David Herron .com

Battery maker A123Systems, one of the few startups to win funding under the competitive battery grant program earlier this year, is taking home more than $2.86 million. And early stage battery materials startup Amprius, which is backed by VantagePoint Venture Partners and Trident Capital, has snagged the maximum award of $3 million. Amprius — Silicon Nanowires for Better Batteries: A continuous manufacturing process for a silicon-based anode material for lithium-ion batteries. The idea is to build a battery with higher energy density using nanostructured silicon instead of graphite for the anode material. Battery startup Envia Systems is working on a similar project using silicon-carbon composite anodes and manganese-rich cathodes to produce higher energy-density batteries. A123Systems — Second-Generation Cathode Materials: A123Systems, meanwhile, has won funding for a four-year project involving the cathode (positive electrode) material for lithium-ion batteries.