Redwood Materials Plans $3.5B Battery Materials Facility In South Carolina
Redwood Materials is planning to develop a 600-acre battery materials and recycling facility in South Carolina. It will eventually employ about 1,500 workers, according to the company.
The startup, founded by former Tesla co-founder J.B. Straubel, agreed to spend at least $3.5B in the state over the next decade, though it isn't clear what incentives it was offered to pick the South Carolina location, Tech Crunch reports.
The facility, which will be developed in Berkeley County near Charleston, South Carolina, will produce 100 gigawatt-hours of cathode and anode components per year, Redwood said, with the potential to expand its production.
The plant will take spent batteries, break them down to their basic metals — such as nickel, copper, cobalt and lithium — and use that raw material to make cathode and anode products, which are important in the production of new batteries, including lithium-ion.
The demand for electric vehicle batteries is expected to balloon in the coming years as U.S. drivers turn toward EVs. Electronic vehicles might total nearly 30% of U.S. auto sales by 2030, according to EV data specialist EVAdoption.
As demand for batteries increases, so will domestic battery production and the need for the components that make those batteries, according to Redwood.
As it stands, battery cell manufacturers have to source these components from other parts of the world, since anode and cathode components generally aren't produced in North America.
Other U.S.-based entities, however, are also developing domestic battery material manufacturing capabilities, such as Novonix, which has an anode materials production facility in Tennessee.
