NOVONIX wins $100-million DOE grant to increase synthetic graphite production

NOVONIX has announced that its Anode Materials division finalized its $100 million grant award from the US Department of Energy (DOE). This grant will enable an expansion of the production of synthetic graphite anode materials at its Riverside facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee. NOVONIX is a battery technology company that has gained a prominent position in the electric vehicle (EV) and energy storage systems battery industries.

In October of last year, NOVONIX announced its selection to enter negotiations for $150 million in grant funding to support the construction of a new synthetic graphite manufacturing facility with a targeted initial output of 30,000 tonnes per annum (tpa).

Through negotiations with the DOE, the company successfully reallocated the funding more immediately to its Riverside facility, which has a target production of up to 20,000 tpa and, accordingly, resized the award to $100 million.

The DOE grant funding will support the installation and commissioning of equipment to produce the targeted 20,000 tpa of capacity from Riverside. Under the terms of the grant, government funds must be matched by the recipient. In addition to the $100 million DOE grant funding, the company expects its cash position, customer revenues, additional government programs, strategic partners, and other capital sources to fund planned growth.

“We are excited to complete the award negotiation with the DOE and expand the capacity of our Riverside facility,” says Dr. Chris Burns, CEO of NOVONIX. “The ability to deploy $100 million towards Riverside’s recently increased production targets will have an immediate beneficial impact on the company’s plans and the battery materials supply chain here in North America. Recent Chinese export controls on graphite reiterate the importance of building domestic supply in the U.S. We remain committed to continued expansion and building additional production facilities with our focus currently on reaching mass production at Riverside to demonstrate our ability to compete, both technically and commercially, on a global scale.”

This grant funding through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) is aimed to support the establishment of a North American battery supply chain amidst surging demand and growing calls to onshore these critical industries. Synthetic graphite is currently imported almost exclusively from China.

NOVONIX’s Riverside facility is due to begin production in late 2024 to support the company’s supply agreement with KORE Power, and NOVONIX will provide a progress update in the first quarter of 2024. The company continues to engage with other prospective customers about product qualification, production timelines, and potential supply agreements that could be supported from Riverside or future production facilities.

NOVONIX also continues to advance plans for a new production facility with an initial production target of at least 30,000 tpa. The engineering and design of this facility will leverage the updated engineering specific to Riverside to be completed in the first quarter of next year.

The company’s application for funding support under the DOE Loan Programs Office’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) Program has been invited to Due Diligence (Phase 3). A loan through the ATVM program may provide leverage up to 80% of eligible project costs of the company’s next facility. The timing of this next facility and NOVONIX’s subsequent plans to reach 150,000 tpa of production in North America will be based on the timelines of potential customer demand.