KORE Power announced the latest step in its plan to establish the first lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility owned by a U.S. company by narrowing its site search to locations in either Arizona, Florida or Texas. The one million square foot manufacturing facility will support up to 12 gigawatt hours (GWh) of battery cell production to ensure a reliable and independent U.S. supply chain for lithium-ion battery cells that are critical to the future of power grids, electric vehicles and more.
The KORE Power executive team has completed its exhaustive research work of the final three sites and is in deliberation based on both the quantitative monetary analysis of each location, as well as an in-depth qualitative evaluation of each state, region, and specific site.
KORE Power is the leading U.S.-based developer of battery cell technology for the energy storage and electric transportation industries. Founded in 2018, the company leveraged the experience of its contract manufacturing partner with more than 10 million battery cells that have been deployed by its global customer base.
The new manufacturing facility will add to the company’s current annual production capacity of 2 GWh that it is in the process of scaling up to 6 GWh in order to serve the rapidly growing battery market. KORE Power’s U.S. facility will create more than 3,000 new advanced manufacturing jobs at the selected site and strengthen U.S. energy security by creating a new domestic battery supply.
The company’s planned U.S. manufacturing project will operate with net-zero carbon emissions through strategic partnerships and solar-plus- and storage co-generation.
“We are delivering critical capacity in a market that’s starved for supply as we support the U.S. and global communities becoming greener,” said Lindsay Gorrill, KORE Power CEO. “Because we use proprietary software in our battery management systems, maintain the rights over our battery cell intellectual property and have influence over our minerals and materials process, we can quickly serve customers and adapt to changing needs, in an environment when many others are reportedly sold out until 2022.”
KORE Power plans to employ more than 3,000 full-time personnel at the facility, which will generate upwards of an estimated 10,000 direct and indirect jobs.
Through a national site search and evaluation of the energy storage, manufacturing and electric transportation opportunities across the country, KORE Power has narrowed its search to the three current locations. Other factors for selecting these states include:
Proximity to continental transportation arterials and international deep-water ports
World-leading clean energy utilities
Friendly tax, regulatory and strong pro-business environment
Established complimentary industries such as e-mobility, solar and semiconductor
State and Local economic development incentivization programs
Available workforce capacity
Local community support, cooperation, and commitment
The company plans to announce the site for its U.S. manufacturing facility in summer 2021.
