Last week inside the Amazon Spheres, Thor Kallestad, CEO of last year’s award winner Myno Carbon, told the crowd of business, community, and public policy leaders about the power of public-private partnerships. His remarks underscored the theme of the just-completed Future of Carbon Policy Forum where Governor Inslee and others spoke about how public investments — such as those funded by Washington’s Climate Commitment Act — attract private investments that are building our state’s clean energy economy.
Then Kallestad opened the envelope to reveal this year’s winner of the David and Patricia Giuliani Clean Energy Entrepreneur Award: Group14.
During the Forum’s panel on “Washington Leading Climate Policy”, State Senator Joe Nguyễn pointed out that CCA-funded investments are already working to help attract billions in federal grants and private capital.
According to Nguyễn, every dollar invested by the state has yielded $5 in federal money through matching grant programs from the federal Inflation Reduction Act and bipartisan infrastructure law. Legislators in other states are jealous, he said, “because we were able to take advantage of these things when they couldn’t, and it’s going to really accelerate the work that we’re doing.”
Group14 is an excellent example of a burgeoning business that is leveraging early-stage public financing to propel growth and attract private sector investment. Group14 is creating hundreds of jobs at its new BAM2 (battery active materials) plant in Moses Lake. This plant will be the world’s largest for advanced silicon battery materials. And Moses Lake is shaping up to be a major hub of silicon technology for clean energy.
Governor Inslee said at the Forum, “Silicon has transformed how we store information. Now it’s transforming how we store energy.”
Group14’s commercial-scale SCC55™ battery technology allows EV owners to drive further and charge their batteries quicker — in as little as 10 minutes!
Accepting the award, Group14 CTO and Co-Founder Rick Constantino said, “We are honored to be receiving this important award recognizing our groundbreaking work to bring advanced silicon battery materials to the world. We founded this company to enable the electrification of everything – from tiny medical, consumer and commercial devices to all kinds of transportation. Our scalable modular manufacturing process eliminates the barriers that have slowed the world’s transition to the all-electric future.”
If you were not with us inside the Amazon Spheres, perhaps you were at home watching KING-5 News and saw this fascinating story about Group14:
And to think that just a few years ago Group14 was a little Seattle startup squeezed between a car detailer and a brewery!
EVENT SPONSORS
