Natron Energy ceased operations in the United States, halting its North Carolina factory plans, Manufacturing Dive reported on 8 September 2025. Its 28 August letter announced permanent closures in Holland, Michigan, and Santa Clara, California, on 3 September, affecting 95 employees. The company said its board concluded on 27 August that efforts to secure investor capital and revenue-generating purchase orders had failed.
The North Carolina plan
North Carolina's Commerce Department had announced the Kingsboro project on 15 August 2024, describing nearly $1.4 billion in investment and 1,062 planned jobs in Edgecombe County. The approved Job Development Investment Grant allowed potential reimbursements of up to $21.747 million over twelve years. Payments depended on verified incremental employment and investment targets. The state also expected a separate grant of up to $30 million to Edgecombe County for site preparation, subject to final approvals. The announcement put the planned jobs' average annual salary at $64,071, compared with the county average of $43,183.
The Holland opening
In its 29 April 2024 opening release, Natron announced commercial-scale sodium-ion battery operations at Holland. It said it had invested over $40 million to upgrade the $300 million facility and convert existing lithium-ion production lines. The company reported $19.8 million in support from the federal energy agency's SCALEUP programme. It projected more than 100 local jobs by the end of 2025 and planned June shipments, initially for data-centre customers. The release described the plant as a blueprint for later factories and listed further intended industrial markets:
- Industrial mobility.
- Electric-vehicle fast charging.
- Telecommunications.
The earlier federal research award
The Department of Energy's 16 September 2020 announcement described a $19,883,951 project to scale Natron's Prussian-blue-electrode sodium-ion battery production thirtyfold, to 18,000 trays annually. The proposed primary product was an eight-kilowatt, fifty-volt tray for data centres, managing peak computing loads and providing backup power. The project aimed to reduce supply-chain and product risks through six months of continuous production and sales. Natron and its partners were to adapt standard chemical-synthesis and battery-manufacturing equipment and processes. Those were the objectives of the earlier commercialization award, preceding the Holland opening and subsequent closures.
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