Oakland, CA, 25 January 2023 – The California Sustainable Energy Entrepreneur Development (CalSEED) program is pleased to announce Planet A Energy and Sonocharge as the winners of the fifth annual Prototype Awards. The awardees were selected through a rigorous business plan competition where companies demonstrated the significant commercial promise of their energy innovations, each winner receiving US$450,000.
The business plan competition is closely coordinated with Cleantech Open (CTO). Eligible CalSEED Concept Awardees participate in CTO’s accelerator program, where they receive tools and insights to develop a business plan and pitch that become the basis of the competition’s application package.
Planet A and Sonocharge are addressing long duration storage and batteries, which will help ensure we are able to use fastest growing sources of electricity: solar and wind. This is important as we continue to scale up renewable energy generation, as it was already reported that in 2022 grid operator CAISO had to curtail 2.4TWh of wind and solar produced in California. Solutions to bridge the gap between renewable energy generation and storage is a key milestone that companies like Planet A Energy and Sonocharge will contribute to with this newest round of funding.
“CalSEED funding comes at a critical stage for clean energy entrepreneurs. Both Plant A Energy and Sonocharge have commercially promising, breakthrough concepts that have the potential to increase grid reliability and bring cost savings,” said Joy Larson, Program Director of CalSEED, a program of New Energy Nexus. “With these Prototype Awards, they will be able to further de-risk these brand-new clean energy ideas for future funders and customers.”
Planet A Energy is advancing a new kind of solar thermal technology that can collect and store high-temperature solar energy. “With the CalSEED Prototype Award we will be able to demonstrate the ability to collect and store heat for a week or more,” said Brad Hines, CEO Planet A Energy. “This ultra-long-duration storage capability will enable solar energy to become a base load energy resource for California, enabling the true retirement of base load fossil generating plants.”
“Sonocharge’s platform solution improves battery performance with acoustic wave induced electrolyte motion to overcome charging performance and improve safety in lithium batteries,” said An Huang, CEO Sonocharge. “Our solution provides a reduced-cost solution that makes e-mobility solutions available to everyone to accelerate a transition to a clean energy future.”
CalSEED is the flagship program of the New Energy Nexus network of global clean energy accelerators. It is funded through the California Energy Commission’s EPIC program, which invests approximately $130 million annually for innovative clean energy technologies and approaches benefiting the ratepayers of California’s three largest electric investor-owned utilities.
“The CEC congratulates Sonocharge and Planet A as the latest prototype winners of CalSEED funding. These companies demonstrate the impact of CalSEED in accelerating early-stage technology innovations that advance our state’s clean energy goals,” said Jonah Steinbuck, Director, CEC Research and Development Division.
