Inevitable Episode B

Startup Series: Moment Energy

Recorded on January 31, 2022 Published February 17, 2022

Today’s guest is Edward Chiang, Co-Founder & CEO of Moment Energy.

Eddy co-founded Moment Energy in 2019. He was a member of NEXT 36, a cohort of NEXT Canada, a non-profit that develops exceptional talent to create world-class ventures and propel technology adoption. Eddy holds a BASc in Mechatronics Systems Engineering from Simon Fraser University.

Moment Energy provides affordable, performant, and reliable energy storage by repurposing retired electric vehicle (EV) batteries. The company is working with major automotive companies, including Nissan and various utilities, to take advantage of the 80% remaining capacity in retired EV batteries to provide cost-advantaged and robust grid storage solutions for facilities located in major markets.

In this episode, Eddy walks me through how he and his co-founded started Moment Energy, Moment’s progress to date, and how he first came to care about the problem of EV battery recycling. We also dive into the existing policy around end-of-life care of batteries, what motivates EV manufacturers to work with Moment, and where safety, ethics, and sustainability fit into the customer decision-making process. Eddy is a great guest, and the Moment Energy story is fantastic for MCJ listeners.

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

In this episode, we cover

  • Overview of Moment Energy
  • How Eddy and his three best friends started Moment and why Eddy cares about climate change
  • Whether the technology or the problem came first
  • The problem that EV battery waste poses and why these batteries are discarded while they're still functioning
  • The second life of EV batteries
  • Where Moment sources their batteries from and their initial application prior to Moment
  • The motivations of vehicle manufacturers to sell their batteries to Moment and the existing policy around end of life/recycling battery care
  • Moment Energy's solution
  • The battery recycling landscape and how Moment stacks up against existing alternatives
  • The importance of safety, ethics, and sustainability in the customer decision-making process
  • How Moment will grow regarding target customers and types of projects
  • The white space between off-grid projects and smaller-scale projects that larger manufacturers aren't interested in
  • Moment's progress to date