US battery energy storage manufacturer KORE Power halts Arizona factory

The Arizona battery energy storage system (BESS) cell manufacturing plant is on hold, with little detail provided by Kore. The founder and CEO has also stepped down.
Image: Kore Power (rendering)

Battery energy storage manufacturer KORE Power announced on Friday that its CEO and founder had resigned, while its significant Arizona BESS production site has been put up for sale.

KORE has named Jay Bellows as its new Chief Executive Officer, who had previously been president since 2022, taking over from Lindsay Gorrill. The former founder will remain on the board.

“Over the years, I’ve had the immense privilege of building and growing this company alongside an extraordinary team and partners,” Gorrill said on LinkedIn.

In two official announcements, KORE announced the change in leadership and restructuring, saying, “Plans for the KOREPlex in Buckeye, Arizona will not move forward at this time.”

The company didn’t explain the reasons for the construction halt.

KOREPlex complexities

The KOREPlex facility was set to be a 1.3 million square foot or 215-acre site with multiple production lines for advanced battery cells for transport and larger grid-scale batteries, using nickel manganese cobalt and lithium ferro-phosphate batteries. The site is located in the greater Phoenix, Arizona area, west of the central city.

In 2023, the company secured a conditional $850 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy, meant to cover about 80% of the cost to build the facility. That funding, announced in June 2023, remains conditional.

There is no indication of the loans being finalized, and therefore, KORE did not have money available to be spent. A further $150 million in financing from investors was said to have been expected, though the outcome of those loans was not known.

Full operation was set for the Arizona complex in 2025 with an initial 6 GWh annual production capacity, ramping to double that, alongside its factory in China.

A report in local Arizona news site In Buckeye suggested as much as $10 million in site work has been done on the now for sale site, and the general contractor filed a lien against KORE. The same reports suggested locals had been seeing slower construction than expected and speculation about its future was rife.

The company retains a BESS assembly site in Vermont. Battery cells continue to be made in China.

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