Dive Brief:
- Battery materials company Novonix received a conditional $754.8 million Energy Department loan for a synthetic graphite facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the agency announced Dec 16.
- The Novonix facility will make material for EV battery anodes, which are currently largely sourced from China, according to the release.
- The project will create 450 operational jobs and produce 31,500 metric tonnes per year of synthetic graphite, supporting 325,000 EV batteries annually. The Chattanooga facility is expected to reach full production capacity by the end of 2028.
Dive Insight:
China currently has over 95% of the global market share for battery grade graphite, according to Novonix’s press release.
Novonix has one existing facility in Chattanooga, which produces a large-scale synthetic graphite for batteries and scheduled for commercial production in 2025.
The Australia-based battery materials and technology company signed synthetic graphite supply deals with Panasonic Energy, Stellantis and PowerCo for graphite produced at an existing facility in Chattanooga.
The factory aims to reach an output of 20,000 tonnes annually to meet customer demand and has secured a $100 million grant from the DOE’s Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains and a $103 million investment tax credit.
Novonix is boosting the local workforce by collaborating with educational institutions like Tennessee State University, creating STEM-focused training programs and offering employment opportunities to disadvantaged groups, including individuals formerly in prison and low-income students.
The company will also hire displaced fossil fuel workers and partner with five labor unions for construction of the new facility. Novonix says 75 local union tradespeople are working each day on average at its existing facility in Chattanooga.
The loan will be issued through DOE’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program.
The program has approved millions of dollars of loans for clean energy battery projects in recent weeks, including $7.5 billion to StarPlus Energy for two battery plants in Indiana, $6.6 billion to Rivian to build a Georgia electric vehicle plant and a $9.63 billion loan to Ford Motor Co.’s joint venture with SK On for plants in Tennessee and Kentucky.
