Consortium to establish lithium-ion battery giga factory in Endicott, create “at least” 230 jobs

Cuomo visited Endicott to make the announcement.

Imperium3 New York plans to launch a lithium-ion battery production giga-plant, “ultimately ramping to 15 giga-watts of production and hundreds more jobs,” Cuomo’s office said.

To encourage this effort, Empire State Development has offered performance-based incentives totaling $7.5 million, including a $4 million Upstate Revitalization Initiative grant and $3.5 million in Excelsior Jobs Program tax credits.

Additionally, Imperium3NY is expected to qualify for an estimated $5.75 million in New York investment tax credits.

“This consortium of local businesses is choosing to stay and invest their next generation technology right here in the Southern Tier, breathing new life into vacant facilities and creating hundreds of good jobs for New Yorkers,” Cuomo said in the news release. “Our investments to improve the business climate and spur economic development across Upstate New York are paying off, and this innovative project is yet another example of how the Southern Tier is soaring.”

The work, those involved

Imperium3 New York will commercialize a technology for making “more efficient and less expensive” lithium-ion batteries while operating the state’s first giga-factory. It’ll make lithium-ion batteries, producing three gigawatts of batteries by the fourth quarter of 2019 and growing to fifteen gigawatts.

Nearly 10 companies formed the Imperium3NY consortium, which includes three Southern Tier companies that serve “as its backbone.”

Those firms include C4V of Binghamton, which will provide the core intellectual property; C&D Assembly of Groton, which is supplying electronic board assembly and battery testing; and Primet Precision Materials of Ithaca, which is offering advanced processing of materials

Other New York State companies involved include Rochester–based Kodak (NYSE: KODK) and the Binghamton location of Chateauguay, Quebec–based CMP Advanced Mechanical Solutions.

The general market for lithium-ion batteries “continues to grow daily” and serves multiple industries, including renewable-energy projects, electric-vehicle manufacturers, cell phone and other electronic-product makers, among many others. Industry experts consider C4V’s batteries to be “more efficient and less costly” than other lithium-ion batteries on the market today, according to Cuomo’s office.

C4V in 2016 won $500,000 in New York State’s first 76West clean-energy competition, recognized for its “innovative” battery-storage technology. Administered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, 76West is “one of the largest” competitions in the country that focuses on “supporting and growing” clean-energy businesses and expanding “innovative” entrepreneurship in the Southern Tier, as described in the news release.

Additional consortium participants include Magnis Resources, Ltd., a publicly-traded Australian company. It will provide anode materials needed for the consortium to make the lithium-ion batteries.

Boston Energy and Innovation, another Australian business specializing in clean energy, will provide international sales and marketing opportunities.

More than 20 international companies have been qualified by C4V as “strategic suppliers of high-quality” lithium, electrolyte, separator and other “critical” raw ingredients to Imperium3 New York.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com