On Wednesday, August 9, 2023, the Stryten Energy team welcomed U.S. Representative Rich McCormick (R-GA) to the company’s headquarters in Alpharetta, Ga. During the visit, the Stryten Energy team provided a tour of the onsite solar plus lead battery storage microgrid, which provides power to the headquarters building and backup power in case of power loss. Rep. McCormick also toured the company’s R&D center featuring its next-generation lead, lithium and vanadium redox flow battery technology.
Rep. McCormick attended an employee meet and greet where Steve Battleson, Director of Industrial Service and United States Army veteran, presented him a Stryten Energy challenge coin. Battleson thanked Representative McCormick for his service in both the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps.
Rep. McCormick delivered remarks about his military service, as well as his experience as an emergency room physician and youth minister, to a standing-room-only crowd in the company’s boardroom.
Rep. McCormick visited Stryten Energy on Aug. 9
Rep. McCormick commented, “What an impressive team at Stryten Energy! After a great tour of their headquarters in Alpharetta, I can see why they are on the leading edge of energy storage. Additionally, 100% of their battery development is domestic, and they also are a large employer of hard-working men and women right here in GA’s 6th district. To top it off, 100% of their lead is recycled, making it truly clean energy. I am eager to see what’s in store as the demand for energy increases and as Stryten Energy works to stay on the cutting edge in this critical industry.”
Rep. McCormick toured Stryten’s rooftop microgrid with Scott Childers
Scott Childers demonstrated the lead BESS prototype
Rep. McCormick fielded questions from the Stryten Energy team on multiple issues, including AI, immigration, national debt, healthcare costs and term limits.
When asked about his support for the passing of the National Right to Repair Law, which would provide the automotive aftermarket fair access to repair info, tools, and training from manufacturers to service modern vehicles, McCormick answered, “I love competition. I love the ability for people to be able to fix my car that don’t belong to a certain brand (manufacturer). I’m absolutely in favor of that.”
Rep. McCormick shared his views on the future of the state, “Georgia, as you know, is very pro-economy, and we’re one of the quickest growing business growth states in the union. But that’s not going to continue forever. Why? Other states have caught on. What is Georgia doing? We need to make laws friendly to business.”
Scott Childers, Rep. McCormick and Melissa Floyd
Rep. McCormick continued, “And then on top of that, the challenge is when people move into Georgia, do we have affordable housing? I think the future of Georgia is going to continue to be business models that are friendly to business cultures. But we also have to be careful not to compromise ourselves into a lower standard of living because growth by itself is not good.”
When asked about the future of energy in Georgia, Rep. McCormick commented, “You have probably heard of Vogtle, you know that we just had another plant come online, and we’ll have another one coming online in the very near future. They’re learning, they’re getting better. I think that’ll kind of set the standard across the United States, by the way. People are finally getting over the Three Mile Island mentality of ’this is dangerous, this is harmful,’ and realize it’s probably the cleanest energy you can produce. The problem is that when you have a disruption in that power, how do you store it? How do you have emergency backups? And that’s where you guys come in, right?”
He continued, “I think that balance is something that we would continue to seek out. You guys are a big part of that, having that discussion. You can see it across America, these grids going down, and the energy consumption is parabolic consumption. The energy consumption by computers alone is parabolic. The faster the computer goes, the more energy it consumes. Cars, EV cars, all of these things consume energy, we’re going to need more and more energy across the United States, so we have to be more and more creative on how we create and store that energy.”
Several members of the Stryten Energy team expressed their thanks for his office’s help in navigating federal government agencies with passport and citizenship applications.
“I tell you, one of my favorite things is when people become citizens,” remarked McCormick. “I just love that. If you want to see the most patriotic people, the people who probably know more about the Constitution, more about America than the people who grow up here, see somebody who’s becoming a citizen. It’s an amazing, heartwarming thing.”
The event concluded with Rep. McCormick encouraging the Stryten team to reach out to him if they ever need help with anything from his office.
“Stryten Energy was pleased to host Representative McCormick at our headquarters and share the American-led energy storage innovation taking place in Georgia,” said Melissa Floyd, Vice President of Corporate Communications. “We appreciated the time he took to learn about what we do and the important role our company plays in ensuring U.S. energy security and independence. Having reliable, sustainable and, most importantly, domestically manufactured batteries like the ones our company produces are critical to keeping our supply chains running, our people on the move and supporting our military.”
