Wall Street Journal today carries article that Koch Industry and Freyr plan to invest $2.6B to build a lithium battery plant in Coweta Co., GA. That will bring 34 gigawatthrs capacity second only to the Tesla/Panasonic plant in Nevada at 39 gwh. A table lists the 10 largest plants world wide. Most are in China; LGES in Nanjing, China is largest at 40 gwh. LGES Poland at 32 gwh is largest in Europe followed by Samsung SDI in Hungary at 20 gwh.
Total capacity in 2021 is 286 gigawatthrs, 68% in China, 18% in Europe, and 14% in the US (Tesla/Pannasonic). The Koch/Freyr plant will nearly double US production.
Freyr is a Norwegian company recently listed on the NYSE as a SPAC. Ticker FREY.
Koch is privately held and best known for conservative politics, support of the Tea Party, and opposition to global warming. Now they seem to have reversed course. They announce a major lithium battery project and earlier investment in the Compass project to recover lithium from Great Salt Lake.
Initially the Georgia plant will focus on energy storage rather than batteries for vehicles.
Earlier Freyr announced an agreement to use Alees of Taiwan technology to make LFP (lithium iron phosphate) cathode materials.