Published: May 25, 2022 |

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The energy startup SPARKZ said Tuesday it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the nation’s largest coal miners’ union on a labor-management agreement for its planned electric battery factory in West Virginia.

The company and the United Mine Workers of America will partner to recruit and train dislocated miners to be the factory’s first production workers. In March, the company said it would start construction this year on the plant that will employ at least 350 workers. The factory’s location has yet to be announced.

“SPARKZ is proud to partner with the United Mine Workers of America to help West Virginia workers become part of the new energy economy, while re-engineering the battery supply chain domestically,” said SPARKZ Founder and CEO Sanjiv Malhotra.

“This partnership is a symbol of American innovation and American workers literally building our energy future together and fighting to end China’s dominance of advanced batteries,” added Malhotra.

West Virginia has lost thousands of jobs in mining and other resource extraction industries in recent years. UMWA President Cecil Roberts said the agreement “is a win-win for the laid-off coal miners who will work in this facility, their families, and their communities.”

Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, said the partnership “is proof that there is an important role” for the union in the nation’s energy transition.

The factory will produce cobalt-free batteries, an effort to bring down the cost of U.S. lithium-ion battery production. The Democratic Republic of Congo has historically been the top producer of cobalt worldwide, with most mines controlled by Chinese companies.

Earlier this month, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announced $3.1 billion in funding to U.S. companies that make and recycle lithium-ion batteries.

In the statement, Granholm said her department is “thrilled to support the battery manufacturing industry and labor partners coming together to solve clean energy deployment challenges, like workforce development. Momentum is building as more companies see that partnering with labor is smart business strategy and key to accelerating an equitable clean energy transition.”

SPARKZ, founded in 2019, is in the final stages of site selection, and will be announcing customer partnerships in the coming months. Its first markets will likely be in material-handling vehicles like forklifts, agricultural equipment and energy storage.

Source: The Associated Press

About SPARKZ, Inc.
Founded by industry veteran and former U.S. Department of Energy executive Sanjiv Malhotra, SPARKZ will begin commercialization of a high energy-density zero cobalt, American-made Lithium-ion battery, while continuing its groundbreaking research and development focused on re-engineering the rest of the battery supply chain. SPARKZ zero cobalt battery offers 2X the energy density compared to other zero cobalt batteries (LFP) being produced predominantly in China.

The company’s first commercial product will eliminate cobalt, traditionally used in the cathode of a lithium battery, with the objective of reducing the cost of lithium battery production in the U.S., while also eliminating a primary environmental concern, and reducing chokepoints created by a foreign supply-chain. SPARKZ will be announcing its customer and OEM partnerships in the near future.

SPARKZ was founded in late 2019. SPARKZ has completed the transfer of 6 patents from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which continues to be an R&D partner.

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