Electric vehicle drivers and smartphone power users have been salivating over the prospect of silicon anode batteries, which promise to dramatically boost energy density and lower charging times.
Several companies have been working on silicon anodes over the last decade or so, and the tech has started creeping into consumer electronics. Wearable maker Whoop, for example, uses materials from Sila, while Group14‘s batteries can be found in a range of smartphones.
But the real prize is the EV market, which dwarfs consumer electronics by an order of magnitude, according to Benchmark Minerals. To break into this space, however, startups need to produce silicon anode material in far larger quantities than they have been so far.
To hit that scale, Group14 on Thursday said it had started production at its BAM-3 factory in South Korea. The facility is capable of producing up 2,000 metric tons of silicon battery materials annually, enough for 10 gigawatt-hours of energy storage, or about 100,000 long-range EVs.
“It’s a big deal for us, and I think it’s a big deal for the industry, too,” Rick Luebbe, co-founder and CEO of Group14, told TechCrunch.
The BAM-3 facility broke ground as a joint venture between Group14 and SK, the Korean battery manufacturer. SK owned 75% of the project, but sold its stake to Group14 last summer.
“SK has had their own challenges — financial and reprioritizing their battery and battery materials strategies all at the same time,” Luebbe said. “It did open up a great opportunity for us to acquire it from SK.”
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