Third battery plant possible
Peak Energy looking to develop advanced sodium- ion technology
Adams County may soon land its third large- scale battery manufacturing plant, one producing more affordable and environmentally safer batteries.
The Colorado Economic Development Commission a pproved $ 1,053,000 in state Strategic Fund incentives on Thursday morning to Project Eleven, the code name for a startup developing sodium- ion battery technologies.
“The main drivers for the location d ecision are incentives, a business- friendly tax environment, access to talent and renewable e nergy policies,” M ichelle Hadwiger, director o f global business development at the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade told commissioners.
State support, w hich w ill come in the form of cash rather than the usual tax credit, is tied to the creation of 162 jobs over five years at a research and development campus and a battery foundry in Commerce City. Project Eleven is also considering locations in Michigan, K entucky and California.
The jobs, which include engineering, m anufacturing a nd management p ositions, are expected to pay an average annual wage of $ 120,000, which is 172% of the average annual wage in Adams County.
Local governments m ust match Strategic Fund awards and Commerce City is doing that. The combined incentives work out to $ 13,000 per job. The state incentive is linked to the company raising $ 26 million from investors, Hadwiger said. Late last year it raised about $ 10 million.
Although t he r equest w as presented under a code n ame, Landon Mossburg, a co- founder and CEO of Peak Energy, spoke on behalf of Project Eleven without hiding his identity.
“This will be very capital intensive, with lots of ramp up,” said Mossburg, who expects battery cell manufacturing c ould s tart in 2026.
Given t hat the company will likely report losses for the foreseeable future, it sought cash incentives rather than the tax credits, he told commissioners.
Mossburg helped Tesla scale up its battery manufacturing capacity as the company’s former engineering director. He also helped Northvolt, a Swedish b attery maker, e stablish a manufacturing base in North America.
Sodium i s about 500 times more a bundant than l ithium, and widely available in the U. S., reducing t he c ountry’s d ependence on f oreign sources. Mining sodium i s easier on the environment than l ithium extraction and sodium- ion batteries are much cheaper to mass produce.
Beyond that, sodium- ion batteries are less prone to overheating and catching fire, making t hem safer. And when t hey wear out, they are easier to recycle.
The big knock against them, however, is that they are less d ense, meaning they c an’t s tore a s much energy. Peak Energy said it has found a way to improve storage capacity a nd w ill continue t o research a dvances at its new campus.
Utilities and renewable energy p roducers a re e xpected to be the company’s biggest customers.
Renewable sources typically produce energy intermittently when the wind is blowing or the sun is shining. Storage is key to holding that e nergy so i t can
be provided to c ustomers when needed.
If Peak Energy chooses Commerce City, it will represent a g rowing s treak of battery providers, each with a d ifferent t echnology, s etting up in A dams County.
Federal incentives d esigned to bring more green energy and semiconductor manufacturing back to the U. S. have spurred a surge in investments.
Solid Power, b ased i n Louisville, started producing materials for solid- state batteries at a new factory in Thornton last year. That company is a s pin- off u sing technology developed at t he University of C olorado Boulder.
Amprius Technologies, based in F reemont, C alif., is converting an abandoned Kmart distribution hub on East Bromley Lane i n Brighton i nto a
775,000- square- foot f acility employing 330 workers making lithium- ion batteries. Amprius uses a newer silicon anode technology to b oost b attery d ensity and speed u p recharging times, a plus for electric vehicle makers.
The plant has faced community opposition, mostly from s urrounding h omeowners worried about lithium and fire dangers, but it is moving forward.
Commerce City now appears close to landing a sodiumion battery plant adding a third type of technology and helping the state develop a new industry.
The nation h as s een 77 battery projects representing $ 80 billion in investment and 49,000 new jobs announced since the signing of the Inflation Reduction Act in August of 2022, according to a Cushman & Wakefield study.