Saft, a subsidiary of TotalEnergies, has commissioned a new line at its Jacksonville factory in Florida to produce the lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery containers that form the heart of energy storage systems (ESS).

This investment enables Saft to address the booming US demand for ESS projects by offering a solution with domestic content. It will also create new job opportunities, both direct and indirect, as well as strengthening the national supply chain.“Currently,we are successfu lin serving the US market using battery containers produced by our global factories overseas. Now our strategy to expand Jacksonville’s capacity to reach more than 5 GWh in 2027 will enhance its capability to provide a faster response to serve US customers and reduce our environmental footprint. At the same time, this will also incrementally increase local content by building up our US-based supply chains,” said Hervé Amossé, Saft EVP for Energy Storage Systems. “Saft will reach the Inflation Reduction Act 2022 requirements with its 5,1 MWh containers by 2026”, he added.

Energy storage makes a vital contribution to the decarbonisation of the energy mix as an integral element of renewable energy installations, microgrids and grid stability projects. According to Bloomberg the US is the second largest and most mature ESS market in the world, with 2023 being a record year that saw 22GWh of capacity deployed. The US market is expected to reach a cumulative 134gigawatts (GW) and 484 GWh in 2030. Saft has become established as a key ESS supplier to customers from the Arctic Circle to Argentina, from New Zealand to Hawaii, with a current installed base of around4GWh. Since delivering its first US energy storage project in Alaska in 2003, Saft has also delivered major projects such as the Myrtle and Danish Fields utility scale solar power plants in Texas, US, each exceeding 200 megawatt-hours (MWh) of storage.

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