KORE Power, the US-based manufacturer of lithium-ion battery cells, held three meetings Wednesday to share the latest updates on the planned 2-million-square-foot KOREPlex and to answer questions from local businesses and residents.
“Since last summer, when we announced that the KOREPlex would be landing in Buckeye, we’ve been engaging with stakeholders across the community,” said Lindsay Gorrill, Co-Founder and CEO of KORE Power. “Each step of the way, the community has supported bringing clean energy manufacturing home to the United States. Together we are laying the cornerstones of a foundation of economic development in Buckeye.”
KORE started its day of meetings at the Buckeye Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Quarterly Breakfast, held at the City of Buckeye Coyote Branch Library. More than 90 attendees joined the Chamber meeting. Then the company held two public meetings at City Hall at 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. About 30 people comprising city staff and officials and local residents attended the two meetings and asked questions about traffic impact and water use by the facility.
“Being good neighbors is critical to our success as a company, we will work closely with the City of Buckeye to address questions related to the KOREPlex,” Gorrill said.
Buckeye Mayor Eric Orsborn welcomed the opportunity to give Buckeye residents a chance to learn more about the project. “Having a chance to talk directly to the CEO of the company making this investment in our community is important in a small-town-community like ours.”
At the meetings, Gorrill gave a presentation which included new details including:
- The KOREPlex facility has grown from one million square feet to two million square feet
- The costs of the project as grown to $1.25 billion from $1 billion
- The project will break ground this year
- Operations will begin in 2024 with hiring likely ramping up in 3Q 2023
- KORE Power is committed to supporting the KOREPlex with a US-based supply chain
At all three meetings, questions fell into two general areas – the jobs the project would bring to Buckeye and the environmental impact of the project, ranging from water usage to traffic.
He said the facility will open with two lines which will each require about 750 jobs, an additional two lines will be added in the future with another 1,500 jobs including supervisors and senior staff will bring total hiring to 3,000 positions. KORE, he said, has already added seven team members who have re-located, or will be re-locating to Buckeye.
The team being assembled, he said, has tremendous experience operating safe battery factories in the US.
Gorrill said that KORE’s goal is to make the KOREPlex the world’s first net zero Gigafactory by using on-site solar then adding co-generation capacity in the future, through energy storage.
Randy Cowder, KORE Power’s Sr. Vice President of Manufacturing, who recently moved to the area, said lithium-ion battery manufacturing is not a water-intensive process.
“Our conversations with the City of Buckeye have shown us that we will be using less water than other industrial facilities, and this will not be a facility with stacks billowing smoke. We are a green company committed to sustainability,” he said.
Cowder said KORE has commissioned a traffic study and will stagger shifts allowing the company to mitigate any potential traffic issues.
“No one wants to sit in traffic for 20 minutes on their way to work or after working a full shift. This is an issue that impacts all of us,” he said.
Deanna Kupcik, President and CEO of the Chamber, said the meetings offered an opportunity for the community to get answers to questions about the project. “There is a lot of buzz about the KOREPlex, and having the opportunity to get the latest news, to learn about KORE Power and get questions answered really opens up opportunity to turn that buzz into partnerships.”
“This was our largest Quarterly Breakfast ever, which speaks to the community’s interest in the KOREPlex,” she added.
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