08/04/2024
Nicholson Construction builds foundations for Form Energy’s new battery facility
Environment | News | Project
North American subsidiary Nicholson Construction spent the better part of 2023 working with clean energy innovators Form Energy at their Form Factory 1 in Weirton, West Virginia. Form Factory 1 represents a combined $760 investment from the State of West Virginia and Form Energy.
Form Factory 1 will be the country’s first high-volume iron-air battery manufacturing facility. The ultimate goal of the factory is to mass-produce low cost, grid-scale batteries using iron, water and air as key components. The batteries can be produced at a considerably lower cost than the dominant battery technology and will offer longer storage duration, up to 100 hours.
The Form Factory 1 site is located at the old Weirton Steel Mill, which was constructed in the early 1900s. The site makeup is complicated, with known obstructions of remnant buildings, basements, slag deposits, and many other steel, wood, and brick fragments. The company looked at hundreds of site options before settling on Weirton for Form Factory 1.
Nicholson installed micropiles to help support the new facility, which will ultimately employ more than 750 people and have an annual production of capacity of 500 megawatts of batteries when operating at full capacity.
In addition to the micropiles, Nicholson also completed a void fill grouting program in the overburden fill.
L’usine Form Factory 1 devrait commencer à fonctionner à plein régime dans le courant de l’année.
En phase avec les engagements en matière d’environnement de Soletanche Bachy, Nicholson s’engage à rechercher des projets qui ont un impact positif sur l’environnement. Form Energy est un pionnier en matière d’énergie verte et Nicholson est fier de contribuer à la construction de sa nouvelle usine, qui jouera un rôle clé dans la transformation du paysage énergétique du pays.
