Sunlight Group is expanding into the US market with a $40 million investment to set up a second lithium battery manufacturing plant in Mebane, Alamance County, North Carolina. The new facility will house five assembly lines for lithium-ion batteries, including a fully automated line and a line that will assemble energy storage systems. According to Sunlight, this is a 12,500 sqm state-of-the-art, wholly owned facility. where up to 200 workers will be employed. The planned assembly plant will have a production capacity of one GWh and is expected to gradually reach 3 GWh by 2026. This new facility will manufacture innovative lithium-ion batteries in the US, as well as battery charging solutions that are in demand in the US market. constantly increase.

This $40 million new investment by subsidiary Sunlight Batteries USA is part of the company’s broader business plan for global expansion, with the group investing $150 million to develop the innovative technologies, manufacturing and services the company provides to the US market.

The new Mebane facility in North Carolina will also house Sunlight Batteries USA headquarters.

The new Mebane assembly facility is Sunlight’s second facility in the Americas, following the Greensboro, NC facility, which opened in 2021 and is focused on forming and assembling lead-acid batteries with a production capacity of 1 GWh. Sunlight’s second U.S. plant expands the company’s lithium battery production capacity with state-of-the-art automated laser welding equipment. A key advantage of this technology is the flexibility it provides at the industrial production level. In particular, the automated assembly line is equipped with tools that are interchangeable and move to produce new and different products, greatly reducing production time, improving efficiency, and meeting differentiated market needs. In addition to the lithium battery assembly line, Mebane’s new facility will also house the headquarters of Sunlight Batteries USA and offer advanced battery charging and electronics solutions for industrial use following the acquisition of PBM SRL, a world leader in this field. based in Italy.

The confidence and recognition of Sunlight’s strategic expansion in North America is evidenced, as the company announced, by the funding the company has received from the State of North Carolina for its contribution to employment (the Jobs Investment Grant). Specifically, the state estimates that the economic impact of the investment will increase North Carolina’s economy by approximately $391 million over 12 years.

A few weeks ago, Sunlight completed the signing of a €175 million syndicated financing under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan with Piraeus Bank as coordinator and Piraeus Bank and Eurobank as facilitators. The funds will be used to implement the Sunlight investment project, aimed at expanding and modernizing existing production facilities, constructing new energy-efficient buildings, equipping with modern mechanical equipment and further automation. production process at their facilities.