Entek inks supply agreement for new Terre Haute plant
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A week after breaking ground on a $1.5 billion manufacturing operation in Terre Haute, Oregon-based Entek has reached a supply agreement for the lithium-ion battery separators that will be produced at the plant.
Under the terms of the agreement, Idaho-based Kore Power Inc. will purchase separators from Entek when the facility comes online in 2025.
Construction began last week on the 1.4 million-square-foot facility at the former Pfizer property in the Vigo County Industrial Park II. The project is expected to create 650 jobs by the end of 2027.
A battery separator is a micro-porous membrane that goes between the positive and negative side, or the anode and cathode, that insulates the batteries from shorting out.
The separators purchased by Kore will be used for both lithium-iron-phosphate, or LFP, and Nickel Manganese Cobalt, or NMC, battery cells. Through the agreement, Entek will supply enough separators for Kore’s 7 gigawatt-hour capacity, with the potential for doubling the supply amount in the future.
“We are excited that the lithium-ion separators that come out of our Indiana facility will be used in Kore batteries for American vehicles and energy storage products,” Entek CEO Larry Keith said in a news release. “This agreement aligns two growing U.S. companies with the shared vision of a thriving U.S. supply chain powering the clean energy economy.”
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but Kore said it will run until at least 2031.
“Our goal is a fully domestic supply chain, and…we are a step closer to that goal,” said Kore foudner and CEO Lindsay Gorrill. “Entek is a domestic suppler that can deliver separators for both chemistries we’ll produce, and that will have the capacity to grow with us.”
Production at the new Terre Haute site is slated to begin in 2025.