florrent is commercializing a high-energy-density and bio-derived supercapacitor solution to address the power instability problem that causes billions of dollars in losses for businesses annually. Its solution lowers total cost of ownership, physical footprint, and embodied manufacturing emissions, while competing on initial cost.
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Jose LaSalle
Jose LaSalle is the co-founder and CEO of florrent. Before that, he worked as product manager and lead engineer at Ventacity Systems. He earned his B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a research focus on electrochemistry. LaSalle's goal is to commercialize solutions that contribute to the well-being of people and the planet, and he envisions his work supporting the transition to a renewable, resilient, and equitable energy economy.
TECHNOLOGY
Critical Need
To meet the demands of the transition to a decarbonized and electrified world, there is a need for a continuum of bankable energy storage solutions from sub-second to seasonal duration. Grid asset integrators face a lack of affordable high-power dispatchable energy storage solutions that cover sub-second to multi-minute response time for services such as frequency response, renewables firming, peak power load reduction, and more. Current ultracapacitors are limited to below one minute, and batteries suffer from an expensive accelerated degradation when deployed to fill this gap.
Technology Vision
florrent’s high-energy-density ultracapacitors enable grid asset integrators to span this multi-minute gap in the energy storage continuum and provide bankable solutions for the energy transition. These ultracapacitors provide dispatchable power to stabilize electrical systems in precision applications, resulting in improved performance, asset lifetime extension, and ultimately increased profitability for the asset owner. florrent’s core innovation is a proprietary hemp-derived activated carbon. florrent forms this activated carbon into cylindrical cells using standard roll-to-roll manufacturing equipment and then vends the cylindrical cells to grid asset integrators who aggregate them into larger storage systems for project deployment.
Potential for Impact
florrent's vision is to serve as a cornerstone of the transition to a resilient, renewable, and equitable energy economy supported by a regenerative materials economy. florrent products will enable a constellation of energy-sovereign communities that generate, store, and use renewable power locally. As a key to our holistic approach, florrent sources primarily from BIPOC farming communities that are sequestering megatons of carbon into the soil through the growth of hemp biomass precursor material. florrent's goal is to act as an enabling technology for widespread renewables deployment and electrification adoption, thereby aiding in reducing carbon emissions.
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