Sodium-ion battery manufacturer Natron Energy plans to spend $1.4 billion on a giant factory in Edgecombe County, North Carolina.
The 1.2 million square foot (111,500 sqm) facility, at the Kingsboro CSX Select Megasite, is expected to produce 24GW of batteries annually at full capacity and lead to 1,000 jobs.
The state will provide a Job Development Investment Grant of up to $21.75 million and incentives through the North Carolina Megasite Readiness Program worth around $30m.
“Today is a momentous day for Natron Energy. This flagship manufacturing facility will dramatically accelerate our efforts to deliver sodium-ion batteries to customers who are hungry for safe, reliable, and environmentally responsible energy storage solutions,” said Colin Wessells, founder and co-CEO, Natron Energy.
“After evaluating over 70 sites across nine states, we found that North Carolina, with its leadership in the clean energy revolution, would make the perfect home for this project. We are proud to partner with the state on this ambitious project to deliver high-quality jobs to the community while advancing the electrification of our economy. We look forward to joining the Edgecombe County business community.”
The announcement follows the opening of a smaller factory in Holland, Michigan, in April. That site, the first commercial-scale sodium-ion battery facility in the US, is expected to produce 600MW annually at full capacity.
"We expect our battery solutions will be used to power the explosive growth in data centers used for artificial intelligence," Wendell Brooks, co-CEO, said at the time. The company has also targeted the telecoms sector, as well as industrial mobility and EV fast charging.
The company claims that its approach leads to zero strain during charging and discharge, 10x faster cycling than traditional lithium-ion batteries, and a more than 50,000 cycle-life. Its solution is currently the only UL-listed sodium-ion battery on the market.
In June, startup Unigrid raised $12m for its own sodium-ion battery development, which it said could be used for data centers. A month later, the DOE announced that it was looking to spend $100m on non-lithium battery storage projects.
