Two Waterbury-based battery storage technology firms have announced major ownership changes. Kore Power, which makes battery systems to store renewable energy and grid power, was purchased by T1, a large publicly traded, Texas-based solar firm. And its sister company, NOMAD Transportable Powe r Systems, is going public and changing its name to Nomad Power Solutions. The company designs and builds large mobile battery packs for a variety of applications, including the growing market for data centers. The two deals are evidence of the continued turbulence in the energy industry as the demand for power surges. Kore Power, which was previously based in Idaho, acquired Waterbury-based Northern Reliability in 2022. The Vermont company got its start in Warren as part of the pioneering renewable energy company Northern Power Systems. Northern Reliability’s CEO, Jay Bellows, became Kore Power’s president, and the company grew quickly. It employs 63 people. But a big battery project the company pursued in Arizona fizzled out. The company bought land and tried to secure an $850 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy to help the country expand its domestic battery production. The company planned to build a $1.2 billion battery factory in Buckeye, Ariz., meant to counter China’s dominance in the market. But costs and the timeline for building a factory from the ground up soared, Bellows told Seven Days. The company sought to save money by setting up shop in an existing facility. That, however, would have required a lengthy new loan application, he explained. The company canceled the plan in early 2025. The decision was made around the same time President Donald Trump froze all federal funds flowing to renewable energy projects under Joe Biden’s “Green New Deal.” Bellows said Trump’s freeze didn’t prompt the decision. In announcing the acquisition, T1 said the deal would give the Texas solar firm “an entry point into the energy storage and AI data center infrastructure markets through an expanded potential customer base for solar and storage solutions.” Data centers use massive amount of power, and battery storage systems such as those designed and built in Waterbury can serve as backup power supplies and help the operations control how they use power, Bellows explained. “Energy storage is the holy grail of all of our energy issues,” he said. The deal, which was valued at $32 million, closed on July 1. The Waterbury operations will now be known as T1 NRI. Meanwhile, Nomad is finding a novel way to go public. It completed a deal known as a reverse merger with Boca Raton, Fla.-based biotech firm LIXTE Biotechnology Holdings. That transaction, which allowed Nomad to acquire a controlling interest in the publicly traded company to avoid the lengthy cost of the initial public offering process, was also completed July 1. A press release announcing the merger said it would help Nomad “meet AI-driven power demand, positioning the combined entity to capitalize on surging electricity needs from data centers.” The post Waterbury Battery Firms Transform as Power Demands Surge appeared first on Seven Days. ...read more read less