As Chattanoogans have wondered over the past year what’s going on inside the big blue former Alstom turbine plant off Riverfront Parkway, Novonix, which bought the facility in 2021, has quietly transformed into a different company.
What began as an Australian tech company is now a Chattanooga-based manufacturer preparing to face China head-on in a battle to supply the U.S. with a critical ingredient in batteries that power electric vehicles and grid-scale energy storage.
At the center of the battle is a black powder called synthetic graphite that Novonix plans to begin producing at mass scale next year. It shipped its first mass-produced sample to a potential customer in September.
The U.S. does not mine graphite, and China produced 78% of the world’s graphite in 2024, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. China controls more than 95% of the global market for battery-grade graphite.
“Virtually every battery manufacturer in the U.S. is buying their material from China,” Novonix CEO Mike O’Kronley said on a tour of the riverside facility Thursday.