A lithium battery company was recently approved by the Pima County Board of Supervisors to develop a massive manufacturing facility in Tucson that is expected to bring millions of dollars and thousands of jobs to Arizona.
According to a press release, the five-member board of directors voted unanimously on Dec. 6 to allow Utah-based American Battery Factory to develop the largest lithium iron phosphate battery cell gigafactory in the country.
The facility will be the first in a series of battery cell gigafactories owned by American Battery Factory and will be built on 267 acres of Pima County’s Aerospace Research Campus, a 500-acre area developed to accommodate aerospace, to house defense, research and technology companies.
According to a press release from the Board of Supervisors, the 2 million square foot facility is expected to provide $1.2 million in capital investment and $3.1 billion in economic impact to the state over 10 years.
The company said in another press release that it will create 300 high-paying jobs and ramp up to 1,000 jobs.
According to the board of directors, the battery company expects to complete construction of the plant by 2026, employing 60 people initially and expanding its workforce annually through 2028. The average estimated annual salary for employees is expected to be around $65,000.
Some open positions at the company include positions in operations and production, as well as scientific and technological jobs such as research and development, automation and robotics. There will also be managerial and other positions at headquarters.
“This transformational investment proves once again that Arizona is the leading destination for emerging technologies,” Gov. Doug Ducey said in the press release. “The state-of-the-art facility will produce battery cells, which are critical to our energy future, right here in Tucson. Thank you to Paul Charles and the entire team at American Battery Factory for choosing our state for its innovative facility.”
The facility will support the battery industry and other industries that use semiconductors, including electric vehicle batteries, commercial batteries and retail batteries.
The company said its LFP (Lithium Ferro-Phosphate) battery cell chemistry allows it to produce “reliable and environmentally friendly batteries” as it avoids the use of nickel and cobalt. Extracting these two minerals has proven to be environmentally unfriendly.
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