Episode 39 | Cinematic Cells | SimpliPhi Power
I had been wanting to do another energy storage episode, especially after my guest from Episode 12, Alevo, went bankrupt just a month after the episode aired.
I found this week's guest, SimpliPhi Power, from a LinkedIn connection, and I found their story was really cool.
They started out as the LibertyPak company back in 2002. Its founder, and SimpliPhi CTO Stuart Lennox had designed mobile battery packs for movies like Avatar and Tron Legacy. Those costumes in Legacy were practical, lit by Stuart's LibertyPaks.
In 2010, Catherine Von Burg, my guest this week, founded SimpliPhi with Lennox, and moved the company forward in two distinct ways. First, they expanded into several markets, including the military, residential, and the developing world. Second, they switched from Lithium Cobalt Oxide batteries to Lithium Ferrous Phosphate.
Von Burg says the bad press lithium ion batteries get is not a result of the Lithium, but the Cobalt. It is expensive, rare, responsible for thermal runaway events, and even recovered through controversial means. She says SimpliPhi's Ferrous Phosphate design does not need the battery management system infrastructure required for other Lithium Ion designs in order to avoid thermal runaway.
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