Natron Energy, the only commercial manufacturer of sodium-ion batteries in the U.S., has announced it will invest $1.4 billion to establish a sodium-ion battery giga-factory in Edgecombe County, North Carolina, creating 1,062 jobs once fully operating.
If completed, the facility from California-based Natron Energy will sit on Kingsboro Business Park, a 2,187-site east of Rocky Mount. Details on how many jobs Natron pledges to create will be shared when the North Carolina Economic Investment Committee convenes at 3 p.m. today.
Founded in 2012, Natron opened its first commercial battery factory in Holland, Michigan, this spring. Sodium-ion is an emerging battery material, and the company has received nearly $20 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to fund its initial commercial efforts. This money was part of a broader Biden administration initiative to help scale “high-risk and potentially disruptive new technologies” in the energy sector.
Natron has private backers as well; in January, the company has reported raising more than $300 million from investors, and United Airlines has made a “strategic equity investment” as it looks to electrify its airport ground equipment.
Compared to lithium-ion, another alternative battery material, sodium-ion is more abundant and faster charging. Natron has patented a type of blue electrodes that it says produces longer-lasting batteries when combined with sodium ions. The batteries Natron makes in Michigan are used to provide backup power to data centers, though the company says future use cases will expand.
Sodium is heavier than lithium and therefore “is more promising for stationary rather than portable applications,” said Katerina Aifantis, a University of Florida researcher who studies nanomaterials and energy storage. She added that sodium ion is also more environmentally friendly than its lithium counterpart. With Natron, North Carolina has further pinned its economic future to environmentally sustainable alternative batteries. Since 2021, the state has awarded incentives to several lithium-ion battery projects — including a 5,000-worker Toyota factory in Randolph County as well as smaller plants near Charlotte, Wilmington and Raleigh.
Other southeastern states like Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina have also announced electric vehicle battery plants in recent years, joining traditional Midwestern auto industry hotbeds Michigan, Ohio and Indiana to form a so-called “battery belt.”
