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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

Sila Establishes Moses Lake, Washington, Production Complex

05/07/2022
Sila, a next-generation battery materials company, purchased a more than 600,000 square foot manufacturing plant in Moses Lake, Washington. Powered with hydropower, the facility is located on 160-acres of land and will produce lithium-ion anode materials at automotive volumes and quality.

The company plans to deliver annual silicon-based anode production sufficient to power 10 GWh of cells when used as a full graphite replacement, or up to 50 GWh of cells when used as a partial replacement, according to Sila officials. The volume is enough material to power batteries in up to 100,000-500,000 premium electric vehicles and 500 million mobile phones annually. Production lines at the facility will start-up in the second half of 2024, with full start of production underway in the first half of 2025.

“The U.S. has always excelled at innovation. Now we must also excel at manufacturing that innovation. Sila is delivering proven next-generation anode materials today. Our new Washington state plant builds on that momentum offering the manufacturing capacity to meet the needs of our auto partners on their way to a fully electric future. We’ve been working towards automotive quality standards and scale since our start to ensure longer range, faster charge times, and lower battery cost. With this scale-up, we have a pivotal piece to realize the full potential of next-generation materials at the volumes required to make a global impact,” said Gene Berdichevsky, Co-founder, and CEO of Sila.

The Moses Lake site has the potential for further expansion and investment by 15X to reach production volumes to power 150GWh of cells when used as a full graphite replacement or 750 GWh as a partial replacement, enough to power 2 to 10 million electric vehicles per year, according to company officials.

“Our energy independence and economic prosperity are tied to our ability to develop and manufacture new clean energy technologies here on American soil. I’m proud that Washington state has been a leader on this issue and even prouder that innovative companies like Sila come here to advance these clean energy solutions. Washington is excited that Sila is investing here and we welcome the transformative impact that building clean energy can have on our world and our state,” said Washington Governor Jay Inslee.

Sila said it works to enhance all aspects of battery performance, produce quality-controlled silicon anode materials at scale, and support implementation to ensure customers achieve their goals and safety requirements for shipping products. After ten years of research and development and 55,000 iterations, the company was the first to industrialize and make commercially available a next generation lithium-ion chemistry with dramatically higher energy density. Sila materials today power WHOOP 4.0, the world’s most advanced fitness tracker. The same materials technology from Sila will be produced at the Moses Lake facility to power electric vehicles, mobile phones and other consumer electronics.

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