US Dept. of Energy approves more than $670 million loan to Georgia manufacturer for new factory

BULLOCH COUNTY, Ga. — The Biden-Harris administration’s Investing in America program is bringing a more than $670 million investment to a small Georgia town.

According to the loan details published by the U.S. Department of Energy, the funding will allow Aspen Aerogels to build a new factory in Register, Ga. The funding is expected to allow the company to hire more people for the operation than the town’s current population.

USDOE announced they’d approved and financed a loan to fund the construction of an Aspen Aerogels manufacturing site to produce the company’s aerogel blankets, which are thermal barriers used inside of electric vehicle batteries to allow for EV companies to “achieve critical battery safety goals.”

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Should the development loan get approved and the project moves forward, it means big changes for Register, which as of the 2020 Census had a population of just 157 people.

“In support of the administration’s efforts to deliver good-paying, high-quality jobs to communities across the country, this project is expected to create up to 550 construction jobs and 255 permanent, full-time operations jobs—boosting the regional economy,” USDOE said in the announcement.

That means if even just the permanent jobs go to people who end up living in Register, and don’t already live there, it’s possible the town’s population could more than double.

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If the loan is approved and construction is finished, the factory is expected to provide thermal barriers for more than two million vehicle batteries every year.

In addition to the local economic boon the development approval could prove to be, the Dept. of Energy said the project’s completion would help meet federal clean energy goals set by the Biden-Harris administration.

“The incremental fuel savings is equivalent to removing over 5,000 internal combustion engine vehicles from the road each year and enables a reduction of over 8,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent annually,” USDOE said. “The facility would significantly expand EV thermal barrier manufacturing capacity in North America, helping to reinforce the domestic EV supply chain while delivering new economic opportunities for workers in Georgia.”

The department said the project would also help the United States when it comes to expanding sustainable domestic supply chains and reduce the nation’s reliance on China and other economic competitors.

Aspen Aerogels currently has contracts with General Motors, Toyota, Scania, Automotive Cells Company and Audi.

The commitment from USDOE to Aspen Aerogels is conditional, meaning for the financing to be fully approved, both the department and the company have to meet certain “technical, legal, environmental, and financial conditions before the Department enters into definitive financing documents and funds the loan.”

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