Additional details have been released regarding a potential $1.9 billion clean-energy manufacturing facility that is being considered for Chatham-Kent.
Canadian Energies is eyeing the municipality as the site for a proposed 10-gigawatt integrated “gigafactory campus” that would produce solar modules and battery energy storage systems, among other infrastructure.
The facility would also become North America’s first domestic producer of sodium-ion batteries.
According to a news release posted by Canadian Energies’ CEO Mark Garvin, Chatham-Kent was chosen as the preferred location due to its established workforce, supply-chain infrastructure, and production expertise. Gavin also cited the municipality’s grid transmission capacity and its proximity to provincial highways.
The manufacturing facility is also expected to have substantial economic spin-off for Chatham-Kent, including thousands of direct and indirect jobs and significant annual government revenue.
Initially unable to discuss the project due to a non-disclosure agreement, the municipality issued a statement about the clean-energy investment on Monday once the company had made its intentions public. The proposed facility was featured as part of the Canadian Investment Summit, which took place in Toronto earlier this week.
Mayor Darrin Canniff said the potential investment in Chatham-Kent is very exciting for the municipality.
“We’ve been working with them for quite a while now, as far as attracting them to our community,” said Canniff. “There are 444 other municipalities that would absolutely love to have [Canadian Energies] locate there.”
When asked about the company’s ties to data centre infrastructure during Monday’s council meeting, CK CAO Michael Duben said the proposed facility in Chatham-Kent would not be a dedicated data centre, but would instead manufacture parts to support data centres.
“Keep in mind, nothing has been approved; this is just somebody going out and asking for investments,” said Duben. “This is not a project that will proceed without the province and the feds being involved.”
Headquartered in Toronto, Canadian Energies operates a solar manufacturing facility in India that serves customers across the Middle East, as well as a Gulf-facing EPC and distribution platform in the UAE.
