Battery maker Natron Energy plans massive North Carolina expansion
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Natron Energy, a battery startup making an alternative to lithium-based batteries, plans to invest $1.4 billion into a manufacturing plant in Edgecombe County near Rocky Mount after agreeing to a large incentives package with the state on Thursday.
Why it matters: The battery maker would bring significant investment to the Kingsboro Business Park, a site that economic developers have been trying to find a tenant for since a Chinese tire maker called Triangle Tyre canceled plans for a factory there due to tariffs.
Zoom in: Natron is expected to create 1,062 jobs in Edgecombe County between 2028 and 2032, according to the N.C. Department of Commerce. The positions would have a minimum average wage of $64,071.
- The company said it will construct a 1.2 million-square-foot facility at the business park that would only use domestic supplies.
- If it meets hiring and investment goals, Natron would be eligible for more than $50 million in incentives from the state's Job Development Investment Grant and its Megasite Readiness Program.
- Local incentives would add another $130 million in incentives, according to the Commerce Department.
- Natron also looked at sites in South Carolina and Tennessee, according to Commerce.
The big picture: Natron, which has one other factory in Michigan, is attractive to investors because its sodium-ion battery technology boasts lower costs and easier supply chains compared to lithium, Axios previously reported.
- The company's customers include large industrial users like data centers and oil drillers — though its batteries are too large currently for electric vehicles, the Wall Street Journal noted.
- The North Carolina plant would be significantly larger than its existing Michigan factory, producing 24 gigawatts of sodium-ion batteries annually compared to 600 megawatts.
Threat level: While California-based Natron has raised around $300 million from investors, according to PitchBook, it still needs to raise a significant amount of private capital to get the North Carolina plant built, the Wall Street Journal reports.
It's been a tricky time recently to raise funds for a next-gen battery factory, Axios reported.
- Last year investors supercharged the energy storage sector, led by some megadeals. But a chill hit climate venture funding in the first half of this year.
State of play: North Carolina has recruited several other large battery makers in recent years — including Toyota's large facility in Randolph County and Forge Nano in Morrisville — but those all employ lithium-ion technology.
- Edgecombe County, located around 70 miles east of Raleigh, has struggled economically, and has an unemployment rate of 6.1%, higher than the national rate of 4.3%.
- Some big-name employers have laid off workers in the Rocky Mount area in recent years, including Pfizer and around 2,000 jobs at a QVC distribution center that burned down in 2021.