September 12, 2024 – Saft, a subsidiary of  French oil giant TotalEnergies, has commissioned a new line at its Jacksonville factory in Florida to produce the lithium-ion battery containers that are now the standard  building block in BESS. Present supply of the containers comes from Saft’s overseas factories.

“Our strategy is to expand Jacksonville’s capacity to reach more than 5GWh in 2027. This will also incrementally increase local content by building up our US-based supply chains,” said Hervé Amossé, Saft EVP for Energy Storage Systems.

“Saft will reach the Inflation Reduction Act 2022 requirements with its 5.1MWh containers by 2026,” he said.

‘This investment enables Saft to address the booming US demand for ESS projects by offering a solution with domestic content. It will also create new job opportunities, both direct and indirect, as well as strengthening the national supply chain.”

According to Bloomberg, the US is the second largest ESS market in the world, with 2023 being a record year with 22GWh of capacity deployed.

Bloomberg expects the US market to reach a cumulative 134GW and 484 GWh in 2030.