Tesla Alum Launches Lithium-Free Any-Duration Battery for Data Centers, Cold Storage and AI

Unlocking multi-day energy storage for retrofits, urban sites, and space-limited facilities
beyond the reach of conventional LDES

TUCSON, Ariz., Sept. 17, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The BESSt Company, founded by Tesla alum Joley Michaelson, has launched a proprietary zinc-polyiodide REDOX flow battery designed for sectors that demand uninterrupted power, data centers, cold storage, and AI infrastructure. Based on breakthrough chemistry licensed from Battelle, The BESSt Company's platform offers multi-hour to multi-day energy storage, safety, affordability, and supply chain resilience, with non-flammable, abundant, rare-earth-free materials, and the most compact footprint in its class. Long-duration energy storage (LDES) is crucial to advancing the energy transition and meeting rising power demand. The BESSt Company's "any-duration" storage technology delivers uninterrupted, always-on energy that makes long-duration runtimes viable for sites of any scale.

The Technology and Why It Matters

          As power and energy demand surge, extreme weather-related outages increase, and the grid ages out of reliability, critical industries are turning to renewables for an unimpaired and robust energy supply. But generation alone doesn't ensure availability. Many rely on costly workarounds: oversized systems, diesel generators, or short-duration lithium-ion batteries packed with rare earth minerals, limited in capacity, and exposed to fragile supply chains. None were built for extended or bespoke runtimes. To date, most LDES technologies remain too bulky, site-restricted, or capital-intensive for widespread commercial and industrial use.

          The BESSt Company battery changes the equation. It aligns renewable generation with real-world usage, turning intermittent power into a stable, on-demand resource. Power is banked, dispatched, and controlled.

          "Energy storage has always been the missing link," said Joley Michaelson, founder and CEO of The BESSt Company. "Conventional lithium-ion can't meet today's uptime demands, and most long-duration systems are built for utility-scale projects, not the space and retrofit limits of real-world infrastructure. We designed this battery for those conditions at a cost that makes widespread deployment possible."

          Supported by over 100 peer-reviewed studies and independently validated by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), the chemistry offers unmatched safety, lifespan, and operational flexibility.

          "It solves the problems that have held long-duration storage back," said Kevin Meagher, Chief Science Officer at The BESSt Company. "We built a system that stores power for days without performance loss, operates reliably in extreme conditions, and delivers predictable output when the grid can't. That's what the market needs: storage that behaves like true infrastructure."

          The BESSt Company battery delivers up to 20 times the energy density of conventional vanadium flow batteries (the most popular LDES technology today). Its compact, modular form factor makes it deployable in space-limited settings, unlocking any-duration, multi-hour to multi-day energy storage.

About The BESSt Company

          The BESSt Company was established to solve a critical bottleneck in renewable energy delivery, building on technology developed by The Sun Company, which was founded by Joley Michaelson in 2018. In designing decentralized power systems for mission-critical sectors, the team identified a critical need for energy storage engineered to meet real-world conditions—solutions that extend uptime, reduce space and safety constraints, and scale with demand. In response, they began developing a new platform that pairs field-tested system design with zinc-polyiodide chemistry licensed from Battelle. Today, The BESSt Company is advancing that platform through late-stage development and preparing for commercial deployment, supported by strong early interest from strategic partners and institutional investors. Visit www.tbc.energy.

SOURCE The BESSt Company