Group14 Technologies has announced the commencement of the construction of a second commercial-scale U.S Battery Active Materials factory in Moses Lake. This hopes to support efforts to advance the electric vehicle market.
The company has said that the campus will be one-million-square-foot and will be hope to the world’s largest factory of advanced silicon battery materials for EV programs to meet global decarbonization targets.
“Boosting the nation’s global competitiveness in battery manufacturing comes down to strengthening domestic supply chains, which is why we are ramping up our second U.S. factory at the speed in which we need to see innovation scale,” said Rick Luebbe, CEO and co-founder of Group14 Technologies. “By accelerating the timeline for market-ready, transformational battery technology, we are putting the power to electrify everything into the hands of U.S. workers who will become the backbone of the clean energy economy.”
Initially there was a $614 million Series C funding round backed by Porsche AG and Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, with an additional $100 million grant from the Biden-Harris Administration and the U.S Department of Energy. Another clear innovation project supported by the Biden-Administration grants.
Using this funding, Group14’s second BAM factory at 13400 East Wheeler Road in Moses Lake will join its first factory in Woodinville, in manufacturing commercial quantities of SCC55, stated the release.
“Drawing from our team’s experience in manufacturing batteries for supercapacitors since the early 2000s, Group14 has prioritized our capacity to scale not only our technology but our manufacturing capabilities from day one,” said Rick Costantino, co-founder and CTO at Group14 Technologies. “With an eye to the importance of process innovation, we are full steam ahead on building our second commercial factory in Washington State in order to allow us to move at a pace that can match today’s skyrocketing demands.”
The BAM-2 factory in Moses Lake is reported to begin with two large-scale manufacturing modules, each capable of delivering 2,000 tons per year of SCC55.
The release states that the production lines for the two initial modules are expected to come online and begin manufacturing SCC55 for customers in 2024.
The new campus hopes to employ 400 employees for the construction alone, partnering on the build with Clayco, Inc.
Group14 expects to hire an additional 200 employees in Moses Lake across manufacturing, engineering and more to support the factory’s day-to-day operations for the first two modules.
As Group14 expands its workforce in Moses Lake, the company is working closely with more than 20 community-based organizations on increased clean energy job creation, hiring, job training and more to foster equal opportunity across the full spectrum of cultures that shape the local community.
Source: Group14 Technologies
