Urban Electric Power (UEP) was founded in 2012 in Pearl River New York. UEP's rechargeable alkaline battery utilizes earth-abundant zinc and manganese dioxide which provides high energy density, low-self-discharge, and are safe to operate and handle. Their cells are completely modular and can be scaled for any size of application: from residential to commercial settings to large utility uses.

UEP aims to provide safe, affordable and clean energy storage systems using their zinc-manganese rechargeable alkaline battery.

Technology has already been deployed for backup and peak shaving in 2 commercial projects in 2021. In 2022, they energized a project of 1 MW in San Diego and as of 2023 they are working with the New York Power Authority for a 7.2MWh project.

Urban Electric's technology has been commercialized to result in a battery that costs approximately $160/kWh to manufacture on 2021 at their pilot scale production levels, with a roadmap to reach $20/kWh by 2025 through increasing the utilization of active materials while maintaining performance and cycle life.

Their core technology utilizes Zinc anodes and Manganese dioxide cathodes in an aqueous electrolyte, such as potassium hydroxide.

While zinc anodes have been made rechargeable in the past, manganese cathodes, while of high capacity in their first discharge, have proved difficult to recharge.

Because of this, batteries based on zinc-manganese dioxide chemistry have traditionally only been available in a "primary" (non-rechargeable) form, e.g., the ubiquitous alkaline AA, AAA, C and D cells.

UEP attained two significant breakthroughs that pushed ZnMnO2 technology forward:

• First, developing a fully rechargeable manganese dioxide cathode that can maintain capacity without significant degradation during cycling, and
• Controlling zinc behavior through key additives and separator materials.

Past Technology Applications

• San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC): UEP is installing an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) to make sure that the SDSC data center stays online during grid outages or fluctuations.

• Navajo Nation: UEP is constructing multiple high-temperature resistant battery deployments for solar micro-grids.

• The City College of New York (CCNY): Constructing a battery system to help CCNY reduce energy costs through demand response and for use as a power backup, keeping the lights on during outages.

Low cost energy storage is critical for integrating renewable energy generation into electricity supply systems and providing universal access to electricity. There are several unsolved issues with electric grids globally that require an immediate solution: increased intermittent sources (solar,wind), weak grids with frequent outages, blackouts due to weather (increased 3x since the 1990's), and costly peaker plants to meet growing demand.

Lead acid remains the largest rechargeable battery technology in the world but is not well-suited to meet market needs due to temperature sensitivity, performance degradation and lead toxicity.

On the other hand Lithium-ion batteries present risks of thermal runway, being flammable and making it a high-risk solution for some environments.

In contrast, rechargeable alkaline batteries like UEP's solution are inherently safe with non toxic components. These batteries are UL1973 certified and they don't reach thermal runaway, while still keeping competitive costs and performance.

Additionally, UEP utilizes earth abundant materials, that are recyclable and do not emit greenhouse gases or environmental pollutants.

UEP's solution can be applicable from residential to utility applications. It can be used for:

• Long term and Critical backup: Safe and reliable multi-hour backup batteries to support power outages affecting critical operations.
• Peak Shaving and Demand Response: Expand peak capacity or reduce charges by running the batteries during peak power times of day.
• Micro-grid and Renewable Integration: Isolate from the grid by coupling renewable power sources with our easy to integrate rechargeable batteries.