This energy company wants Augusta factory to manufacture batteries the size of houses

A Georgia-based energy-storage manufacturer hopes its proposed Augusta plant will speed the production of some of the world's largest batteries.

Stryten Energy in Alpharetta is asking the city's perimssion to handle, store and process sulfuric acid on a portion of 3464 Mike Padgett Hwy. that it wants to rename the Southeast Energy Storage Park.

Stryten also is a finalist for a U.S. Department of Energy prize awarded to companies who can best accelerate the "domestic manufacturing of critical clean energy technology components," according to the DOE.

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Stryten wants Augusta as the company's new site to manufacture vanadium redox flow batteries. The batteries rely on high storage capacity to help run community power grids, meaning each battery often is the size of a small building.

As a pure metal, vanadium occurs rarely in nature, and China and Russia are the world's leading vanadium producers. But many minerals contain vanadium oxides that U.S. factories such as Stryten use as catalysts to produce sulfuric acid.

Sulfuric acid, known for its corrosive properties, also is used as a raw material or a processing agent for many other chemicals. Vanadium oxide powder is combined with the acid to produce the battery's electrolytes.

Scott Childers, vice president of Stryten's Essential Power division that produces the batteries, told the Augusta Planning Commission on July 1 that the facility's campus, when completely built out, could employ up to 1,000 after five years.

Stryten's proposed timetable would build the battery electrolyte plant in 2025 and 2026, with a battery assembly plant to follow in 2027 and 2028. Beyond that, partner companies that aid in production will be expected to locate near Stryten in Augusta.

The Augusta Commission is expected to consider Stryten's request at a future meeting.