US Army aims to capture energy from “the environment”

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🗞️ Driving the news: The US Army is preparing to deploy a new storage-enabled microgrid that can draw power from generators, vehicles, electrical outlets and potentially renewable energy, as the military seeks alternatives to conventional diesel generators

🔭 The context: Defence startup Chariot Defense has won a $7.6m contract from the Defense Innovation Unit to deploy its Amphora mobile microgrid with the US Army under the PRISM programme
• Amphora combines power management with scalable energy storage, allowing military units to optimise electricity drawn from multiple sources
• The system is designed to reduce reliance on diesel generators, which can expose troop positions through noise and heat while creating costly and vulnerable fuel supply chains
• PRISM specifications call for portable systems with 1 to 30kWh of storage and modular architecture that can accommodate future technology upgrades

🌍 Why it matters: Military demand could become another driver of innovation in distributed power and battery technology, even as renewable energy remains politically contentious in Washington
• For battlefield operations, solar and storage can offer strategic benefits beyond decarbonisation, including lower fuel dependence, quieter operations and greater resilience in contested environments

⏭️ What’s next: Chariot is expected to deploy Amphora with the US Army this autumn, providing a real-world test of whether flexible battery-backed microgrids can replace or reduce dependence on conventional battlefield generators

📈 One stat: Chariot Defense secured a $7.6m US military contract after raising $41m in private capital, including a $34m Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz

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