Last week, Offgrid Energy Labs, a start-up incubated at IIT Kanpur, announced that it was setting up a 10 MWh demonstration facility in the UK. It said a giga factory in India would follow later. Most energy storage today runs on lithium-ion. The problem: lithium is expensive, geopolitically concentrated, and poses fire risks at scale. Offgrid Energy Labs, which raised $15 million from the Chennai-based bromide manufacturer Archean Chemical Industries, is building an alternative. Their proprietary technology - ZincGel - is a zinc-bromine-based battery system designed specifically for stationary energy storage — solar farms, industrial facilities, data centres and off-grid communities, rather than electric vehicles. The core chemistry uses a water-based electrolyte, which eliminates fire...