A new factory for a battery built without lithium
Form Energy broke ground on a new battery factory in Weirton, West Virginia, on 26 May 2023. The plant, called Form Factory 1, is a 760 million dollar investment, backed by a 290 million dollar incentive package from the state, and is expected to employ 750 people once it reaches its full capacity of 500 megawatts of batteries built each year. The battery it makes is an iron air battery, a design that stores and releases power by rusting and unrusting iron, using no lithium at all.
When we founded Form Energy, we set out to transform the electric grid through reliable, low-cost multi-day energy storage made in America.
Mateo Jaramillo, chief executive and co founder of Form Energy. Source 1.
The first confirmed order runs for over 4 days
The first confirmed commercial order for that battery is a 15 megawatt, 1,500 megawatt hour iron air system agreed with Georgia Power on 12 June 2023, expected online as early as 2026, subject to regulatory approval. The release announcing it states the system can deliver electricity for 100 hours straight, which works out to 4 days and 4 hours. The United States Department of Energy set a goal in 2021 to cut the cost of long duration energy storage by 90% within the decade, defining long duration storage as any system that can operate for more than 10 hours at a time. The Georgia Power order clears that 10 hour bar by a wide margin.
What that order means for lithium metal
A lithium ion battery, the type used in most electric cars and grid batteries running today, needs lithium metal dug out of the ground. The International Renewable Energy Agency estimates about 160 grams of lithium metal are needed for every kilowatt hour of battery power. The Georgia Power system stores 1,500 megawatt hours, which is 1,500,000 kilowatt hours. Multiplying those two figures, a calculation done for this article and not stated by either source, gives about 240 metric tons of lithium metal that a lithium ion battery of the same size would have needed. The iron air chemistry needs none of it. The United States Geological Survey counted 240,000 metric tons of world lithium mine production in 2024, up 18% from 204,000 metric tons the year before, most of it coming from a short list of countries led by Australia, Chile and China. The 240 metric tons the Georgia Power order would have needed is about 0.1% of that world total, a comparison made here, not a claim about the whole company.
Figures are converted from the source own tons to thousand metric tons for readability, a MAOWCE unit conversion, not a new fact. The United States is excluded because its own 2024 total is withheld by the source for company confidentiality.
Show the numbers
| Australia | 88 |
| Chile | 49 |
| China | 41 |
| Zimbabwe | 22 |
| Argentina | 18 |
Lithium already goes almost entirely into batteries
Batteries already take 87% of all the lithium mined in the world in 2024, according to the same government survey, with the rest split among ceramics and glass, lubricating greases and a handful of smaller uses. Every ton of lithium an iron air battery does not need is a ton that does not have to come from that same short list of countries. Form Energy still has to prove it can build these batteries at a cost that competes with existing power plants, the promise made in the Georgia Power release, and has not published a price. What it has already shown, in 1 factory and 1 signed order, is a battery that can store power for more than 4 days without touching the metal the rest of the battery industry is racing to mine faster every year.
The source prints 2 different shares for batteries in 2 places, 71% and 87%. This chart uses the 87% figure, from the more detailed breakdown table. The 71% figure does not appear anywhere in this article.
Show the numbers
| Batteries | 87 |
| Ceramics and glass | 5 |
| Other | 3 |
| Lubricating greases | 2 |
| Air treatment | 1 |
| Continuous casting mold flux powders | 1 |
| Medical | 1 |