Firefly Breathes New Life into Lead Acid Battery Design and Scores $10 Million

With all the buzz about newfangled battery technologies and lithium battery laptop explosions, wherefore the quaint old lead acid battery?

Peoria, IL-based Firefly Energy just announced that it will have an innovative carbon-graphite foam, lead-acid battery ready for production by the fourth quarter of 2007, following the announcement that the Caterpillar spin-off has completed a $10 million Series B equity round of financing, led by Milwaukee-based Stark Investments and including Caterpillar, KB Partners, the Illinois Finance Authority and the Tri-County Venture Capital Fund.

The Firefly Energy battery, which introduces the first significant improvement on lead acid battery technology in more than 150 years, is currently under development for use by the U.S. military and by lawn and equipment giant Husqvarna. After its initial production, Firefly will work to develop their advanced batteries for hybrid electric vehicles and hybrid trucks.

When compared to the current generation of lead-acid batteries, the Firefly Energy battery boasts:

- four times greater power density or less than 1/4 the weight
- double the life expectancy
- seven times faster recharge rate
- environmentally safer, using 80 percent less lead

The battery also supposedly has 1/10th the manufacturing cost of nickel metal hydride and lithium ion options.