BERKELEY COUNTY, S.C. – A Nevada-based producer of anode and cathode battery components for electric vehicles recently broke ground on its newest factory in Berkeley County.
“And we’re off! Redwood Materials has officially broken ground in South Carolina at our second battery materials campus!” Director of Public Affairs and Government Relations Morgan Crapps announced via LinkedIn. “An exciting milestone as we move one step closer to closing the loop and creating a circular supply chain for battery materials here in North America.”
Currently, anode and cathode components are not produced in North America, and battery cell manufacturers have to source them via a 50,000+ mile global supply chain.
According to Redwood Materials, localizing the production of critical battery components and ensuring these materials are recycled is the only way to drive down costs, emissions, and geopolitical risks while meeting U.S. battery and electrification demand.
A new manufacturing corridor from Michigan to Georgia is becoming known as America’s “Battery Belt” and is where hundreds of GWh a year of battery cell production capacity will be built and start operating between now and 2030. Yet, unless metals like lithium and nickel are produced and refined and remain in the country for domestic anode and cathode manufacturing at scale, these American battery cell facilities will have to continually source the majority of their components, predominantly from Asia.
The more than 600-acre campus, located at Camp Hall Commerce Park in Ridgeville (Berkeley County), will initially produce enough anode and cathode material for 100 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of battery cell production or 1 million electric vehicles each year.
Eventually, the campus will produce 100 GWh of cathode and anode components per year –enough to power more than one million EVs.
“South Carolina’s commitment to creating a secure energy future and a competitive landscape for electric vehicle manufacturing, supported by a world-class workforce, fast and efficient logistics, zero-carbon electricity and a phenomenal site made it a smart decision for Redwood to invest here. Redwood’s South Carolina Battery Materials Campus will recycle, refine and remanufacture anode and cathode components allowing us to support our current and future customers in the heart of America’s battery belt. We’re ready to support this region and U.S. electrification by driving down battery costs, emissions, and reducing reliance on foreign supply chains,” Redwood Materials Founder and Chief Executive Officer JB Straubel said in a news release.
The company’s $3.5 billion investment, which marks the largest economic development announcement in the history of South Carolina, will create 1,500 new jobs.
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