The Story of Fourth Power: Building the Future of Long-Duration Energy Storage

The Story of Fourth Power: Building the Future of Long-Duration Energy Storage

When most founders pitch their climate tech startups, they lead with carbon reduction. But in a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Fourth Power CEO Arvin Ganesan reveals a different narrative – one that starts with understanding a century-old system and ends with transforming it from within.

From Policy to Practice The story begins not in a garage, but in government. “I started really working in government as an advisor to a senator in the two thousands, went into the Obama administration, became a regulator at EPA,” Arvin explains. During his time at EPA, he witnessed firsthand how regulations could reshape entire markets, as coal plants gave way to renewables and natural gas.

This regulatory experience led him to Apple, where he “oversaw a team around the world helping Apple, as well as its suppliers, work with utilities around the world to get renewable generation.” These roles gave him a unique perspective on the energy transition – understanding both the policy levers and commercial demands that drive change.

The Fourth Power Vision The company’s founding story took an unexpected turn at a Cheesecake Factory. When Arvin met Fourth Power’s founder, Professor Asegun Henry, it wasn’t the technology that first caught his attention. “When I met Asegun I remember he’s like, ‘hey, can we meet at a cheesecake factory?’ And he brought his three kids and it was actually then when I realized from a personal perspective, this is somebody who I could work with because we have some of these very shared values around family.”

But what sealed the deal was the technology’s potential to solve a fundamental challenge in renewable energy. “We store energy for a long period of time, electricity for a long period of time, and can use it whenever the grid needs it,” Arvin explains. “The more renewables that are being built, unless you can consume it, the moment that the generation is being produced, they’re curtailed or thrown away.”

Breaking Away from Lithium Fourth Power’s approach is revolutionary not just in scale but in materials. “Things like lithium carry with it the baggage of really difficult supply chains, trade issues, human rights issues associated with mining,” Arvin notes. Instead, Fourth Power uses graphite, which is “the 10th most abundant element in the world. So if you can start to build a clean energy revolution based on a theory of abundance, it can really unlock the market that’s going to be unleashed in the next 20 years.”

Their technology pushes engineering boundaries – “We’re pumping liquid tin [at] its theoretical highest point, before it turns into a gas” – while maintaining a relentless focus on utility needs.

The Road Ahead The company’s commercialization journey is methodical. After years of university research, they’re building their first demonstration unit north of Boston, targeting completion in 2025. A utility pilot will follow in early 2026, with plans for their first gigawatt-hour battery in 2028-2029.

Looking ahead, Arvin sees massive market potential. “In the next 20 years there’ll be two terawatts of storage that’ll get built if things go right.” The challenge isn’t just technical – it’s about keeping pace with exploding demand. “One ChatGPT query takes up ten times the energy as the same Google query. The markets are about to shift and the amount of energy we need is huge.”

For Fourth Power, success means making renewable energy as reliable as traditional power plants. “We’ve designed our battery to provide kind of exact same control systems as a natural gas plant, to have instant response time, just like a natural gas plant would.” This isn’t just about storing energy – it’s about transforming how utilities operate in a renewable-powered world.