Ascend Elements partners with South Korean firm to build second Kentucky facility
Photo | Courtesy of Ascend Elements
Kyung-il Park, CEO of SK ecoplant, and Michael O’Kronley, CEO of Ascend Elements, at a joint venture signing ceremony in Seoul.
Westborough-based battery tech company Ascend Elements and South-Korean firm SK ecoplant are going to build a $65-million lithium-ion battery recycling facility in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, where Ascend is already constructing a $1-billion battery materials factory.
Ascend Elements will own 25% of the joint venture with the remaining owned by SK ecoplant and its subsidiary TES, according to a Tuesday press release from Ascend Elements.
“We are honored to deepen our relationship with SK ecoplant on this new, state-of-the-art EV battery recycling facility,” Ascend CEO Mike O’Kronley said in the press release. “This is just the beginning of an entirely new industry in the United States. For every new EV battery gigafactory that is built, we will need to build a new battery recycling facility to process manufacturing scrap and end-of-life batteries. This is a capital-intensive endeavor, so joint ventures between strategically aligned partners is an ideal way to fund new infrastructure projects.”
The 100,000-square-foot facility will be able to shred approximately 24,000 metric tons of used electric vehicle batteries per year, creating material to be used at Ascend Element’s gigafactory, Apex 1.
Construction on the $65-million factory is expected to begin in November. When completed in January 2025, the facility will provide 60 new jobs.
Ascend Elements announced on Sept. 6 it had raised $540 million in investment toward construction of the $1-billion Apex 1 facility, which began construction in 2022.
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