Sila Nanotechnologies co-founder and CEO Gene Berdichevsky in photos taken inside the 600,000-square-foot building the company recently bought on Road N NE and intends to turn into its Moses Lake production facility. With federal grant funding, the company intends to work on developing advanced battery technologies.
October 22, 2022
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Area tech companies receive fed grants
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Department of Energy announced last week that Sila Nanotechnologies and Group14 Technologies will each receive $100 million grants to build silicon battery manufacturing facilities in Moses Lake under a program established as part of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed by Congress in 2021. According to a press release from Sen. Maria Cantwell, both Woodinville-based Group14 and Alameda, California-based Sila Nanotechnologies will receive the grants under the Energy Department’s new Battery Materials Processing and Battery Component Manufacturing and Recycling Program. Both companies have developed proprietary technologies to use silicon in the anodes of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries to improve their capacity and the speed at which they can be charged. “The historic investment Congress made over the past two years are helping solve the next-generation battery storage technology challenge right here in Washington,” Cantwell said in the press release. “These two cutting edge companies will not only use domestically sourced materials to make electric vehicles more affordable, they will be creating hundreds of high-paying jobs that will help transform Moses Lake into an epicenter of clean manufacturing.” ...