Woodinville-based battery technology company Group14 Technologies isn't done after landing $100 million from the Department of Energy on Wednesday.
Grant Ray, Group14's vice president of global market strategy, said the company "absolutely" will apply for more government funding if more is available. Twenty companies in total will receive $2.8 billion through the first round of grants, which followed the passage last year of President Joe Biden's $1 trillion infrastructure law, but the DOE is providing over $7 billion to advance battery technology in the U.S.
"If there's something that the government has mandated as being strategic, and we're a lot of that strategy, we're absolutely going to what we can to be able to fulfill that need," Ray said.
Group14 is using the DOE funding for two manufacturing modules at its planned Moses Lake facility, which is supposed to open in the second half of next year. Ray said the money will go toward building and hiring, as well as making inroads in the Moses Lake community. The company plans to hire 500 people in Moses Lake. Group14 currently has about 100 employees, Ray said, including roughly 15 or 20 people in Moses Lake.
Ray didn't say where the new facility will be in Moses Lake but added that Group14 should be able to disclose that information soon once more logistics are in order. Group14 builds its modules one at a time, Ray said, so the company will start building the second module right after the first one is ready, a milestone expected to arrive in the second half of next year.
Group14, founded in 2015, makes a silicon-based anode powder designed to replace the traditional graphite powder in batteries. The goal is to make batteries smaller, cheaper and longer-lasting without succumbing to the breaking and cracking that has plagued silicon-based batteries for years. Group14 says battery makers don't need to make manufacturing changes to incorporate the new technology.
The DOE's Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains is doling out the funding. Group14's Woodinville facility launched in April 2021 and can produce 120 tons per year of its silicon powder. According to the company, the facility supplies more than 60 customers right now. Group14 says the modules in Moses Lake will each produce 2,000 tons per year.
Group14 competitor Sila Nanotechnologies, headquartered in Alameda, California, is also making inroads in Moses Lake, as the company in May announced the purchase of a more than 600,000-square-foot facility in the small central Washington town. Sila, which is also receiving $100 million from the DOE, expects its Moses Lake facility to start production in the second half of 2024. OneD battery sciences, headquartered in Palo Alto, California, is retrofitting two 12,500-square-foot buildings it is leasing in Moses Lake.
In addition to cheap electrical rates and a strong labor pool, Moses Lake is also home to REC Silicon, a polysilicon producer for the solar industry that has a byproduct gas called silane, which is crucial to this battery technology. REC had to shutter its Moses Lake plant in 2019 due to the trade war with China but plans to reopen the plant next year after a major investment earlier this year from the South Korean manufacturing company Hanwha Corp.
Ray said Group14 is in ongoing conversations with REC about a future silane manufacturing agreement.
"We do have a strategy to be able to pull from multiple sources," Ray said. "We love working with REC. We definitely just make sure that we're able to bring in as much silane as possible to meet the demands."
