ESS Inc. co-founder Craig Evans rang the opening bell Monday at the New York Stock Exchange, kicking off public trading for the Wilsonville grid-scale battery maker under the ticker symbol GWH.
GWH is the abbreviation for gigawatt-hour — a billion watts produced for an hour — a measure commonly used in the rising energy storage sector where ESS hopes to make its mark.
ESS went public through a special-purpose acquisition company merger that was announced in May. The SPAC route, a faster way to going public than a traditional IPO, delivered $308 million in cash to ESS to pursue an aggressive growth plan. (Update: Later filings by ESS shoed that after expenses, the IPO raised $246 million.)
With the number of shares outstanding not yet finalized, its market capitalization was uncertain, though likely around $1 billion.
The stock was at $8.47 an hour and a half after the market's 6:30 a.m. PDT opening, up about 25 cents from where it closed last week in its final hours under its SPAC partner's STWO symbol.
The company has scant sales and negligible revenue to its name 10 years and around $35 million of investment after Evans and co-founder Julia Song began the enterprise as a literal garage startup.
But ESS says its iron flow battery is ready to make inroads into a market dominated by lithium-ion batteries, and has cited recent sales to renewables developers as a sign of things to come.
The promise is safer and longer-duration storage — from 4-24 hours — that can help smooth the way for more intermittent renewable energy on a rapidly evolving grid. It’s one of a number of companies with varying technologies vying in the space.
ESS has forecast sales rising from $2 million this year to $37 million in 2022, $300 million in 2023 and on up to $3.5 billion by 2027. Expansion into Australia in 2023 and Europe in 2024 is planned.
To gear up, the company has been outfitting its Wilsonville plant with robotics and hiring at a fast pace, growing from around 100 employees in April to some 165 today.
