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October 20, 2022 
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ICYMI: Reverend Warnock Helps Bring 600 Jobs to Augusta

Reverend Warnock: “Georgia Is Open For Business, And Today’s Announcement Is Good News For Both Georgia’s Growing Clean Energy Economy And Augusta Workers.”

Atlanta, GA – Announced yesterday, Reverend Warnock helped secure over $178 million for an electric vehicle battery plant in Augusta, which could bring 500 construction jobs and 100 manufacturing jobs to Richmond County. Reverend Warnock championed the Bipartisan Infrastructure law, which is funding the $178 million grant, and helped secure billions of dollars in the law to bolster Georgia’s infrastructure and local economies. This latest effort is a part of Reverend Warnock’s long history of fighting to create jobs, lower costs, and invest in a clean energy future in Georgia. 

Read more about Reverend Warnock’s work to create jobs, lower costs, and invest in a clean energy future in Georgia here and below:

The Augusta Chronicle: Augusta polymers plant wins $178 million grant to build electric-vehicle battery parts

Joe Hotchkiss

Augusta Chronicle — October 19, 2022

Key Points

• An Augusta polymers plant has received a $178 million federal grant to build a companion facility to produce battery components for electric vehicles.

• The proposed new plant could bring as many as 500 construction jobs and 100 manufacturing jobs to the Augusta area, U.S. Sen Raphael Warnock’s office announced in a statement Wednesday.

• Solvay Specialty Polymers won the grant through the Battery Materials Processing and Battery Component Manufacturing and Recycling program, a program funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law enacted in 2021, the U.S. Department of Energy announced.

• With the dollar amount marking just the investment in a new facility, the real economic impact numbers for the Augusta-Richmond County Metropolitan Statistical Area will likely “end up being higher than that,” said Cal Wray, executive director of the Augusta Economic Development Authority, which wrote a letter to the DOE earlier this year in support of Solvay’s grant application. 

• “Between a couple-hundred million investment, a couple-hundred jobs that are well-paid, I think it’s great for the area,” he said. “Augusta’s got a concentration of about 23,000 people who work in manufacturing in the MSA. This just adds to that. Solvay has some of the best paid manufacturing jobs in the area, so I’d assume that would continue to be the case.”

• The factory is expected to manufacture electric battery-grade binders and separator coatings, which are crucial components for lithium-ion batteries that power EVs.

• “As we’ve seen lately there’s been a lot of EV looking in the Southeast, looking in Augusta. You already have Aurubis and Denkai in that same industry here,” Wray said. “Solvay’s had a facility here for years. It’s been continually growing and they’re continually investing in it. This is just an added benefit to what they’ve already been doing here.”

• “Georgia is open for business, and today’s announcement is good news for both Georgia’s growing clean energy economy and Augusta workers,” Warnock said in a statement Wednesday.

• “We are proud to receive the federal government’s support for manufacturing technologies that will provide the U.S. with critical raw materials for building an independent, sustainable EV value chain,” said Mike Finelli, president of Solvay Growth Platforms and chief North American officer. “This grant reaffirms Solvay’s leadership in developing a robust and resilient domestic battery supply chain that brings important clean energy jobs to the U.S.”

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