Virginia-based energy storage company Kontrolmatik Technologies announced its plans earlier this year to build its first U.S.-based lithium-ion battery factory, replicating the 2 GWh capacity factory the company is currently constructing at Turkey.  Kontrolmatik’s Turkish factory will begin production by the second quarter of 2023, with its domestic U.S. production slated to begin in 2024.   Kontrolmatik’s objective for its U.S. facility – which will have a 3 GWh capacity as opposed to the 2 GWh facility currently under construction – is to help address domestic reliance on foreign supply chains in the lithium-ion battery market.  Pomega Energy Storage Technologies, a subsidiary of Kontrolmatik, will lead the factory project and will manufacture the batteries for Kontrolmatik in the U.S.

In addition to producing batteries in the U.S., Kontrolmatik will also utilize domestically sourced base materials to provide a domestic and vertically integrated supply source for utility-scale energy storage projects. While much of the market for lithium-ion batteries is concentrated in the electric vehicle space, as this is an important focus of U.S.’ plans for its renewable energy transition, Kontrolmatik/Pomega’s factory will manufacture 280-305 Ah range batteries for utility, grid, and industrial-scale energy storage applications. Kontrolmatik is working with global commercial real estate services company JLL to identify the location of its U.S. factory.  After analyzing over 200 potential sites, JLL and Kontrolmatik have short-listed nine states and will finalize the site location within the next month. Amid the strong support and incentives provided by the recently enacted Inflation Reduction Act for the domestic production of batteries, we were motivated and encouraged to revise our initial business plans for the factory and increase our U.S. factory’s capacity to 3 GWh.  We have also begun planning for our second U.S. factory as we begin the construction of our first.  By securing partnerships and developing capacity for the processing of all necessary upstream precursor materials and increasing our capacity to manufacture our own value-added products such as battery packs and integrated energy storage systems, Kontrolmatik/Pomega has sought to assure that it will not face the supply chain issues affecting the industry. The company has secured off-take agreements for its batteries with leading energy storage system providers and plans to reach 12 GWh production capacity across four locations by 2030.  Bahadir Yetki, CEO of Kontrolmatik Technologies Inc., stated; “We are excited to be a part of the historical progress the U.S. clean energy market is experiencing, and pledge to contribute to the advancement of technologies and facilities supporting domestic clean energy production in the U.S., with our strong background and engineering tradition embodied by our 300 strong engineering team.”