillon Tabish
A Z20, the Smallest battery at 64kW that ViZn manufactures. Courtesy photo

As the global energy market booms, a technology company in Columbia Falls is ramping up production of its large-scale energy storage systems after nearly six years of behind-the-scenes development.

ViZn Energy Systems, formerly known as Zinc Air on U.S. Highway 2 West, is attempting to capitalize on a multi-billion-dollar market with its state-of-the-art battery technology, which could revolutionize the way energy is stored in the grid.

After years of fixing imperfections and improving the core technology in the unique zinc redox battery models, the company and its product are ready for “prime time,” according to executives.

“It’s been a year of great progress for the company,” CEO Ron Van Dell said last week. “We’re ready to go into production and to amp up the business and build out the rest of the organization.”

On June 2, ViZn announced a partnership with Jabil Circuit Inc., the third largest contract manufacturer in the world. Jabil will begin manufacturing ViZn’s batteries over the next 12 months.

The company’s batteries are designed to provide an environmentally safe solution to vast inefficiencies and imbalances within the energy grid. The batteries are at the forefront of a renaissance in the energy market that aims to store unused power for extended periods of time, something that is severely lacking. Research shows roughly 56 percent of all energy generated in the U.S. is wasted, leading to billions of dollars of lost potential largely because there has not been an efficient way to store output that is not immediately used.

ViZn deployed several batteries for “validation testing” in the field in the past year, and the results have been positive, leading to the increased production through Jabil.

“ViZn has a unique and robust energy storage solution,” Bill Mitchell, Jabil senior director of corporate development, said in a statement. “The market for their product is growing quickly and we’re proud to be working alongside ViZn as they scale up to meet industry demand.”

Earlier this year, ViZn opened its headquarters in Austin, Texas, as the next stage of company growth commences in a thriving technology hub with a larger work force to draw from. Van Dell said the site in Columbia Falls will remain integral to ViZn’s future as the core developmental site, which employs nearly 50 people.

“The team that was built here in Montana is a very good team. We’re going to continue to strengthen and enhance what we have here in Montana and grow as a two-site company,” he said.

Van Dell said the company has already signed contracts for early adopters in North America, Asia, Africa and Europe, and each customer will be using the batteries for unique applications, including utility storage and delivering power to commercial and industrial sites and remote microgrids.

“We’ve got lots of different organizations banking millions of dollars on us,” Van Dell said.

A total of $30 million has already been invested into the company’s development, he said.

Zinc Air was founded in 2009 near Glacier Park International Airport by a team of scientists and engineers who sought to solve an age-old problem: the long-term storage of energy on a mass scale. As technology has rapidly evolved over the last decade, so have the possibilities for a solution. As progress occurred, two years ago Zinc split into two separate companies, ViZn Energy Storage and Zaf Energy Systems. The two local companies were built on the core technology from Zinc Air and comprised of core members from the original team. The team at ViZn is focusing on large-scale batteries and Zaf has turned its attention to smaller-scale storage systems.

Zaf executives are in the process of unveiling their own unique sustainable battery systems for electric aircraft that could double the travel distance of planes compared to conventional lithium-ion batteries.

Both companies are gathering steam at an ideal time. The energy market is undergoing a significant transformation as attention shifts to the renewable and clean energy market. Over half of all new electricity generated in the U.S in the first quarter came from solar, and more solar panels were installed on U.S. home rooftops in recent months than ever before. Analysts have said this growing trend could represent a new era of energy consumption.

That bodes well for ViZn. Its batteries, which are stored inside massive containers that look like rail cars, are designed to last for 20 years. One unit could power 40 homes for several hours, according to John Lowell, COO and VP of product development at ViZn.

Lowell and his team have fixed imperfections in the batteries, primarily reliability and consistency.

“One year ago I could build them but they would behave erratically. Some would behave very well. Some would behave very poorly. I couldn’t understand why,” he said. “Now we do and they hit 110 percent of spec capacity, every one of them. Everything is 110 percent of spec and consistent. It’s exceeding specifications.”

Van Dell added, “This is a design that is ready to go into production.”