What does it take to change the world? If you ask Lonnie Johnson, it’s about relentless curiosity, betting on yourself, and the kind of perseverance that turns “impossible” into “inevitable.” After nearly three decades of self-funded, against-all-odds research, the Hall of Fame inventor and his team have delivered a game-changer: A true all-solid-state battery that is safer, more powerful, and cheaper than today’s standards—meaning it has the potential to transform energy storage for electric vehicles, renewable power, and more.
Using royalties generated by his hit consumer success, the Super Soaker, he’s poured his attention and creativity into solving one of the toughest challenges in energy technology. Now, prototypes of his battery are finalizing independent testing with UL, and his company, Johnson Energy Storage, has begun development of a pilot manufacturing line in Atlanta that is capable of making full-sized cells.
This is a David-versus-Goliath tale of an independent inventor who refused to quit. I’ve spent my career championing independent inventors who dare to dream big, and Dr. Johnson’s story tops the list. His latest triumph is more than a breakthrough: It’s a testament to what happens when brilliance meets unbreakable resolve.
A Vision For the Future Born of Tenacity
Johnson has always been an innovator and a force of nature. As a high-school student in segregated Mobile, Alabama, he built an award-winning remote-controlled robot that used a mechanical computer with a reel-to-reel tape recorder as its memory in 1968. After receiving a math scholarship and an Air Force scholarship to Tuskegee University, a historically Black university that’s famous for the Tuskegee Airmen, he earned degrees in mechanical and nuclear engineering. While studying space launches that used nuclear power in the Air Force, he identified a potential problem that NASA had overlooked, and was consequently invited to join its Galileo Mission, in which unmanned spacecraft were sent to study Jupiter and its moons.
Now with more than 150 U.S. patents to his name, he has devoted himself to one of his true passions: Energy technology.
“I’ve had this long-term interest in energy and awareness of the impact our use of fossil fuels has had on the environment,” he shared in an interview. That vision drove him to launch Johnson Energy Storage (JES) and chase a dream others deemed too daunting: A solid-state battery that’s safer, more powerful, and cheaper than what’s available today.
Back in the late ‘90s, while the world obsessed over lithium-ion, Dr. Johnson looked further. He saw solid-state as the future but knew the clunky, costly methods of the time wouldn’t scale. So, he set out to develop a glass electrolyte separator that could be melted, flowed into a cathode, and solidified into an all-ceramic, metal masterpiece.
“We’ve looked down a lot of empty rabbit holes,” he admitted. “It’s been a hard science project.”
Here’s the remarkable part: He did it without the safety net of institutional funding. Using his own resources from past licensing successes, plus strategic seed investors and a handful of government grants, he built a team of problem-solvers in Atlanta and kept them going through thick and thin.
“What’s been a challenge is resources—keeping the team together,” he said. “Ups and downs in making payroll… those times you’re trying to hold things together.”
A Breakthrough in Battery Technology Worth Betting On
Unlike other “solid-state” contenders that sneak in liquid electrolytes or rely on pricey, unstable materials, Dr. Johnson’s glass electrolyte delivers by boasting higher conductivity, suppressing dangerous shorts, and thriving across a wide temperature range—all while slashing production costs.
“It’s all ceramic, glass, and metal materials,” he explained. “It’s not flammable, won’t burst open, and doesn’t need the cooling systems lithium-ion requires.”
Picture an EV you can drive twice as far without charging, renewable energy grids that store power more efficiently, and consumer gadgets that don’t overheat. That’s the enormous potential here! Preliminary results from having the batteries independently tested by UL have confirmed to Johnson and his team at JES that they are well on the technical path to producing a true all-solid-state battery.
“We’re eager to get this out so people can compare and realize the real benefits,” Dr. Johnson said. It’s not only superior technology—it’s cheaper to manufacture.
That’s the kind of innovation that turns industries upside down.
The Underdog’s Fight for the Spotlight
While other battery firms have secured major funding, Dr. Johnson’s had to bootstrap his way to this point. Why? Maybe it’s the skepticism independent inventors face. Maybe some still see him as “that guy who invented the water gun” and miss the genius staring them in the face. Or maybe it’s simply tougher for an inventor who happens to be Black—even with a resume of serving in the Air Force, creating power supply devices for interplanetary spacecraft for NASA, and being a prolific inventor—to receive institutional approval. He hasn’t let it stop him.
Instead, JES recently tapped Brandon Martin, a Marine Corps veteran with 12 years in renewable energy, as its CEO. Martin’s strategy has been pursuing early-stage capital from the Black community as JES continues to identify institutional investors and other strategic partners. It’s working: Since then, the team at JES has doubled, and funding has taken off.
“We are building a coalition of investors that believe in a legendary innovator whose inventions are still working deep in outer space decades later and who is now working on technology that will propel American innovation for generations to come,” Martin explains.
With an initial $500,000 from Invest Georgia, JES has raised over $15 million—blowing past its $5 million goal—thanks to backers including Myles Garrett, Magic Johnson, and Southern Company. With another $1 million investment from Innovate Alabama, momentum is building.
From Lab to a Lasting Legacy in Energy and Battery Technology
JES isn’t stopping at test cells. A prototype manufacturing line is already underway, and a new 70,000-square-foot headquarters with expanded labs will break ground in Atlanta later this year.
Partnerships are key—like the one with Tuskegee University, where Dr. Johnson’s Alabama roots run deep. The new Dr. Lonnie Johnson Technology Research & Incubation Center will continue bridging the gap between academia and industry by training students, sparking jobs, and in the process, boosting the economies in Alabama, Georgia, and the Southeast at large. The collaboration is an extension of a long-standing relationship between JES and Tuskegee, which serves as a cornerstone of JES’s research and professional pipeline.
“We’re ready to move this out of the lab,” he said. “These batteries are being handmade by PhD-level scientists. Now, it’s time to scale.”
With dozens of U.S. patents related to the energy sector, a track record of licensing success, and a growing team, he’s ready to capitalize on the momentum.
A Call to Arms for Visionary Inventors
Inventors like Dr. Johnson are the unsung heroes of progress. They don’t have corporate cushions, yet they deliver breakthroughs that reshape our world.
“If I develop the next generation of battery tech and get the IP in place, I can wait on the industry to realize this is the next great step,” he told me. “I’ll be there with the solution.” That’s the inventor’s playbook: Patience, persistence, and an ambitious plan.
But they can’t do it alone. His story is a reminder: The boldest ideas often come from the underdogs.
“My goal was to come up with solutions to the environmental challenge we face,” he said. “Seeing the technology take on a life of its own—that’s success.”
Join me in celebrating this milestone. A kid from Mobile who built a robot in 1968, solved a problem that others had struggled with before he arrived at NASA, and turned royalties from a beloved toy into a world-changing energy solution deserves more than a pat on the back; he deserves support. His persistence shows what’s possible when you refuse to quit.
Isn’t it time we rallied behind the visionaries who’ve already defied the odds? The future of clean energy is an all solid-state battery.
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