KORE Power Nets $850M Federal Loan for Arizona Facility

A rendering of the KOREPlex project. Image courtesy of KORE Power

KORE Power has received a conditional commitment for an $850 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy supporting its construction of a battery plant in Arizona.

The financing, which will be supplied by the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office, will back the construction of the KOREPlex Advanced Battery Manufacturing Facility in Buckeye, Ariz., outside of Phoenix. The note was issued under the department’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program.

A 1.3 million-square-foot facility, KOREPlex will house multiple production lines manufacturing batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage systems. The project is expected to turn out 6 GWh of lithium-ion batteries annually. Construction on KOREPlex began last year on 214 acres in Maricopa County. The facility, which is expected to cost $1.25 billion, is due online at the end of 2024 or in early 2025.

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Officials at Coeur d’Alene, Idaho–based KORE Power and Arizona’s U.S. Senators, Mark Kelly (D) and Kyrsten Sinema (I), stressed the importance of domestic battery production in prepared remarks. The Grand Canyon State has become a hub of energy storage activity in recent years. Battery recycler and manufacturer Ecobat recently announced plans to build a facility in Casa Grande, Ariz. The Pinal County city is located roughly halfway between Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz.