News from Longmont of firm’s expansion just the latest in a lengthening string of announcements
Energy storage firm in Longmont adding 314 jobs with state aid
Aided by nearly $6 million in state incentives, Stored Energy Systems has announced it will expand its operation in Longmont and create 314 new jobs with average annual wages of $97,493, which is 109% of the average annual wage in Boulder.
The company, which goes by its acronym, SENS, provides non-stop direct current power for critical infrastructure. The company was founded in 1972 in the Silicon Valley by Herb Kaewert, a graduate of MIT who already has formed a battery company that was ultimately sold.
In 1991, to accommodate the needs for expansion, he and a son, Bill, moved the company to Longmont. Since then, the company has expanded more than tenfold, according to the SENS website.
The Colorado Economic Development Commission approved up to $4.6 million in performance-based job growth incentive tax credits over an eight-year period and up to $397,313 in performance-based incentive over a five-year period. These incentives are contingent upon SENS meeting net job creation and salary requirements.
Lots of storage in Colorado
The energy storage story in Longmont is part of a major expansion of energy storage work and business expansions along the Front Range of Colorado.
In Pueblo, Xcel Energy has partnered with Form Energy to develop and commercialize iron-air storage. The batteries will allow Xcel Energy to store renewable energy such as solar and wind when it is being produced and then later distribute the energy during periods of lower production.
While most existing battery technologies provide fewer than eight hours of energy storage, Form Energy’s iron-air batteries could deliver electricity for 100 hours.
In December, Denver-based start-up Peak Energy announced it was planning a new battery cell engineering center in Broomfield. The venture hopes to advance sodium-ion battery systems. The company hopes to scale domestic battery cell manufacturing by 2027.
In October, Louisville-based Solid Power announced a production plant in Thornton for a new type of battery for use in electric vehicles. The expansion was accelerated with aid of $50 million in federal aid authorized under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021. The company secured another $60 million in funding from other sources.
Most unusual – some think it’s wacky — was the December unveiling of battery on wheels, a concept called SunTrain. The idea with SunTrain within the context of Colorado is to ferry solar energy from Pueblo to certain industrial users in metropolitan Denver via batteries loaded on trains.
Xcel wants to work with the company, and Xcel has lent its credibility to the project. And Gov Jared Polis in 2024 wrote a letter of support on behalf of a federal grant.
In his letter, Polis neatly laid out the problem: “Recent analysis from the Colorado Energy Office shows that the lowest cost pathway to serve electricity load in Colorado by 2040 requires quintupling solar deployment and tripling wind energy, which is a pathway also aligned with my goal of achieving 100% clean energy for Colorado by 2040.
“While we have made good progress in recent years, Colorado’s electric transmission system still does not have enough capacity to serve the current or projected generation from renewable resources, leading to curtailments, high electricity costs, and increased pollution. Unfortunately building a new transmission line in the U.S. requires an average of 10 years and can run up to 20 years.”
Top: Christopher Smith, the founder and president of SunTrain, explains the concept in Eaton during December. Photo/Allen Best
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