Battery factory decision on Butte delayed

A Norwegian battery materials company that secured potential local tax breaks months ago says it could be months longer before it chooses Butte, or a city in Washington state or Oregon as the site of its first American factory.

Butte-Silver Bow commissioners approved millions of dollars in tax abatements for Cenate in late June if it picks Butte. The company said then it expected to make a decision in the summer.

Cenate — pronounced Sin-NAH-Tah — is developing silicon-based materials for higher-density batteries with faster and longer-lasting charges. Its other potential landing spots are Moses Lake or Tri Cities in Washington state and Hermiston, Oregon.

If it chooses Butte, it would build a factory on a 40-acre site in the Montana Connections Business Park and use raw materials from the REC Silicon facility already there. But it appears a decision could still be months away.

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“We are currently running preparations in parallel for a few different sites,” Olav Leren Moen, chief strategy officer for Cenate, said in an email to The Montana Standard. “We have started the work on permitting and engineering, and we are exploring what financial and other assistance we can get. Some of these processes have clearly taken more time than anticipated.”

He said from a legal perspective, Cenate cannot fully decide on a location until all critical permits are in place and it is sure “the location is the most favorable both from a financial and operational perspective.”

“As the situation appears now, it will not be possible to make the final decision this year,” Moen said. “However, during (the) first half (of) next year we anticipate that the situation will become more and more clear as we will get gradually more clarity on both permits, financial incentives, and construction costs.”

He said on the operational side, production tests at its first scaled-up reactor have now been ongoing for 10 weeks in Norway, and “with very promising results.”

“Cenate remains happy with the support Montana has demonstrated to our project,” he said.

Kristen Rosa, Butte-Silver Bow’s community development coordinator, said she talks with Cenate at least monthly.

“I am still feeling pretty optimistic about this one and continue to work with them in hopes Butte is their first choice,” she said.

If it chooses Butte, Cenate says it would employ 100 to 250 people here and county officials estimate annual pay for the first 100 jobs at about $70,000, based on the job mix and average wages for such positions in southwest Montana.

Commissioners approved abatements that would reduce the company’s locally assessed mills for property taxes by 75% the first five years. Cenate would pay more in phases in years six through nine and pay 100% of the taxes normally owed after that.

Without abatements, Cenate’s projected local tax bill would be about $26 million total over 10 years, officials say. With them, it would pay about $14.35 million — a savings of $11.6 million.

“We continue to have good correspondence with them and I think they were a bit optimistic on their time frame, which I no longer find surprising with any type of development,” Rosa said.

She said Cenate is making predictions based on the best information they have but “there always seems to be some sort of hiccup that pushes the time lines.”

Mike Smith is a reporter at the Montana Standard with an emphasis on government and politics.

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