Offgrid Energy Labs spent six years in R&D before moving toward commercialisation, and has secured over 25 IP families and 50+ IP assets.
Last week, Offgrid Energy Labs, a start-up incubated at IIT Kanpur, announced that it was setting up a 10 MWh demonstration facility in the UK. It said a giga factory in India would follow later. Most energy storage today runs on lithium-ion. The problem: lithium is expensive, geopolitically concentrated, and poses fire risks at scale. Offgrid Energy Labs, which raised $15 million from the Chennai-based bromide manufacturer Archean Chemical Industries, is building an alternative. Their proprietary technology - ZincGel - is a zinc-bromine-based battery system designed specifically for stationary energy storage — solar farms, industrial facilities, data centres and off-grid communities, rather than electric vehicles. The core chemistry uses a water-based electrolyte, which eliminates fire risk and makes the battery significantly safer to deploy at scale. It delivers 80–90 per cent of the energy efficiency of a conventional lithium battery, at a lower levelised cost of storage, and lasts roughly twice as long — rated for 5,000+ cycles. It can also handle long-duration discharges of 6–12 hours and operate in temperatures as low as -10°C. The company spent six years in R&D before moving toward commercialisation, and has secured over 25 IP families and 50+ IP assets. businessline exchanged a series of emails with Dr Tejas Kursurkar, Co-founder, Offgrid Energy.Excerpts:
