A $50 million financing package through a Biden administration initiative is expected to lead to 100 new jobs for Wilsonville grid energy storage company ESS (NYSE: GWH).
The support from the Export-Import Bank of the United States will help ESS expand its production capacity and sell more of its iron flow batteries overseas, the bank and company said.
"ESS's iron flow technology is already deployed in Australia and Europe and with this agreement, we are well positioned to meet the growing needs of our current and future global customers," ESS CEO Eric Dresselhuys said in a written statement.
'Make More in America' program
The financing comes through the EXIM's "Make More in America" program, a product of a broad White House effort to boost domestic manufacturing in key industries. It provides medium- and long-term loans and loan guarantees. Provisions of the program require that for a company of ESS's size, at least 15% of products need to be for export.
Two of ESS's biggest announced supply deals are in Australia and Germany.
ESS employed 231 people as of the end of last year, down from 271 a year earlier. The company has said it expects to regain workers this year as it increases production and deliveries.
ESS financial picture
ESS raised more than $250 million when it went public in October 2021 through a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. It lost about $78 million in each of the past two years and had about $90 million in cash and short-term investments at the end of the 2024 first quarter.
That was enough to take it "well into the first half of 2025," ESS said in a May quarterly earnings report, but with its stock price stuck below $1, the non-dilutive EXIM financing opportunity was obviously welcome.
ESS had sales of $7.5 million last year, missing a $9 million target, but management touted success in boosting capacity and lowering production costs by 60%. The company expects a big pickup in business in the second half of this year with revenue tripling or quadrupling over 2023.
Long duration storage
Energy storage is being deployed rapidly around the world as the grid transitions to renewable sources. Lithium-ion batteries — not unlike the ones that power consumer products and electric vehicles — is the dominant technology.
ESS offers an alternative technology that works by storing energy in an iron-based liquid electrolyte. A chief selling point is output of up to 12 hours, three times what's generally offered by lithium-ion systems. ESS has one product in the market, called the Energy Warehouse, and is close to begin shipping its larger Energy Center.
