Sila says silicon anode material now for sale

MOSES LAKE — While it will still be a few months before Sila Nanotechnologies begins doing serious work on its Moses Lake facility, the company announced Tuesday that its flagship product, a silicon anode for rechargeable batteries called Titan Silicon, is now available for sale.

“Titan Silicon is the only product on the market that can replace graphite entirely,” said Sila co-founder and CEO Gene Berdichevsky. “Silicon compounds and simple silicon materials have been around for a really long time … but those materials can only be used as additives and are a really small percent, about 5%.”

In 2022, Alameda, California-based Sila Nanotechnologies spent $37.5 million to purchase the 600,000-square-foot building and 160 acres on Road N Northeast across from REC Silicon. Berdichesky said the company seeks to ramp up the manufacture of Titan Silicon to power 1 million electric vehicles over the course of five years after production is set to start in Moses Lake, sometime in the second half of 2024.

Berdichevsky said using silicon as battery anodes allows for deeper and faster recharging of lithium-ion batteries, increasing the range of electric vehicles by up to 20% and allowing for a full battery recharge in as little as 20 minutes.

“We think, in the future, we’ll be able to get below 10 minutes for a recharge,” Berdichevsky said. “We’re the first to commercialize this technology and we’ve been shipping in the consumer electronics market since 2021.”

Berdichevsky was referring to the WHOOP 4.0 fitness tracker, a small wrist-worn device that currently uses Sila’s Titan Silicon in its battery. The company has contracts to provide Titan Silicon to several companies – including one consumer electronic manufacturer – that Berdichevsky said he could not name, but he did say the company has inked a deal to supply Mercedes-Benz with material for batteries beginning with the automaker’s G Class vehicles.

“And that will come from our Moses Lake production facility,” he said.

Berdichevsky said Sila looked to Moses Lake because of the area’s hydropower and workforce, but also hopes to be able to purchase silane – silicon gas – from nearby REC Silicon, which is resuming production after being shut down for several years.

“Washington state is pretty close to our headquarters in California,” he said. “And is a welcoming state for clean energy products.”

While the lights are on at the facility at 3741 Road N NE, Berdichevsky said it will still be a while before the factory starts production sometime later in 2024, with production for delivery expected to come sometime in early 2025.

“It takes quite some time to design and build a factory. We’ve begun ordering equipment for that,” he said.

Berdichevsky expects Sila to employ around 200 people at first, but if the company does well and there is enough electric power available locally, he envisions an eventual $1 billion to $2 billion expansion that could employ as many as 1,000 people.

“I’ve got a lot of work to do,” he said.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.