The Battery Life takes viewers inside the labs, startups, and boardrooms redefining energy storage to tell one of the greatest stories of our time
Here’s a hot take from someone who spends every day inside the battery industry: we are terrible at telling our own story. Energy storage is one of the most consequential technologies of our lifetime, it is the quiet engine behind clean power, electric transportation, and a stable grid. Yet the people closest to it tend to speak in technical shorthand, and in that gap, misinformation and clickbait take over the story.
Every great era of humanity has been defined by how we master power: fire, steam, the atom. The next era won’t be defined by how we make energy, but by how we store it. This story deserves to be told well. So we decided to tell it.
The Battery Life is the first documentary series dedicated to the pioneers on the frontlines of energy-storage innovation. Picture a mix of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown, and a distinctly Pacific Northwest vibe. No jargon, no lectures, just real people having real, unscripted conversations that make genuinely complex science feel human and exciting. Every episode is reviewed by the labs, manufacturers, and testing centers we feature, so it stays technically accurate and credible for engineers, regulators, and investors while remaining fun for everyone else.
After a year of planning, filming, and editing, The Battery Life is finally here. The Pacific Northwest Battery Collaborative and Outfit are thrilled to announce that the first two pilot episodes of the series are now live and free to watch, and this is just the beginning!
The pioneers in our first two episodes
Our two pilot episodes were filmed in Seattle and Portland, and they take viewers straight to the frontier. We visited Group14 Technologies, the world’s largest silicon battery-materials company; ZincFive, which is pioneering nickel-zinc batteries for the massive data-center boom; and Emerald Battery Labs, advancing the sodium-ion chemistry that could reshape the supply chain. We stepped inside the Washington Clean Energy Testbeds, the largest open-access battery fabrication lab on the West Coast, met the team at Elexity using software to balance battery loads building by building, and climbed aboard the vision at magniX, where electric manned flight is becoming real. Along the way we sat down with the scientists and founders behind it all.
Why the Pacific Northwest
There’s a reason we started here. The region has quietly assembled an entire battery ecosystem, across materials, testing, intelligent controls, recycling as well as battery customers such as the local robust aviation, maritime, and data-center sectors. The corridor from Seattle to Portland rivals anywhere in the country for energy-storage innovation, and most people have no idea it exists. Putting it on screen is the fastest way to change that, because high-quality, honest stories build trust with buyers, partners, and funders far faster than any white paper ever could.
And we’re just getting started
These are pilots, but they’re pilots with a purpose. Our next episodes are already planned, with remarkable stories waiting to be told and technology ready to showcase. We’re inviting sponsors and partners across industry, academia, and government to help power a full season by sponsoring an episode. And if you know an innovator whose story deserves the spotlight, we want to hear from you.
You can watch both pilot episodes today on YouTube here:
- Episode 1, “The Materials Revolution” (Seattle)
- Episode 2, “The Intelligence Revolution” (Portland).
To sponsor an episode or share your story with us, email [email protected] and [email protected].
Grayson Shor is the co-creator and host of The Battery Life and the Founder & Executive Director of the Pacific Northwest Battery Collaborative, the region’s largest battery industry association, with more than 1,500 members. A former U.S. diplomat who served as lead environmental intelligence briefer to Secretary of State John Kerry and previously started Amazon Worldwide Operations’ circular economy and battery sustainability program across more than 20 countries.
Robert W. Cross is the Principal of Outfit, a design and production studio, and CEO of Cross Consulting, where he advises cleantech leaders on revenue and go-to-market strategy. He is the co-creator and producer of The Battery Life, pairing design-grade storytelling with the commercialization pathways that help featured companies turn on-screen credibility into market traction.
