By Tom Latek
Kentucky Today
“This is like winning the Super Bowl,” said Governor Andy Beshear as he announced that Shelbyville Battery Manufacturing, a subsidiary of Canadian-based e-Storage, will invest $712 million to establish a facility in Shelby County creating 1,572 skilled, high-tech jobs.
It is the third largest economic development project of his administration.
During a press conference last week at the Governor’s Mansion, Beshear was joined by company, state, and local officials for the announcement.
“I want to thank Shelbyville Battery Manufacturing for their investment in Kentucky and the Shelbyville community,” said Beshear. “This is the single largest investment and job creation announcement we have on record for Shelby County, and it is the largest project Kentucky has seen this year. This project will solidify our role as a leader in the country’s energy storage sector and will transform our economy, creating opportunities for Kentucky families for generations.”
The project will establish a state-of-the-art, 6-gigawatt hour battery cell, module and packaging manufacturing facility in a 1 million-square-foot building located on Logistics Drive in Shelbyville. These self-contained energy storage systems will be packaged into modular, containerized utility-scale batteries. Shelbyville Battery Manufacturing will support e-Storage’s rapidly growing U.S. energy storage business and deliver American-made energy storage solutions to customers throughout the United States.
The company says it wants to hit the ground running, as production at the Shelbyville plant is expected to begin by the end of next year. It will also include a research and development facility, to stay on the cutting edge.
“We are proud to be a part of the growing energy technology transformation across the U.S., and we are thrilled to announce our investment in a new, state-of-the-art industrial battery cell, module and packaging plant in Shelbyville,” said Colin Parkin, president of e-Storage. “This new plant will allow us to provide our U.S. customers with cutting-edge, American-made battery energy storage products.”
Parkin says their customers include utilities and industries who want to be able to store electricity until needed.
e-Storage, based in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, just west of Toronto, is a subsidiary of Canadian Solar, a worldwide leader in the design, manufacture and integration of battery energy storage systems for utility-scale applications.