Six years after four engineering graduates began experimenting with used electric vehicle batteries in a British Columbia garage, their clean technology company has opened the largest second-life battery manufacturing plant of its kind. Moment Energy, founded in 2020 by Simon Fraser University graduates Edward Chiang, Gabriel Soares, Gurmesh Sidhu and Sumreen Rattan, has officially opened Megafactory 1 in the Vancouver region. The facility takes retired electric vehicle batteries that might otherwise end up in landfills and turns them into large-scale energy storage systems. The reused battery systems are now being used for backup power and energy storage at data centres, hospitals, manufacturing plants and remote microgrids across North America. The opening marks a major step forward for a company that began as a university spin-out project. According to SFU News, the team gained early financial support in late 2021 after raising $3.5 million in seed funding led by Version One Ventures. The company also received seed grants and support from Simon Fraser University’s Coast Capital Venture Connection incubator.
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