Riding the clean energy waves: How Sila’s Gene Berdichevsky built a next-gen battery powerhouse

Sila CEO and co-founder Gene Berdichevsky, left, and Chris Dougher, Sila’s VP of operations, at the startup’s Moses Lake facility. (Sila Photo) Sila raised its first round of funding in September 2011 — the same month solar power manufacturer Solyndra went bankrupt, sullying the sustainability sector. But the California-based startup developing high-performance battery materials kept plugging away, and eventually batteries started booming as EV sales and concerns about the lack of domestic batte