Epsilon Advanced Materials officials say the company has secured $115 million in federal tax credits to support its plans for a $650 million graphite manufacturing facility in Brunswick County.

The company, which makes graphite for electric vehicle batteries, announced the tax credit news in a LinkedIn post this week. In 2023, Epsilon announced its plans to build a 1.5-million-square-foot facility in Brunswick County’s Mid-Atlantic Industrial Rail Park. The facility is expected to create 500 jobs with an average salary of more than $52,000.

The project is on track for completion in 2027, and Bill Early, executive director of Brunswick Business & Industry Development, said he expects the project to break ground this year.

At the time of the project's announcement, company officials said they expected to break ground on the facility in 2024, begin operations by 2026 and reach full capacity by 2031. Since then, Early acknowledged that progress has been slower than expected, but things are still moving forward, he said.

Brunswick Business & Industry Development wrote letters of support for Epsilon in the company’s efforts to secure tax credits but wasn’t directly involved, Early said.

“They have been hoping to tap into some of those federal resources to assist with their project here in Brunswick County,” he said, “so this is very good news for them.”

Epsilon representatives did not immediately respond on Wednesday to the Business Journal’s request for comment. The company noted in its LinkedIn post that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) allocated the tax credits under the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act’s Section 48C program.

The IRS announced $6 billion in tax credits to more than 140 projects last week as part of the 48C program, according to a news release. The 48C program aims to fund projects that expand U.S. clean energy manufacturing and recycling capacity, expand U.S. critical materials processing and refining capacity and drive process efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions at US industrial facilities, the release stated. 

The tax credits were awarded after the U.S. Department of Energy performed a technical review of plans for the Brunswick County facility. Early said Epsilon officials are working to secure required state permits and are getting close to finalizing wetlands permits needed for the site’s development. According to the LinkedIn post, Epsilon is working toward the completion of a facility with a 30,000-ton capacity by 2027.

The post states that the tax credit award is a “significant milestone” for the company, bringing it "one step closer to accelerating the clean energy transition in the U.S."