Battery materials startup Sila is starting operations today at its automotive-scale manufacturing facility, located in Moses Lake, Wash.
The plant is producing a silicon-carbon anode material that replaces graphite in lithium-ion batteries like those used to power electric vehicles, smartphones and other consumer devices. Batteries using Sila’s Titan Silicon can hold 20% more energy than traditional batteries.
The new plant measures 600,000 square-feet and is situated on a 160-acre site in the arid, Eastern Washington location.
Sila’s operations will start at a relatively modest capacity, producing enough anode material for 2 to 5 gigawatt hours of battery capacity. Depending on how much of the graphite is replaced by Sila’s product, that initial volume is enough to power tens of thousands of EVs or millions of mobile devices.
The plan is to scale to 250 gigawatt hours of material by the end of the decade, which would make the Sila plant the largest anode production facility in the world, the company said. Sila has shared news of partnerships with Mercedes-Benz and Panasonic, and expects to start shipping material to customers as soon as next year.
The opening of the site comes at a time when the U.S. clean energy sector is battling economic headwinds as the Trump administration has canceled funding and initiatives supporting many climate-related projects.
The Biden administration created programs to bolster domestic battery production to compete with China, who is the global lead in manufacturing the energy cells. Sila won a $100 million U.S. Department of Energy grant in 2022 as part of that effort.
“This is not just about building a factory. It is about closing the gap between innovation and manufacturing in America,” said Gene Berdichevsky, Sila’s CEO and co-founder, in a statement.
“If we do not execute, innovation will flow to places that can,” he added. “We have to build here in the United States to create a self-sustaining innovation economy, ensuring that our advancements in next-generation battery technology, like silicon-carbon anodes, are not only conceived but also produced domestically at a global scale.”
The company broke ground in Moses Lake less than two years ago and last year raised $375 million to help fund the completion of the plant. Sila has netted more than $1.3 billion from investors. The company launched in 2011 and is based in Alameda, Calif. It has 400 employees, with 100 working at the manufacturing plant.
“This new facility is a prime example of the domestic innovation needed to end our dependency on foreign countries for advanced battery technology and produce high-quality, cutting-edge technologies that protect our supply chains here at home,” said U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., who represents Moses Lake.
Sila competitor Group14 Technologies is building nearby, but earlier this year laid off an undisclosed number of employees and delayed its manufacturing start date. Group14 this summer secured $463 million from investors.
California-based OneD Battery Sciences shuttered its pilot manufacturing facility in Moses Lake this past spring, and appears to have ceased all operations.
Other Pacific Northwest battery materials startups include Ecellix and Emerald Battery Labs, which are based in Seattle, and Oregon’s Skip Technologies and ZincFive.
Sila expects to employ up to 500 people in Moses Lake when it ramps up to full capacity. It’s partnering with Big Bend Community College and Columbia Basin Technical Skills Center to support workforce development.
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