Shiny shovels and white hard hats at the ready, local and state economic development officials met Thursday in a former cornfield and marveled at the potential impact of the $1 billion Ascend Elements facility planned on newly annexed Hopkinsville land. The plant will produce lithium-ion materials for electric vehicle batteries at Commerce Park II, which has CSX rail access on John Rivers Road.
“This will be Ascend Element’s largest U.S. facility,” said Gov. Andy Beshear, who joined more than 100 elected officials, industrial recruiters and local residents for the ceremony to break ground. “It’s the largest economic development project in Christian County. And now … the largest investment in Western Kentucky.”
The privately held Massachusetts company previously announced it had selected a Hopkinsville site for a $310 million project that would initially employ 250 workers. Future expansion could push the project to a $1 billion investment employing 400 or more people, they said in August.
But on Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Energy said Ascend Element was approved for a $480 million grant to develop the Hopkinsville facility. With that announcement, the project was elevated overnight to the $1 billion plan.
“We went from an amazing facility to the sky is the limit, to the envy of surrounding states to the envy of the entire country,” Beshear said.
Ascend Elements CEO Michael O’Kronley said the federal grant awarded through the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is part of an effort to reduce U.S. reliance on foreign-made batteries and battery material. Most of the batteries and materials in batteries currently available come from China, he said.
“That was a big part of the initiative that the federal government put together under [President] Biden’s leadership to incentivize companies to start making these critical battery materials in the United States,” he said.
O’Kronley said his company is part of the “battery ecosystem” that is developing around investments in Kentucky’s new EV vehicle and battery economy.
The company has a patented process called Hyrdo-to-Cathode that relies on recycled lithium-ion battery materials. The 450,000-square-foot facility in Hopkinsville will be able to produce enough material for up to 250,000 batteries a year. The site will be called Apex 1.
Hopkinsville was one of six site finalists in the eastern half of the U.S. that Ascend Elements identified for its new plant. Access to the CSX rail was a key advantage.
O’Kronley said the company began working with local and state officials about a year ago. He singled out Mayor Wendell Lynch, Judge-Executive Steve Tribble and Carter Hendricks, executive director of the South Western Kentucky Economic Development Council, for their efforts in the recruitment.
Ascend Elements will be working with the school system and Hopkinsville Community College to help train potential employees, he said.
The company estimates the region will see $4.4 billion in economic impact as a result of the plant’s development.
“We’re going to invest in the community,” O’Kronley said.
John Crenshaw, chairman of the Hopkinsville Industrial Foundation, commented on the workforce impact.
“I am excited about the benefits and the opportunities that Ascend Elements will bring to the local community and the workforce that Ascend Elements will employ,” he said. “That’s what we are all really working to achieve — the ability to maintain and the opportunity to improve the standard of living in this place that we call home.”
The industrial foundation acts as a real estate arm for economic development. It was responsible for securing land options from the Garnett farm family to develop Commerce Park II.
The site where Ascend Elements will build was previously under consideration for a 500,000-square-foot beef slaughter facility that would have employed 1,300 workers. After hearing local opposition to facility based on concerns about environmental impact, Wisconsin-based American Foods Group withdrew its consideration for the Hopkinsville site on Oct. 4, 2021.
Crenshaw also commented on Ascend Element’s role in developing green energy.
“I want to thank the federal government for a policy goal of a greener planet,” he said. “Living in scenic, beautiful Kentucky most of my life, I appreciate nature as much as anyone. I’m hopeful this project and others supported by the Department of Energy will be good for the environment. It feels great to be taking part in a forward-thinking project.”
Beshear said Ascend Elements will not generate any “toxic waste.”
After the speeches had been given, about 20 people, including the governor, O’Kronley and several local elected officials, pulled on the hard hats, lifted shovels and tossed dirt into the air while others snapped photographs to mark the start of Apex 1.
Ascend Elements has projected the plant will be in operation in 2024.
This story has been updated to correct a misspelled word in a quote from John Crenshaw.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
