A newly closed $303.5 million federal loan guarantee ensures battery-maker Eos Energy Enterprises Inc. can finance the construction of two state-of-the-art production lines for battery energy storage systems (BESS) in Turtle Creek, Pa.
Pending additional federal approvals and completion of an environmental assessment, two additional lines in Duquesne, Pa., may also be included as part of the loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO).
“The DOE loan provides capital to scale our operations to meet the surging demand for reliable, long-duration energy storage solutions, all while supporting American manufacturing,” Eos Chief Executive Officer Joe Mastrangelo said Tuesday.
The LPO loan is a key step in advancing the Biden administration’s Project American Made Zinc Energy (AMAZE) and is expected to fund the expansion of Eos’ manufacturing capacity to 8 gigawatt hours (GWh) by 2027 to meet the growing demand for longer-duration BESS.
“The Biden-Harris administration has successfully implemented a new economic playbook that has boosted America’s competitive standing on the world stage as an innovation leader in the cutting-edge technologies of the future,” said U.S. Energy Secretary Jennfier Granholm on Dec. 3. “Today’s announcement will bolster the nation’s energy security while ensuring President Biden’s manufacturing boom continues to deliver for generations to come.”
Grid-scale storage allows utilities and industrial customers to store energy when there is a surplus and use it when energy is more expensive or supply is unavailable. BESS can provide numerous grid functions, including an alternative to fossil fuel electricity generation during demand spikes, being a lower-cost option during normal demand, and providing backup power, the DOE said.
The LPO financing will support manufacturing Eos’s generation battery system, the Eos Z3™, a next-generation utility- and industrial-scale zinc-bromine BESS in Turtle Creek. The batteries are non-flammable, do not require active cooling to operate, do not degrade based on age, and are more energy dense and cost-efficient to produce than Eos’s previous models, according to the DOE.
“We are thrilled to reach this important milestone, which we view as a strong endorsement of Eos’ proprietary Z3™ technology and our ability to manufacture in the U.S.,” said Eos Chief Financial Officer Nathan Kroeker. “Closing on the loan marks a key achievement in executing our multi-phase capital strategy.”
Backed by its Sept. 30 $589 million order backlog and $14.2 billion commercial pipeline, Eos said it will specifically use the federal funds to build four fully automated manufacturing lines, all of which will provide electricity to over 300,000 average U.S. homes instantaneously, or meet the annual electricity needs of approximately 130,000 homes if fully charged and discharged daily.
Eos’ manufacturing expansion under Project AMAZE is also poised to generate significant economic benefits in the state’s Mon Valley region, supporting long-term sustainable growth in the energy storage sector.
From just two employees in 2019, Eos said it has transformed an empty building in the region into a world-class clean energy manufacturing hub, with an over 250-person full-time employee workforce in Turtle Creek.
The new Eos project is expected to create and maintain up to 1,000 jobs, including both salaried employees and a well-paid manufacturing workforce, unionized by the United Steelworkers.
“Five years ago, we made the strategic decision to bring our manufacturing operations back to the U.S. from China — a move that has been transformative to our business and positioned Eos at the forefront of the American manufacturing renaissance,” Mastrangelo said. “Since then, we’ve made significant advancements in our battery technology, retooled our manufacturing facilities for greater efficiency, and established a U.S.-based supply chain with over 90 percent domestic content, all of which has brought us to this milestone today with the DOE.”
Currently, the DOE is quickly trying to finalize the loans it conditionally announced to clean-energy companies before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January. Eos’s loan guarantee was first announced last year.