A Greenville, Pa based startup company received a sizable donation to start making a different kind of EV charging station.

On Wednesday, the Ben Franklin Technology Partners and the Mercer County Investment Fund presented Advanced Power & Energy with a $500,000 check. 

Typically, charging stations are made with lithium batteries which come with a fire risk. Advanced Power & Energy makes it’s charging stations with zinc nickel batteries. 

“Zinc five batteries cannot burn,” George Bulick, the President of Advance Power & Energy said. “The worst thing that can happen is they would stop working.”

Not only will it make charging solutions safer but will make it more economical by taking pressure off of the power grid.

“The secret here is most companies and manufacturing facilities do not have power available from the grid,” Bulck said. “Our battery systems allow more power to be delivered at non-peak times so that everybody can benefit from the grid as it is today.”

With this startup, investors wanted to get in on the ground floor to help Mercer County thrive. 

“More technology, more jobs, more interesting things going on here specifically in Greenville and then the layer of the onion out from that,” Briand Slawin, Portfolio Manager of Ben Franklin Technology Partners said. “It'll have all kinds of positive impacts.” 

“We want to make Greenville green again,” Bulick said. “We brought in a sustainable company into the area to provide possible better wages and a clean, safe environment to work and manufacture in.”

And through distribution partnerships, Bulick is expecting these charging stations to start popping up worldwide.