Danbury-based Electro Energy announced in mid-September that it was suspending operations immediately, unable to raise additional capital.
The company was founded in 1992 by Martin Klein, who remains a director and chief technologist. Before starting Electro Energy, Klein was on the founding team of the predecessor company of Danbury”™s FuelCell Energy Inc. The company”™s chairman is Bruce Lev, a partner with New York City-based Loeb Partners Corp.
Over its first 11 years, Electro Energy received $18 million in government funding as it developed bipolar nickel-metal hydride batteries for U.S. Army radios, fighter jets, satellites and electric hybrid vehicles. Last November, the company issued a release it was in line for an additional $2 million in federal funding.
Over the years, the company had also received backing from Connecticut Innovations Inc., a taxpayer-supported venture fund based in Rocky Hill, as well as from In-Q-Tel, the venture finance arm of the Central Intelligence Agency.
After reaching $6.8 million in 2004, the company”™s sales fell by $3 million the following year. Much of that amount was due to a bankruptcy filing by EaglePicher Technologies, whose Colorado Springs, Colo., manufacturing plant Electro Energy had acquired in 2003, in conjunction with a production agreement. In addition to batteries for B-52 bombers and Apache attack helicopters, the plant”™s heritage included the production of electrodes for the International Space Station and the Hubble space telescope.
EaglePicher resumed purchases in lower quantities in 2006, before dropping again in 2007. Electro Energy was able to generate some research and development contracts, including with Lockheed Martin Corp. to develop batteries for that company”™s proposed high-altitude airship, essentially a blimp that would fly above the jet stream and take on some of the communications and observation capabilities of satellites.
This summer, the company installed its battery in a tractor-trailer truck for use as an auxiliary power source to run accessories without the truck drivers having to run engines on idle.
Besides its headquarters at 30 Shelter Rock Road in Danbury, in 2006 Electro Energy bought a 200,000-square-foot facility in Gainesville, Fla., for the purpose of producing lithium-ion electrodes and cylinders at a rate of 30 million units a year. In April, the company announced its first commercial order for batteries produced by the plant; in August, it hosted a visit by Florida Congressman Cliff Stearns.
The company is not the lone power company encountering problems. Also this month, Danbury-based Duracell ended a development agreement with MTI MicroFuel Cells Inc., an Albany, N.Y., startup attempting to develop tiny fuel cells for portable devices.
Still, lithium-ion battery startups continue to draw significant interest from local investors. Earlier this year, Westport-based Oak Investment Partners led a $45 million venture capital infusion for Westborough, Mass.-based Boston Power Inc., which is adapting the technology for use in laptop computers and other portable electronics.
And General Electric Co. is a lead investor in Watertown, Mass.-based A123 Batteries, which is designing lithium-ion batteries for General Motors Corp.”™s new Volt electric car.
