Group14 Technologies, a developer of advanced silicon battery materials, has been selected for an award negotiation of up to $200 million by the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC) as part of the second set of projects funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to expand domestic battery manufacturing for electric vehicles and the electrical grid.

The award, the second time Group14 has been selected for a large-scale DOE grant in support of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, following its initial $100-million award in 2022, would support the construction of a new silane factory in Moses Lake, Washington. This factory is expected to produce 7,200 metric tons of silane gas annually—a key raw material for next-generation silicon batteries.

The largest global source of silane today is China, so the supply of silane gas in the US must be increased to secure the US silicon battery industry. A new silane factory in Washington state will allow Group14 and other silicon battery companies in the US to source this critical raw material domestically, to support EV-scale battery production and reduce foreign battery supply chain dependence.

—Group14 CEO and Co-Founder, Rick Luebbe

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The DOE award would allow Group14 to build a silane factory using its proprietary intellectual property which produces silane at a significantly reduced capital and energy requirement from the conventional process. Siting the plant in Moses Lake, Washington, will allow the facility to directly feed silane to the locally based silicon battery plants, alleviating a critical bottleneck for the industry.

The project is expected to create more than 300 jobs to construct the silane factory and retain 150 employees to commission, ramp up, and sustain production.

Group14 is scaling its global manufacturing capabilities worldwide. The company’s advanced Battery Active Materials (BAM-1) factory has been manufacturing at the ton-scale since 2021. It has delivered shipments of SCC55 to more than 100 customers representing 95% of worldwide lithium-ion battery production.

Group14’s BAM-2 factory in Moses Lake, Washington, is expected to be the world’s largest for advanced silicon battery materials with an initial annual capacity of 4,000 tons of SCC55 or 20 GWh of silicon battery material. The first 2,000 tons (10,000 GWh) of capacity from BAM-2 is expected to start production in Q4 2024. With more than 30 GWh of production capacity when combined with the company’s JV in South Korea, Group14 is placed to be the leading EV-scale mass producer of advanced silicon materials, the company said.

To date, Group14 has raised more than $650 million in financing from investors and customers such as Porsche AG, Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, OMERS, Lightrock Climate Impact Fund, Decarbonization Partners, Amperex Technology Limited (ATL), BASF, Resonac and SK Inc.