East Penn Manufacturing eyes future in renewable energy

(Originally published January 13, 2020 in the Reading Eagle) — East Penn Manufacturing produces 160,000 automotive batteries per day at its plant near Lyons, the most prolific facility of its kind in the world.

But as demand for renewable energy rises across the United States, Berks County’s largest employer also strives to become the innovator and leader of new technologies.

“East Penn is primarily a lead battery company,” said Chris Pruitt, president and CEO of East Penn Manufacturing. “We think lead will be here for a long, long period of time – but there’s a lot of research and development going on in regard to lithium and other chemistries today.”

Speaking at the World Affairs Council of Greater Reading breakfast on Wednesday, Pruitt indicated the company behind the Deka brand is a long way from a seismic shift in a business model that generated $2.8 billion in annual revenue.

Energy needs to be stored somewhere though, whether powering an electric car or from a renewable source such as solar or wind, and lead-acid batteries charge too slowly to keep up with technological advances.

“That’s really where all of the research is happening today,” said Pruitt. “How can you take that energy and store it really, really quickly into that battery, because you can’t say, ‘Slow down wind. Slow down sun.’ It doesn’t work that way.”

While lead-acid batteries are cost effective, lithium-ion batteries have a larger storage capacity, longer lifespan and charge faster.

In August 2019, East Penn purchased a majority interest in Navitas Systems, a Michigan-based company specializing in lithium battery technology.

“We still feel lead is going to be a predominant technology going forward, but lithium is going to play in certain markets and applications,” said Pruitt. “Therefore we need to be educated, we need to also have some of the say and we want to produce some lithium products.

“Right now, it’s very, very small. It will continue to eek up.”

One challenge, as Pruitt explained, is recycling for lithium batteries does not currently exist on a scale to accommodate mass production. That’s in stark comparison to lead batteries, 99% of which are recycled.

East Penn reclaims its used batteries, reusing all materials – lead, acid and plastic – in production.

“We don’t want to be behind the environmental standards,” said Pruitt. “We want to be with them or in front of them.”

Pruitt expressed confidence lithium battery production can become sustainable in the future.

“We want to help write that recycling story for lithium,” said Pruitt.

“I don’t think the recycling story is just not going to be there. It’s going to take a lot of time, it’s going to take a lot of talent and it’s going to take money to invent a recycling infrastructure for lithium, and we want to be on the forefront of that.”

East Penn is positioning itself at a time when some city and state governments have begun to legislate their communities’ electric grids use renewable energy and automobile manufacturers are ramping up production of electric cars and trucks.

In the meantime, lead batteries aren’t going away anytime soon, with Pruitt citing a study that projects 95% of vehicles on the road in 2030 will still use internal combustion engines.

“We are very bullish in continuing to invest in lead, but we’re also going to continue to make investments in alternative technologies so we continue to stay relevant,” said Pruitt. “And believe me, the world is changing fast.”