Resilient Power, which will provide fast charging to Amazon's fleet of electric vehicles, announced the closing of a $5 million seed round. The investment for the first-to-market provider of solid-state transformer-based EV fast charging technology was led by Energy Transition Ventures, with investment from Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund and GS Futures, the corporate venture capital arm of GS Group from Korea. Resilient Power was previously funded through $3 million in contracts and grants, including from the U.S. Department of Energy, Savannah River National Laboratory, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
“Electrifying Amazon’s delivery fleets is a critical piece of ensuring our company meets the goals of The Climate Pledge and achieves net zero carbon emissions by 2040,” said Kara Hurst, vice president and head of worldwide sustainability, Amazon. “We plan to have 100,000 electric vehicles deployed on the roads by 2030, which is projected to save millions of metric tons of carbon per year. Resilient Power is building products that accelerate the deployment of EV charging systems everywhere we deliver packages to customers, and its technology could help bolster our infrastructure to support our vehicles and drivers.”
Resilient Power has developed a solid-state transformer, which combines a traditional step-down transformer, charger, power management, and bidirectional inverter in a single low-cost, flexible high efficiency power router. When installed as an EV fast charger, Resilient Power’s technology enables low-cost multi-megawatt medium voltage fast charging at one-tenth the installation time while simultaneously handling solar + storage, vehicle to grid (V2G), and microgrid capability in the same unit, the company said. The solid-state transformer is capable of directly connecting to up to 24 vehicles, and Direct-current (DC) or Alternating-Current (AC) sources to a medium voltage line on the grid, eliminating the need for expensive distribution grid upgrades. Resilient Power’s utility-grade equipment is well suited for the challenges associated with fleet electrification that need higher power ratings and a large number of vehicles and can integrate with prefabricated EV fast charging stations.
“EV fast charging just happens to be a great first product for this technology, in a market that is growing fast and needs the size, cost, and power advantages it brings. But the real promise is using that same technology not just to charge a battery, but to natively enable charging + storage, microgrids, resiliency, and vehicle-to-grid with the same product,” said Neal Dikeman, partner and co-founder of Energy Transition Ventures. “Our grid is more than 100 years old; we’re going to rewrite it. We are excited to work with The Amazon Climate Pledge Fund and the Resilient Power team as they work towards revolutionizing the grid.”
Resilient Power currently has four U.S. patents granted and three more pending for its solid-state transformer technology. The funding sets the stage for an EV charging pilot program with large fleet owners and an expansion of sales and marketing to commercialize the company’s next generation energy routing platform.
“The future of clean energy brings a massive shift in the way we distribute and store power. As we speak, our electrical grid is undergoing a massive transformation. As transportation transitions to electric, we must consider how to deploy charging stations at mass scale without jeopardizing the grid,” said Tom Keister, Chief Executive Officer of Resilient Power. “Our partnership with The Amazon Climate Pledge Fund will allow us to build the infrastructure our customers need to support and accelerate EV adoption, and then later expand our technology to other renewables, storage, and microgrid markets.”
