Mold Remediation in Portage, WI

Plans for a new battery plant in Portage looking to bring hundreds of jobs to laid-off Energizer employees could be in jeopardy due to a lack of funding.

Wisconsin Battery Company did not receive a $50 million federal grant that would have allowed the company to begin building a 100,000-square-foot facility in the city’s industrial park, CEO Jeff Greene said Friday.

“I’ve got a couple of other irons in the fire, so while it’s not a live-or-die thing, it certainly was a gut punch, because we had kind of counted on it,” Greene said of the federal grant.

Mayor Mitchel Craig said he isn’t sure where plans for the facility go from here, but the city is still hopeful the project can move forward.

“At this point the only thing we can do as a city is wait to see what the company’s next steps are, because we obviously still want this project to happen,” Craig said.

In January, the startup battery company announced plans to build a plant in the city that would eventually employ hundreds of laid-off Energizer workers to manufacture hemp-based batteries as a sustainable alternative to lithium-ion ones.

Hemp batteries work by processing the woody pulp of the plant into carbon nanosheets, which store electricity. The fibers have been found to store even more energy than graphene, a synthetic carbon material used in lithium-ion batteries.

On Friday, the U.S. Department of Energy announced the latest round of funding from the Biden administration to boost production of advanced batteries and battery materials.

Greene said it was a bleak day not being one of the 25 projects chosen to receive the funds, but Wisconsin Battery Company officials will meet next week to reevaluate their plans and figure out a way to move forward.

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The 17-acre site where the plant is to be built has been leveled and mostly cleared in preliminary excavation efforts, but the city won’t officially transfer any land until proof of financing is in hand, said Steve Sobiek, director of business development and planning.

“We don’t want to give any property to anyone unless we have very high assurance that the development will in fact take place,” Sobiek said. “And that all starts with the proof of financing to construct this brand-new facility.”

Meanwhile, plans for a second Wisconsin Battery Company in Fennimore have also stalled.

Michael Sauvante, CEO of Sustainable Communities Corporation, which owns the startup, has floated instituting an economic development plan that would essentially issue Portage and Fennimore their own form of currency, similar to the chamber of commerce’s Green Gift Certificates, which aims to keep money in the city, as businesses tend to reinvest money back into their store and community.

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The alternative form of currency would be known as “WinDolls” and Sauvante said there would be an online marketplace similar to eBay or Craigslist, where people could list their goods, and sell them for “WinDolls.”

The company would also need several merchants to get on board with the program, as most places would need to except the form of payment, rather than just solely US dollars.

Craig said Portage has “zero interest” in such a plan. Fennimore Mayor Ryan Boebel did not respond to requests for comment.

At a news conference at the Portage Enterprise Center in January, Greene announced plans to begin construction of the facility in the city’s industrial park in the spring, saying it would include a solar-powered building and a child care center for employees’ children.

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The company planned to hire 60 to 70 people “right out of the gate” and hundreds more in its first couple years, providing jobs for former workers of the Energizer plant in Portage, which began layoffs last year and announced in January it would officially shut down the plant in December.

Greene said the company is still waiting to hear about several types of funding, including industrial revenue bonds, which are designed to help Wisconsin municipalities support industrial development through the sale of tax-exempt bonds, private investor funds and other federal grants before it can proceed with construction.

He said part of the delay also has included three different types of attempted fraud involving three private investors, whom he has reported to the FBI.

Last winter, the city granted Wisconsin Battery Company a temporary easement to begin preliminary work on the site, which it did on April 23. Greene said the company is ready to proceed and pour the foundation once it obtains funding.

Greene said earlier this week the company was planning to lease warehouse space in Portage and, if it secures funding, would likely begin operations around March packaging and repackaging traditional carbon-based batteries under the Wisconsin Battery Company brand until the new facility is built.

Craig and Sobiek said they and other city officials have had a great working relationship with Greene and they have been in regular conversation to make sure both sides are still on the same page and to update each other on any developments.

Sobiek also said he has continued to be be in contact with the builders, engineers and contractors for the planned facility, and that people have been working diligently to move the project forward.

Greene has also been eyeing a second plant location in Fennimore, where Energizer announced it also would be closing its plant in the city around the same time it announced its closure in Portage. He said Energizer refused to sell the Fennimore plant to his company, but a third party plans to purchase the facility and has approached Greene about potentially leasing it or buying it from them.

Along with producing hemp batteries, Wisconsin Battery had plans for the Fennimore plant to manufacture the company’s prototype industrial batteries, which Greene said are the size of storage containers and make energy storage solutions for solar and wind power systems more efficient and reliable.

But that project is now also uncertain since signing a lease is dependent on receiving funding, Greene said.

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