Cenate today announces that the company has initiated collaboration with several leading drone battery manufacturers to use Cenate’s silicon anode materials to develop high-energy battery cells for unmanned aerial vehicles.
For drone/UAV applications, battery weight and volume are critical performance factors. By enabling significantly higher energy density, Cenate’s new materials contribute to batteries that are lighter, smaller and capable of supporting significantly longer flight range, higher payloads or improved operational flexibility.
The drone market is growing rapidly, particularly within defence and other demanding applications where performance, reliability and non-Chinese supply chains are becoming increasingly important. Cenate’s materials are especially well suited for these applications due to the company’s record-high first cycle lithium efficiency, high tap density and tolerance for compacting, factors which are key enablers for achieving very high energy density in battery cells.
Cenate can deliver silicon anode materials with capacities of up to 2,500 mAh/g for applications where maximum energy density is required and where the cycle life requirements are well aligned with many UAV use cases. For applications requiring longer cycle life, including electric vehicles, Cenate offers materials from 1,700 mAh/g and upwards.
The first commercial volumes to the drone segment can be delivered from Cenate’s existing pilot plant at Holtskogen in Norway. The Holtskogen facility includes equipment scaled to commercial scale, and Cenate has sufficient capacity today to deliver initial volumes to the first customers in the drone battery segment. Larger volumes can be delivered by expanding capacity within today’s building and permits.
“The drone market is a very attractive early commercial market for Cenate. These applications value exactly what our materials are designed to deliver: very high energy density, low weight and strong performance. We are pleased to be working with leading drone battery manufacturers and see this as an important step towards commercial deliveries,” says Cenate CEO Erik Sauar.
Cenate continues to develop its silicon anode platform for both premium high-energy applications such as drones, robotics and defense, as well as longer-cycle-life applications such as electric vehicles.
