Peak Energy brings major battery production facility to Sacramento

Peak Energy, a fast-growing battery startup company led by former Tesla, Enovix and Fluence  engineers, announced Tuesday it will open its first major factory right here in Sacramento, next to the airport.

The company, founded in 2023, builds grid-scale storage systems using sodium-ion batteries — a technology that CEO of Peak Energy Landon Mossburg, said is cheaper, safer and more environmentally friendly than lithium-ion batteries.

The battery can store any type of energy that flows on the grid including solar, wind. According to Peak’s website, the company’s technology will aid in storing energy for utilities and AI data centers.

In an interview with CapRadio prior to the announcement, Mossburg said the technology eliminates cooling systems that drive cost and fire risk like traditional grid storages.

“What we try to do is we try to remove all the cost and complexity that exists around the useful components of grid-scale energy,” Mossburg said. “So if you look at how much energy costs on the grid today, it's somewhere between five and 10 times more than what it looks like it should cost.”

Mossburg said the company already has over $1 billion dollars in customer orders to fulfill. Sacramento was chosen as its destination for the facility, beating out Texas.

“We have to deploy a little over $100 million in product next year, which is a quite fast scale, because we're only going to do about $10 million this year,” Mossburg said. “It was really important that our first factory come online quickly, and that we are able to source great talent.”

Workforce and local impact

The new facility in Sacramento is expected to create over 230 jobs in its first phase. This would mark the largest battery manufacturing jobs announcement in the city’s history.

CEO of the Greater Sacramento Economic Council, Barry Broome, discussed the significance of bringing the energy company to Sacramento mentioning that people could learn how to build sodium-ion batteries.

“These production facilities are going to pay people, you know, $60,000 to $70,000 a year,” Broome said. “We love the workforce model for our neighborhoods and our communities that are underserved, [and] we love the fact that it's a climate change product.”

Broome mentioned SMUD played a role in landing because they offered an "innovative prototyping and technology partnership” with the company.

District 6 City Councilmember Eric Guerra is a California Air Resources Board member and was present for the announcement. He told CapRadio he was there with Sacramento Employment Training Agency (SETA) to help fill those 230 jobs.

“What the industry needs when they come to the region – they need a stable workforce, reliable  workforce, they need reliable timing to start at permitting, and they need reliable energy,” Guerra said. “Why is this important also for the region? It’s because this is an effort to improve our air.”

Guerra noted that Sacramento met their federal air quality attainment for the first time last year and said maintaining that status would require cleaner emissions. 

“Sodium-ion technology allows us to capture that solar energy and wind energy when it's not being used,” he said. “So that we can [be] less reliant on fossil fuels that produce emissions that filter through not just the county of Sacramento, but through all of Yolo County.”

In June, Peak Energy announced it is partnering with General Motors to produce the sodium-ion battery cells in its Michigan labs starting in 2028. 

Production will start the first quarter of 2027.