Manufacturing Renaissance: Building Multi-Day Battery Systems at Former Steel Site

By Will Sturgeon on   |   2 min read

“We’re connecting the old and the new. For us, what it means is bringing manufacturing back to Weirton.”
Soufiane Halily, VP of Form Factory at Form Energy

Video: U.S. Department of Energy

In the 1960s, steel manufacturing was at its peak in the Rust Belt. People flocked to bustling Weirton, West Virginia for the decent pay offered by the steel industry. Today, the town is much quieter.  

But this old steel town is now embracing manufacturing for a clean energy technology. 

Located at the site of the former Weirton Steel plant, U.S.-based Form Energy recently built its first high-volume battery manufacturing facility. 

Form Factory 1 is producing a new class of affordable multi-day energy storage systems that can store energy for 100 hours using innovative iron-air technology. Form Energy is the first company to commercialize and scale this new made-in-America technology

Within 36 hours of posting job openings online, 200 interview slots were filled. The positions offer a minimum average salary of $63,000, which is approximately $10,000 higher than the average earnings of men in the area and twice the average income for women. 

Form Factory 1 will ultimately employ more than 750 people and will have an annual production capacity of 500 MW of batteries when operating at full capacity.

“To quote my kids, Weirton is economically on fire. It’s going to be the tide that rises all of us.”
Mike Adams, Weirton City Manager

Construction of the first phase of the factory began in May 2023 and is already substantially complete. Next, Form Energy will begin high-volume production of its battery systems and start construction on the next phase of the factory, which will result in a total of ~1 million square feet of manufacturing space. 

For the people of Weirton, manufacturing for the clean energy industry means a new chapter of hope and opportunity in their storied town.

Find more stories of the new U.S. clean energy manufacturing renaissance in ACP’s Clean Energy Investing in America report. 

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