To be built just outside of Charleston at Camp Hall in Berkeley County, the new battery materials campus is expected to break ground in Q1 2023 and operate its first recycling process by the end of next year
Redwood Materials to build a new battery materials campus outside of Charleston, South Carolina. (Credit: Redwood Materials Inc.)
Redwood Materials has chosen Charleston in the South Carolina region, US to build its new battery materials campus, which is planned to involve an investment of $3.5bn.
To be built just outside of Charleston at Camp Hall in Berkeley County, the battery materials campus is expected to break ground in Q1 2023 and operate its first recycling process by the end of next year.
Besides, the company plans to gradually expand downstream component manufacturing and scale.
The 600-acre facility, which will recycle, refine, and manufacture anode and cathode components, is expected to produce 100GWh of cathode and anode components annually.
It is estimated that the generated components would be enough to power over one million electric vehicles (EVs).
The South Carolina battery materials campus is said to generate over 1,500 jobs.
The company stated that similar to its operations in Nevada, the new battery materials campus will be fully electric and will not use any fossil fuel for its processes.
In addition, the American battery materials producer claimed that the plant design and manufacturing process will enable it to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions by about 80% compared to the Asia-based supply chain.
According to Redwood Materials, American battery cell factories will have to continuously source most of their components, mainly from Asia unless battery metals are produced and refined in the US.
This is estimated to send 50-75% of the economic value and job generation to other countries, said the American company.
With the new facility, the battery materials producer hopes to grow its operations to possibly several hundred GWh per year to accommodate the future demand.
In November 2022, Panasonic reached an agreement to source Redwood Material’s cathode material for battery cell production at its new Kansas plant.