Press Release

Salient Energy Partnering with Horton World Solutions for Residential Energy Storage

Dartmouth, NS, Canada (May 4, 2022) — Salient Energy (“Salient”), a company developing proprietary zinc-ion batteries as an alternative to lithium-ion batteries in stationary energy storage, today announced that it has formalized a partnership with Horton World Solutions (HWS), a sustainable homebuilder whose proprietary composite framing system enables best in class energy efficiency and construction time. HWS will host the first in-field demonstration of Salient’s zinc-ion storage system and qualify the system for installation in its planned construction of over 200,000 homes. HWS founder and CEO Terry Horton will also join Salient Energy’s board of advisors.

“Energy storage is a key part of making zero-carbon homes,” said Mr. Horton. “But the current lithium-ion systems have a lot of issues. They create a fire risk that we need to design around, which further adds time and complexity to our permitting process. They are also frequently in short supply, which makes it risky to plan for them being an integral part of our designs. When I saw that Salient’s zinc-ion could solve both these issues, I knew I had to get involved.”

Salient’s zinc-ion battery uses a water-based design that eliminates the risk of fire. It is built with zinc and manganese, metals that are mined and processed in North America and abundant around the globe. The team at Salient Energy has designed its zinc-ion energy storage systems to have the same power, performance, and footprint as lithium-ion systems, so that it can work as a drop-in replacement for systems currently in the market. Salient’s energy storage systems pair with residential solar panels and allow for customers to disconnect from the larger grid during outages.

“We built zinc-ion to accelerate the adoption of clean energy,” said Ryan Brown, co-founder of Salient. “So, the opportunity to build zero-carbon homes with our technology is an exciting step forward for us. Our goal is to build safe, affordable, and sustainable systems that become the standard for home energy storage. We’re extremely lucky to have someone as experienced as Terry helping us achieve this goal.”

Mr. Horton started his career at a homebuilding company founded by his brother Donald in 1978. During his tenure D R Horton grew into the largest home builder in the United States. In 2005, Mr. Horton left the company to explore new, more sustainable approaches to homebuilding. This work led to the development of HWS’ proprietary framing system and novel construction process. In 2018, Mr. Horton founded HWS to commercialize these innovations.

“Houses built today will determine residential emissions in 2050,” said Mr. Horton. “Meaning homebuilders need to start building for sustainability today. I look forward to working with the team at Salient on developing their zinc-ion system into a solution that the whole industry can use to make more sustainable homes.