The Structural Battery Company has secured a spot in a joint UK-Canada initiative aimed at supporting dual-use technologies. This 12-month program, involving eight UK firms, is part of Innovate UK’s Global Incubator Programme: Seabed to Space Dual-use Technologies, in collaboration with COVE, a Halifax-based innovation center in Nova Scotia.
This initiative aims to support the company’s efforts to expand its structural battery technology into aerospace, defense, and maritime sectors. By participating, the company joins a cohort focused on developing technologies with applications in both civilian and defense domains.
Incubator Programme Benefits
According to Innovate UK, participants will gain valuable connections to Canadian clients, commercial partners, investors, testing facilities, and real-world maritime environments. The Structural Battery Company specializes in creating batteries that are integrated into a vehicle’s structural framework, eliminating the need for separate storage.
Their flagship product, Drone Spine, replaces traditional airframe components with structural energy storage. This innovative approach minimizes redundancy, as batteries no longer require separate housings within the frame.
Market Development
John Moffat, CEO of The Structural Battery Company, expressed enthusiasm about the program’s potential to accelerate market growth in North America. “We’re thrilled to be selected for this Innovate UK programme, which will add precision and speed to the commercialisation of Drone Spine, our core product, and help us develop structural power systems for North American defence, aerospace and maritime markets.
Technology and Applications
Martin Lucy, senior manager at Innovate UK, highlighted the company’s selection due to its technology’s relevance to the program’s challenges. “The SB Co. was selected because its structural battery technology addresses a challenge common to almost every platform in the programme’s seabed-to-space scope: the trade-off between power, mass and payload capability.
In a February 2025 collaboration with ISS Aerospace and Marshall Aerospace, funded by the UK’s Defence and Security Accelerator, the company showcased a 400-volt structural battery in a heavy-lift aircraft with a 600kg maximum take-off weight. During a tethered flight test, the battery became an integral part of the aircraft’s load-bearing structure, proving that energy storage can replace, rather than add to, structural mass.
Moffat emphasized the importance of accessing partners and facilities for a small company’s international growth. “Our size as a company allows us to move quickly, while programmes like this give us access to the customers, facilities and partners needed to turn innovation into deployable capability. Canada has a world-class ocean technology ecosystem, and COVE provides an excellent platform from which to build our North American presence,” Moffat concluded.