A Norwegian company developing silicon-based materials for higher-density batteries with faster and longer-lasting charges is considering Butte and three other locations to build a large manufacturing plant.
The Cenate factory would occupy a 40-acre site in the Montana Connections Business Park just west of town. It would use raw materials from the REC Silicon facility already there and could eventually employ up to 250 people, the company said.
Cenate — pronounced Sin-NAH-Tah — is seeking significant tax abatements in Butte and tax incentives in three other possible plant locations as well: Moses Lake or Tri-Cites in Washington state and Hermiston, Oregon.
Those places are all near REC Silicon’s other U.S. manufacturing plant at Moses Lake. Cenate has a pilot plant south of Oslo, Norway, but is looking to expand into the U.S.
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Cenate wants tax abatements in Butte that would reduce its locally assessed mills for property taxes by 75% the first five years. It would pay more in phases in years six through nine and pay 100% of the taxes normally owed after that.
Without abatements, Cenate’s projected local tax bill would be about $26 million total over 10 years, officials say. With them, it would pay $14.35 million — a savings of $11.6 million.
The county hasn’t awarded tax abatements since 2016, then to developers for major renovations of the Copper King Hotel. That was a much smaller project and the projected savings over four years was $248,000.
Olav Loren Moen, business develop manager for Cenate, told Butte-Silver Bow commissioners Wednesday night that abatements will affect the company’s decision on where to build the plant, but there are other factors, too.
Moen detailed the proposal via video from Norway, where it was 4 a.m. at the time, then fielded questions from commissioners. The company hopes to make a decision on location this summer.
Kristen Rosa, Butte-Silver Bow’s economic development coordinator, said company representatives have visited Butte and have met with Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte.
The council will hold a public hearing on the abatement request in two weeks and could then set up a committee to evaluate it further. The committee would make a recommendation to commissioners, who get final say.
Commissioner Michele Shea encouraged everyone to have an open mind about the abatements “and look to the positive things this company can bring to our community.”
“I just want to express how excited I am about this — to have a complementary company come in right next to REC,” she said. “I think we need to embrace these types of developments. These are the types of jobs that we need in this community.”
Cenate, like numerous other companies and start-ups, has been developing silicon-containing anode materials to be used in lithium ion batteries — the ones commonly used in cellphones, other consumer electronics and electric vehicles.
Graphite is the most used material in anodes today but silicon supports faster charging and higher density.
The technology has been around for decades but has been dogged by a big problem — the batteries themselves simply don’t last long. But developers say they have made advancements and continue to do so.
The Montana Standard asked Cenate what sets its formula apart.
“There have been different approaches on how to use Silicon in battery anodes,” Cenate senior project manager Pedro Garcia Cruz said in an email early Thursday. “While some of our competitors have started with very advanced structures developed at university labs and try to make these manufacturable, we have taken scalable processes as a requirement from day one, and the main development team has industrial background.
“This has meant that we have spent a bit more time to reach a good product, but now that we have a good product we can much easier scale to industrial scale.”
According to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, some carmakers and silicon anode startups have “teamed up to produce longer-range, lower-cost EVs that could be on the road by mid-decade.”
One company, Group 14 Technologies, recently began construction of a large plant at Moses Lake to produce silicon material for rechargeable batteries. Another company, Sila Nanotechnologies, is also looking to establish operations near the REC Silicon plant at Moses Lake.
When asked about Group 14’s plant under construction, Garcia Cruz said Cenate does not like to comment on what its competitors have achieved or not.
Cenate says it has developed “world leading and patent pending silicon-based nano materials for the rapidly growing EV battery anode market” and has teamed up with some of the world’s largest battery producers. Garcia Cruz said at this time, he could not disclose who they are.
He said besides abatements, other factors being weighed in the location decision include access to a qualified workforce, green electricity and proximity to main raw material sources.
Commissioners last week authorized the sale of 40 acres at Butte’s business park to Cenate. The cost would be $2,000 per acre.
Rosa said the agreement does contain a couple of provisions that require Cenate to start construction within a certain time frame and if it chooses another site, the sale agreement terminates. The company hopes to have a plant operating by the end of 2025.
Rosa said there are no provisions for job creation in the tax abatement.
“It is completely at the discretion of the Council of Commissioners,” she told The Standard.
A few other commissioners thanked Cenate for Wednesday night’s presentation and said the company would be welcomed in Butte.
Garcia Cruz said the company likes what it sees here.
“We are so far very pleased with the efforts made by the Butte community and wish those to continue and materialize into further win-win deliverables,” he told The Standard.
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Mike Smith is a reporter at the Montana Standard with an emphasis on government and politics.
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Updated: Norwegian company wants tax breaks for possible Butte factory - The Montana Standard
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