Officials with Hopkinsville’s Ascend Elements received more good news Wednesday, when it was announced $300 million has been secured in equity and debt financing — which includes $200 million in Series C equity investments from international strategic investors.
This funding is in addition to a pair of recently-awarded grants totaling $480 million from the U.S. Department of Energy, bringing pre-construction investments to date near $800 million.
The belief is that these funds, along with the grants, should “accelerate the commercialization” of Ascend Elements — which will serve as an innovative, trademarked hydro-to-cathode synthetic recycling process for the creating of electric vehicle battery materials.
During last week’s groundbreaking in Commerce Park II, plans were disclosed to build a $1 billion plant capable of producing enough materials to prepare up to 250,000 EVs annually. Known as “Apex 1,” it will be the “first-of-its-kind” facility not just for the company, but for the industry itself.
Ascend Elements CEO Mike O’Kronley wrote in a statement that it simply “is not enough” to recycle lithium-ion batteries and recover metals from global commodity market, but instead to move forward with the organization’s “closed-loop” process — which creates cathode-active materials that can immediately be used for batteries.
End-of-life EV batteries are already being processed at an Ascend Elements facility in Georgia, which will have 30,000 metric tons of recycling capacity by the end of 2022 — and will feed Apex 1 in south western Kentucky. By the end of 2026, Ascend Elements expects to be capable of recycling more than 150,000 metric tons of lithium-ion batteries that should meet, or exceed, performance requirements.
This equity funding comes from Fifth Wall Climate, SK ecoplant, the Oman Investment Authority, Lithium Americas Corporation, GLy Capital Management Limited, New Mobility Fund, Mirae Asset Capital, LS and Shinhan GIB, Hitachi Ventures, Jaguar Land Rover, InMotion Ventures, TDK Ventures, Orbia Ventures, At One Ventures, TRUMPF Venture and Doral Energy-Tech Ventures.
