Anthro Energy breaks ground on factory that could pave the road to solid-state batteries

Anthro Energy broke ground on Tuesday on a factory in Louisville, Kentucky, that can make enough battery materials for more than 300,000 electric vehicles.

But the facility’s headline output, 25 gigawatt-hours worth of electrolytes, is just part of the story. Anthro’s factory could give solid-state batteries a much needed boost in the U.S.

Battery manufacturers are scouring the planet for materials that aren’t encumbered by “foreign entity of concern” problems — in other words, materials that aren’t somehow controlled by Chinese companies. Anthro hopes its new facility, scheduled to start production in 2028, can help fill that need for many U.S. companies.

“When it opens, we’ll be serving domestic, high-spec customers, this emerging ecosystem for battery production where they frankly just needs electrolytes — a domestic source of China-free supply, FEOC-free supply,” David Mackanic, co-founder and CEO of Anthro Energy, told TechCrunch in an exclusive interview.

The startup, which raised its first funding round just four years ago, wants its Kentucky factory to become a key node in the emerging U.S. battery supply chain. “Within a 12-hour drive, you can get to 70% of the battery production facilities in the United States that exist today,” he said.

To build the factory, Anthro received a $24.9 million award from the Department of Energy under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and another $18.4 million in investment tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act. Kentucky pitched in another $2.3 million in tax incentives in exchange for creating 110 permanent jobs.

The Louisville factory will be set up to make a range of electrolytes, though Mackanic said he’d eventually like to see much of the output dedicated to Athro’s own polymer product, Proteus, which is designed to drop into an existing production line with minimal tweaks — a major reason why the startup can begin production using other company’s formulations. Once customers validate Anthro’s own material, the startup can shift production accordingly. 

There’s every reason to think at least a portion of those customers will make the switch eventually. Proteus is a polymer that promises pave the way to solid- and semi-solid-state batteries, a holy grail of the battery industry. Chinese companies are reportedly looking to start trial production of solid-state batteries in 2027.

Solid-state batteries promise to solve a range of challenges presented by the lithium-ion batteries commonly used today. Solid-state batteries help boost energy density, and by eliminating flammable electrolytes, they should reduce the risk of fires. Also, because they form a solid barrier between the anode and cathode, they prevent the appearance of dendrites, which are spiky growths that can bridge the two electrodes and cause short circuits.

But for all their promise, solid-state batteries have so far failed to reach their potential because no one has figured out how to cost-effectively manufacture durable cells at scale.

Anthro might have a solution to those challenges. In its manufacturing process, Anthro’s electrolyte flows into the cell as a liquid, allowing it to penetrate the anode and cathode, just like today’s liquid electrolytes. Later, it firms up, essentially gluing the two parts of the battery together.

The result is a cell that, depending on the formulation, is not just stronger — “10 to 15 times stronger than with a liquid electrolyte,” Mackanic said — but can be flexible, too. Ultimately, he envisions those qualities paying dividends not just in EVs, but drones and robots as well.

Plenty of other battery materials companies have failed at this precise moment, when they move from small-scale to larger scale production. But Mackanic is optimistic that the federal funding will help Anthro vault over the valley of death.

“To get into big applications, you have to have big production,” he said. “The Department of Energy award solves a lot of the chicken or the egg problem.”

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Tim De Chant is a senior climate reporter at TechCrunch. He has written for a wide range of publications, including Wired magazine, the Chicago Tribune, Ars Technica, The Wire China, and NOVA Next, where he was founding editor.

De Chant is also a lecturer in MIT’s Graduate Program in Science Writing, and he was awarded a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT in 2018, during which time he studied climate technologies and explored new business models for journalism. He received his PhD in environmental science, policy, and management from the University of California, Berkeley, and his BA degree in environmental studies, English, and biology from St. Olaf College.

You can contact or verify outreach from Tim by emailing tim.dechant@techcrunch.com.