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Electric vehicle battery startup Our Next Energy will supply its new energy storage products to a $500 million Berkshire Hathaway Energy solar-powered manufacturing hub in West Virginia.
It will also open a factory to build the systems at the industrial complex.
BHE Renewables selected the Novi, Mich., battery company to help supply power to the 2,000-acre solar-powered industrial site in Ravenswood, W.Va., the company said. The complex broke ground on Saturday.
BHE will utilize ONE’s new Aries Grid energy storage units, which will store solar-generated electricity during the day for use on the site at night. The units will help power the site’s first factory, a Precision Castparts Corp. plant that will assemble titanium products for the aerospace industry.
The Aries Grid makes use of the same lithium iron phosphate battery technology that the company employs for electric commercial vehicles. One Aries Grid unit contains 78 Aries I EV battery packs, and can store energy from the grid or from renewable sources such as solar or wind.
ONE also plans to build a factory on the Berkshire Hathaway site to assemble more battery storage systems. The company said it would invest $22 million to build the new Aries Grid factory, which is expected to open in 2025 and generate 105 jobs.
This is the first major project for ONE’s Aries Grid business unit, which launched in February. ONE has high hopes for the business as the market for energy storage solutions grows, CEO Mujeeb Ijaz told Automotive News’ sibling publication Crain’s Detroit Business last month.
“In our business discussions with utility customers, we can double our company’s revenue projections by taking on this new vertical,” Ijaz said. “This has been a part of our business plan all along.”
Ijaz told Crain’s Detroit Business that he sees the vertical accounting for 20 to 25 percent of the company’s overall business once it scales up.
ONE has also continued to invest in its EV battery business, including plans for a $1.6 billion EV battery cell plant that it expects to open in Michigan next year. To help fund that project, it raised $300 million in a series B funding round in February, bringing the company’s valuation to $1.2 billion.