A day ahead of a ceremonial groundbreaking for Ascend Elements in Hopkinsville, the U.S. Department of Energy announced that the lithium battery project will receive a $480 million grant from the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
Gov. Andy Beshear is expected to attend the groundbreaking, slated for 11 a.m. Thursday at Commerce Park II on John Rivers Road, with local officials and Ascend Elements CEO Michael O’Kronley.
In a press release, U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm touted the bipartisan infrastructure legislation as a Biden administration plan to “supercharge the private sector to ensure our clean energy future is American-made.” The president signed the legislation into law in November.
U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in his own press release that he helped secure $7 billion for the Battery Materials Processing and Battery Component Manufacturing & Recycling grant fund that is part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
“The national security benefits from this project — which will allow us to source important battery components domestically instead of from rival countries like China — only add to the significance of this grant for our country,” McConnell said in the release.
Beshear came to Hopkinsville in early August to announce that Ascend Elements had picked the Christian County site for its project.
The Massachusetts company plans to construct a 450,000-square-foot facility and employ 250 workers to manufacture materials for electric vehicle batteries. The plant could grow to 400 employees with an investment of $1 billion, the governor announced.
The privately held company has a patented process called Hyrdo-to-Cathode that relies on recycled lithium-ion battery materials, according to its website. (A cathode is a metallic electrode — and through it, a current flows out in a polarized electrical device.)
Last month Hopkinsville City Council voted to annex roughly 600 acres in Commerce Park II where Ascend Elements will be constructed. The site is off Pembroke Road between Hopkinsville and Pembroke. The Ascend site will be called Apex 1.
“The funding provided will allow us to build out our Apex 1 facility in Kentucky. This facility will not only create hundreds of good paying jobs, but will revolutionize how batteries are recycled and returned back into the battery supply chain in this country,” O’Kronley said in McConnell’s release.
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.
