A handful of researchers at Tallahassee's Innovation Park has come up with what they hope could be the battery of the future. Members of the Piersica team gave a briefing to local business and government leaders on Tuesday, November 4.
The Piersica group has developed a lithium battery that they say is twice as powerful, half as heavy, fully fireproof and competitively priced. Making that possible are several new battery components, including a unique polymer that's critical for lithium batteries to work. Piersica founder and CEO Claudiu Bucur told the group small scale pilot production was already being done at Florida State University's IGNITE business incubator at Innovation Park. The challenges now, said Chief Financial Officer Frank Jacobs, is obtaining financing to move the enterprise closer to the big decision; whether to go into full-scale battery production using Piersica's full menu of technological advancements, or license production of the all-important polymer to other companies. In any event, he said, Tallahassee provides an ideal location for his company's headquarters.
"We love this area. All of our people are here. So it does make a lot of sense to build a battery plant here. With the caveat IF we become a battery manufacturer. Either way we'll have a research group like this with a company that continues to develop this battery and then move on to other technologies and uses for the polymer and things like that."
Another major attraction, he said, was the fact Tallahassee is a relatively virgin territory when it comes to incubating an enterprise that could someday have an international footprint.
"It's great for everybody! This community appreciates it. It's not like there are 100 companies that are doing great things. This isn't Austin or Silicon Valley. We're in Tallahassee and that's a great opportunity. We feel the love from the community, which is fantastic."
Among the local business and government leaders on hand at Tuesday's info-session was a representative of Dow Chemical. Jacobs said that was an important indicator of the industry interest Piersica's innovations are attracting.
