Shelbyville, KY- Gov. Andy Beshear announced on Friday that a new battery manufacturing plant will be established in Shelbyville, creating almost 1,600 jobs for the area.
Construction of the Shelbyville Battery Manufacturing facility, a subsidiary of Canadian Solar, is projected to cost around $712 million.
“This project isn’t just big, it’s historic,” the governor said Friday in Frankfort.
The “innovative, state-of-the-art industrial battery production facility” will create 1,572 jobs and be the largest employer in Shelby County, he said.
This marks the biggest economic initiative ever in Shelby County and stands as the third-largest jobs announcement made by Beshear during his time as governor of Kentucky.
Envision AESC is set to establish a $2 billion gigafactory for Japanese electric vehicle battery technology in Bowling Green, with Beshear announcing in 2022 that it will create 2,000 jobs upon completion. Ford Motor Co. and SK On are set to establish two electric battery plants in Hardin County, a significant project announced by Beshear in 2021, which will create 5,000 jobs and involve an investment of $5.8 billion to produce batteries for Ford and Lincoln electric vehicles.
By the end of 2025, production will kick off at the 1-million-square-foot facility in Shelbyville, dedicated to manufacturing lithium ion cell batteries.
Colin Parkin, president of e-Storage, a Canadian-based company, announced that the initial production capacity will be three gigawatt hours annually, with plans for an expected expansion to six-gigawatt hours. The governor announced that the facility will manufacture a six gigawatt-hour battery cell, module, and packaging, creating self-contained energy storage systems that are modular and containerized for utility-scale applications.
Dr. Shawn Qu, founder and CEO of Canadian Solar, stated on Friday that energy storage plays a vital role in the modern and changing electricity grid.
“Battery cells are the heart of an energy utility storage system,” he said. “This project will put Kentucky at the center of the effort to build a robust and secure electricity grid for this country.”
On Friday, the governor highlighted Kentucky’s position as the top producer of electric vehicle batteries, stating, “now, we’re going to lead in the industrial electrification space.”