Peak Energy secures local incentives for Broomfield R&D facility

BROOMFIELD — Peak Energy Technologies Inc., a Denver-based energy-storage technology startup, is moving forward with the buildout of a new battery-cell engineering research and development facility in Broomfield, thanks in part to a tax and fee incentives package approved by city officials last week. 

The company has leased about 13,000 square feet at 100 Technology Drive in the Interlocken business campus, where Peak plans to invest about $1.2 million in capital improvements. 

The Broomfield City Council unanimously approved a relatively modest package of performance-based credits that could total up to $50,000 over five years to help incentivize that investment in the facility. 

Should Peak need additional R&D space in the Interlocken facility, it has the option to double its footprint there, Edward McGlone, the firm’s senior director of government affairs, said during a public hearing held last week before a unanimous vote in favor of the incentives agreement.

The facility will “support development of the domestic sodium-ion battery supply chain and other high-performance, low-cost battery technologies,” Peak said last month when the company went public with its decision to expand to Broomfield. The United States, the company said, currently does not have domestic manufacturing capabilities for sodium-ion battery components.

“Peak Energy’s engineering center provides the testbed for battery products to be validated in commercial applications, demonstrating effectiveness and scalability,” the company said. “Partnering with suppliers across the ecosystem, Peak will begin domestic sodium-ion battery cell manufacturing by 2027 and plans for a domestic supply chain by 2030.”

Peak, which is co-headquartered in Denver and San Francisco, has 60 employees, 13 of whom are in Colorado, according to the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade. Broomfield city documents show that the Interlocken operation will employ 20 new Peak workers. 

The Broomfield R&D site is just the beginning of expansion for Peak, which raised a $55 million in Series A round last year. 

The company is searching for sites for a huge sodium-ion battery manufacturing facility, and Broomfield officials expect that the city will be among the locations considered.

“They haven’t sited (the future factory location) yet and it’s not in this (tax and fee incentives) agreement,” Broomfield director of economic vitality Robert Smith said. “But you can believe that … we’re going to be in a great position” to attract the manufacturing facility, given Peak’s existing presence in Broomfield. 

While the company hasn’t decided exactly where the factory will be located — Peak considered a number of states for its R&D operations, including Michigan, Kentucky and California, before landing on Broomfield, Smith said — it almost certainly won’t be at the 100 Technology Drive site, which simply isn’t large enough.

Peak, McGlone said, needs a “significantly larger footprint” for its gigafactory, a term that describes a manufacturing facility that builds components for battery technologies aimed at reducing carbon emissions. “We’re looking at facilities in excess of 350,000 square feet for the gigafactory.”

The company is “looking exclusively at brownfield facilities, and we’re looking to repurpose an existing building,” McGlone said. Peak could consider a site in Broomfield if it meets the company’s operational requirements. 

If Peak selects another city for its factory, that doesn’t mean it will abandon its Broomfield operations, he said. “The factory is not going to be something that obviates the need for the facility” in Interlocken.

To help guide its growth, Peak recently hired Geoff Brown as its chief strategy officer. He was previously the CEO of battery storage-systems firm Powin Energy Corp.

“Peak Energy has set an ambitious target of advancing the domestic battery supply chain in the U.S., and appointing Geoff as CSO is a natural next step for the company,” Peak CEO Landon Mossburg said in a prepared statement. “Achieving our goals requires extensive leadership experience in the battery and renewable project space.

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