Battery maker Amprius details Brighton factory plans

Company touts safety as they prepare for city, state reviews will

BY SCOTT TAYLOR STAYLOR@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Amprius Technologies, the Fremont, Calif.-based lithium-ion battery manufacturer that plans to occupy an empty warehouse in Brighton, has already talked about how much they plan to invest in the community and how many jobs they plan to bring.

But one question they’ve been answering lately is how safe their operation will be. Company CEO Kang Sun said he wants to assure Brighton the factory will be safe. “ is is a highly regulated industry and we cannot a ord to make any error,” Sun said. “One big error and our company will be gone. So we are taking this very, very seriously for our employees, our labor groups and our neighbors.” e company announced in March its intention to occupy the empty former Sears/KMart distribution center on Bromley Lane, setting up their new lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility in the 775,000-square-foot building. eir rst phase would create 332 net new jobs in Brighton with an average annual wage of $68,516.

Amprius plans to invest $190 million, including a $50 million cost-sharing grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s O ce of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains.

Andrew Huie, Amprius’ vice president of infrastructure, said the company still needs zoning approval from the City of Brighton and per- mits from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. ey plan to submit their applications to the state this fall, with tentative zoning reviews with the Brighton Planning Commission in July and the City Council in August. ey’d hope to be operating by the beginning of 2024.

Moving into an already-existing building is a bonus for the company.

“We’ve already con rmed there is enough electricity for the rst phase of our project and we will be building out the interior space of the structure,” Huie said. “Most of the construction we need to do will be inside the building.”

Understanding the process e facility would be located at 18875 Bromley Lane, just 600 feet south of Brighton’s Mt. Princeton St. and homes in the surrounding Brighton Crossings neighborhood and due north of Brighton’s water treatment plant. Neighbors have made their fears of res and pollution clear at Brighton City Council meetings. ey’ve hosted two neighborhood meetings at the Brighton Armory and have met one-on-one with several neighbors, Huie said, and more meetings are scheduled.

Huie said company o cials have met with neighbors and other concerned Brighton residents since they announced their plans in March.

“One of the reasons why people are nervous is that they don’t understand the process and our business, so that’s why we are doing community outreach,” Huie said. “We want to educate them on what we are doing and how we are mitigating the concerns they bring to the table.”

Lithium-ion batteries have been the news lately, with res in batterypowered E-bikes and cars, but Kang said most of the danger comes from mishandling and overcharging by users. He notes that his factory would not manufacture charged bat- teries, but empty batteries waiting for users to charge them.

“In the res, you’ll see that the battery quality is one factor and battery misuse is another,” Kang said. “ ey can be overcharged or damaged, like when a car crashes. But Amprius has passed U.S. military speci cations. We are very safe. And I have not heard of a re inside a battery factory in four years. I have never heard of a battery factory re.”

Even so, the warehouse’s interior space would be divided into smaller, re-resistant rooms for making and storing the empty batteries and the factory will have a state-of-the-art re suppression system.

“So we will have many engineering controls in place to help manage risks,” Huie said. “We will have fourhour-rated rewalls down to onehour-rated walls all separating the di erent hazard classi cations. We have high-tech re suppression and

Solar manufacturer announces plans for Brighton

Joint venture to bring 900 jobs, $250 million investment to city

Brighton will be home to a solar manufacturing facility along Interstate 76, the Polis administration announced June 22.

e Colorado O ce of Economic Development and International Trade announced today that VSK Energy Inc. will expand into Brighton, bringing as many as 900 new jobs to the area.

e company plans to move into the 76 Commerce Center, row of warehouses along Interstate 76 just north of Brighton’s 160th Avenue in 2024. e company would share the lot with autonomous warehouse equipment manufacturer Outrider.

VSK Energy Inc., a U.S.-based joint venture between several international solar manufacturers, announced plans to invest $250 million to develop an American solar photovoltaic module manufacturing facility projected to create over 900 net new jobs.

“Colorado is one of the top states in the country for solar production so this expansion in Brighton will

Brighton’s understand the sion re detection systems as well. We will be coordinating all of this with Brighton’s Fire Department so they understand what have at the facility, the hazards as well as the suppression systems.”

Kang said he expects the company’s initial customers will be