US-based startup Natron Energy has announced plans to build a sodium-ion battery gigafactory in the US. The company said it will invest $1.4 billion to build the plant, which will be located in Edgecombe County, North Carolina, part of the Rocky Mount Metropolitan Statistical Area.

The Santa Clara-based company is exploring the use of sodium, an abundant mineral, to produce batteries that are expected to offer cost and safety advantages over the lithium-based batteries that typically power today’s EVs.

In the first major appearance of an electric vehicle in literature, the fictional submarine Nautilus, which made its debut in Jules Verne’s 1869 novel, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, designed and piloted by Captain Nemo, was powered by sodium-mercury batteries.

Natron’s UL-listed sodium-ion batteries are on the market today for a wide range of markets in the industrial power space, data centers, mobility, EV fast charging, microgrids and telecom, among others.

“Natron sodium-ion solutions outperform, are significantly safer and are far more sustainable than lithium-ion options,” the company said.

“This flagship manufacturing facility will dramatically accelerate our efforts to deliver sodium-ion batteries to customers who are hungry for safe, reliable and environmentally responsible energy storage solutions,” said Colin Wessells, the company’s co-CEO.

Investors appear to concur, as they have poured roughly $300 million into the company so far. Chevron and United Airlines are among Natron’s backers, and the company hopes to raise roughly $500 million from the private sector in the next six months to support the construction of the plant. The company has also received funding from the US Department of Energy.

The company, which currently has a manufacturing plant in Holland, Michigan, said it evaluated more than 70 sites across nine states before settling on North Carolina. Wessells cited the state’s “leadership in the clean energy revolution” as a major reason for the decision.

Source: Natron Energy