A battery manufacturer has selected Kentucky for a nearly 712 million project to produce industrial-sized batteries used to store and distribute energy, a process seen as increasingly important to help secure a reliable electric grid for the country, officials said Friday.
The Shelbyville Battery Manufacturing plant will employ 1,572 workers once the project reaches full capacity, deepening Kentucky's ties to emerging battery technologies. Companies making batteries to power vehicles have announced projects totaling nearly 12 billion in new investments and expected to create more than 10,280 fulltime jobs in Kentucky.
"With this investment, we're putting our stamp on working to become just the battery capital of the United States," Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said in announcing the new project in Shelbyville.
Production at the Shelbyville plant is expected to begin in late 2025.
The plant, a subsidiary of Canadian Solar, will produce batteries used by utilities and other customers to store energy at large scale. The batteries are about 20 feet long, 8 feet wide and nearly 9 feet tall. They can be paired with solar, wind or other forms of electricity generation and are seen as playing a crucial role for both a green energy future and a secure power grid.
