Las Vegas battery maker to expand manufacturing capacity with new funding

A battery company in Las Vegas will be able to expand its manufacturing capacity more than fivefold after securing funding, an executive said.

Ultion Technologies received Series A funding led by Utah-based energy company Torus as well as from other investors, including Nevada state-sponsored venture capital program Battle Born Venture, the company said in a news release. The company declined to release the amount of the funding.

Ultion Technologies’ batteries are used in heavy machinery, drones, medical devices and more, according to the company. The batteries also power lights on bus stops across Las Vegas.

Taylor Stoker, co-founder and head of business development at Ultion Technologies, called Nevada an ideal climate for battery making, citing an “amazing” state government, close proximity to ports in Los Angeles and nearby lithium mines. The dry climate is also a big advantage, he added. Batteries are produced in dry rooms, which require more energy to maintain in humid environments.

“One of the biggest constraints is you need to be in a very, very dry situation to improve your quality of the technology,” Stoker said. “Nevada, and Las Vegas in general, (is) one of the most dry places you’ll find the United States.”

Ultion Technologies’ manufacturing facility is located along Pine Street in Las Vegas. The company currently employs about 15 people, Stoker said. He said he expects that number to rise to more than 100 people two years down the road.

Stoker said the funding will allow for a more independent energy future in the U.S. Battery manufacturing is dominated by China and other Asian countries at a time when our national power grid could desperately use more of them, he added.

“Our power grid is is more strained than it ever has been,” Stoker said. “If you look at projections coming in the next five, six years, we’re in a dire situation in terms of how the grid is is operating, and batteries are able to, one, take strain off of it.”

Stoker pointed toward power outages in Las Vegas resulting from windstorms earlier in July as something batteries could help mitigate. Batteries can store energy for parts of the day when demand is higher, such as when people get home from work and charge their electric vehicles, he also said.

“What a battery does is it regulates that,” Stoker explained. “It allows us to create power, generate electricity, things like that, when we can, based off of how much production capability we have in any grid system, we can then store that and then use it when demand is needed.”

Contact Finnegan Belleau at fbelleau@reviewjournal.com.