Sila Nanotechnologies Inc., an Alameda, California-based battery technology company, is moving forward with plans to open a manufacturing facility in Moses Lake.
In May, Sila purchased a more than 600,000-square-foot facility in Moses Lake that will cost in the "low nine figures" to get ready for production, according to a company spokesperson. The plant will start production in the second half of 2024 and reach full production in the first half of 2025.
The Business Journal traveled to Moses Lake, located in Grant County, and saw the building Sila purchased. The photograph is below.
Sila, which incorporated in 2011, makes a silicon-based anode powder to replace the traditional graphite powder in batteries. The technology can improve energy density, the company says, and its technology can drop into existing manufacturing processes.
Sila is eyeing consumer electronics and already powers a fitness tracker called the Whoop 4.0. Its larger ambitions, however, include electric vehicles. The company raised $590 million last year.
Its Moses Lake plant sits on 160 acres. Initial production at the plant can power between 100,000 and 500,000 electric vehicles and 500 million mobile phones each year. Sila plans to hire about 100 workers at the facility to start.
The location of Sila's new facility is fortuitous given its neighbor, REC Silicon, is a polysilicon producer for the solar industry. REC, headquartered in Norway, has plants in Moses Lake and Butte, Montana. The company produces a gas called silane that is crucial to Sila's technology. REC's Moses Lake plant had been dormant since 2019 due to the trade war with China, but it is reopening after a major investment earlier this year from South Korean manufacturing company Hanwha Corp.
REC's Moses Lake plant will hit first production in late 2023 with full production coming in 2024. REC can currently supply silane for the smaller-scale operations of Sila, but REC CEO James May previously told the Business Journal the company needs more assurance battery tech companies will actually need the silane before building the infrastructure to supply the large-scale amounts necessary for electric vehicles.
Woodinville-based Group14 Technologies, a Sila competitor, is also setting up shop in Moses Lake, and the company raised $400 million in May. The company, founded in 2015, plans to build a large-scale manufacturing facility that will open in the second half of 2023. Group14 declined to say where in Moses Lake the company plans to build its facility.
The story has been updated to reflect that it will cost in the "low nine figures" to prepare the facility for production. The amount does not include the cost of the factory and land.
