Grengine is first plug

By Heather Hall | May 10, 2023

Grengine, a developer of the world's first stackable, modular energy storage system, announces it has named Erin Rand as its new CEO, while founder and former CEO, Connie Stacey, will move into a new role as CTO. Formerly known as Growing Greener Innovations, the company also publicly announced its new corporate brand: Grengine.

The new brand reflects the company's commitment to ethical energy and building sustainable, "green engines" that allow anyone — commercial organizations, government entities, and remote communities — to access clean energy.

The Grengine Power System adds a commanding tool in the face of power grids under pressure. Its ability to pair with any energy source — solar, wind, or even the grid — and create a stable, uninterrupted energy supply alleviates risk, cost, and uncertainty. North American-made, the system does not require engineering or technical support to set up, operate, or maintain. The batteries can easily be switched out or stacked on top of each other, like building blocks, to provide as much energy as is required, quite literally plug-and-play. This unique feature greatly improves access to reliable energy, reducing the reliance on emission-producing fuels, and increasing the "green content" of existing industrial, commercial, and residential systems.

Beyond the obvious commercial applications, the opportunity to address global energy poverty is immense. Nearly half of the world's population experiences energy poverty of some kind. Remote communities on every continent — often indigenous peoples or refugee camps — rely entirely on dirty and noisy diesel generators to provide electricity, heat, and cooking fuel. However, when the diesel burns out, it can require long trips to go buy more, leading to prolonged periods without any energy and potential deaths. Plus, it's extremely expensive to transport fuel to remote areas, requires significant maintenance, and adds to the carbon footprint.

"Economic growth correlates directly to access to energy. Giving someone enough energy to read at night is good, but you must also be able to build on that capacity if you want to help someone better their life," said Stacey. "When one in seven people around the world relies exclusively on candlelight, being able to deliver clean, portable, energy that can be scaled up or down to meet their needs is a fundamental game changer."

While a significant portion of the global population is experiencing energy poverty, everyone is indeed experiencing the environmental, social, and economic impacts of climate change.

Grengine manufactures its systems entirely in North America. The company has its own facility in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and is planning to expand with new manufacturing plants in other North American markets in the next three years. The batteries themselves are chemistry-agnostic, meaning they can be built with any combination of metals and chemistries. If a customer wants to increase the size of their system, they can add new components using whatever is the newest, most advanced chemistry developments without replacing any of the original components-which essentially "future-proofs" their investment. This means significantly less waste and lower costs for the user.

Projects featuring Grengine's patented technology for "modular energy storage systems and related methods" are already underway with the Canadian government and its Department of National Defense, the International Minerals Innovation Institute (IMII), an indigenous community in rural Canada, and other organizations.

"The Grengine Power System is helping Canada create a greener future by reducing emissions, and saving Canadians money," said Canadian Federal Cabinet Minister Mary Ng. "In the face of global climate change, our government knows the only way forward is to help develop and support green energy solutions, like the Grengine initiative."

Grengine was founded by Stacey after she spent more than 15 years doing software development for several companies. She decided to bring Rand on as CEO and move into the CTO role where she could focus on the continued development of the product side of the business. Rand is a serial business scaler with experience designing and implementing strategic operational initiatives at companies such as PlasticBank, ServiceRocket, IBM, and Brocade.

"Demand for clean energy products that are manufactured here in North America has never been higher, making this a critical inflection point for the battery industry and Grengine itself," said Rand. "I am thrilled to join the company and leverage my experience in scaling businesses to help bring Connie's vision of democratized access to green, ethical energy to fruition."

For more information, visit grengine.com.

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