Battery developer Ashlawn Energy LLC has leased a 10,000 square foot space on Xerox Webster Campus, bringing 20 new jobs to the region.
The firm’s VanCharg batteries charge from electrical sources like wind, solar or the electrical grid, and discharges power as needed to support a building’s energy load. The battery system stores enough electricity to provide back-up power to hundreds of homes and support the transmission and distribution of electricity.
The batteries reduce electricity costs and cut carbon emissions by allowing customers to “beat the peak” and store less expensive and less polluting power produced at night for use during peak hours, company leaders said.
Norma Byron, Ashlawn Energy president and founder, said the Xerox campus is an ideal location for the firm, which was based in Vestal, Broome County.
“We see Webster as a location full of possibility and hope to integrate ourselves into the community by creating jobs, contributing to economic development, and engaging in philanthropic partnerships,” Byron said.
The business was founded in 2008 by Byron, a former defense contractor to help empower communities with innovative energy storage solutions by enabling them to take local control of their own power, to contribute to reducing the impact of climate change and to provide a better quality of life with cleaner air and less expensive power.
In 2023, Ashlawn Energy was awarded $150,000 in the FuzeHub commercialization competition at the NYS Innovation Summit.
Part of the decision to relocate to Webster was driven by Ashlawn Energy’s long-standing collaboration with Rochester Institute of Technology’s Center of Excellence in Advanced and Sustainable Manufacturing, an ongoing partnership focused on optimizing the design and commercial scale-up of the VanCharg vanadium redox flow battery technology.
Matt Hurlbutt, president and CEO of Greater Rochester Enterprise, said the company’s decision to move to the region is a testament to its industry strengths in energy innovation.
“Access to RIT‘s battery development resources and local engineering talent will be a catalyst for the company’s growth,” he said.