Pittsburgh-based CorePower Magnetics has been tapped to receive a $20 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to build an advanced manufacturing facility specializing in components for the electrical grid and electric vehicles.
Core Power, which received a $5 million grant from the DOE last year, will create its facility at the site of a former coal plant in southwestern Pennsylvania. There will be between 25 and 50 jobs, according to the Department of Energy. It wasn't immediately clear where the plant is located.
The output will be 10,000 tons per year of amorphous metals and magnetic components, which the Department of Energy said will add 20% to the capacity nationwide. It will also supply about 10% of global supply for the materials, which are used in transformers and motors.
CorePower’s previous grant, for $5 million, was to help scale up a pilot manufacturing line to build the transformers and inductors that are important in electric vehicles and electric grids crucial to meet global decarbonization goals. CorePower, which was founded in Pittsburgh, uses a proprietary alloy developed at Carnegie Mellon University and the National Energy Technology Laboratory as well as the power of soft magnetics. It doesn’t require rare earth minerals, another key point in its favor.
The funding comes from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
“Southwestern Pennsylvania has long provided the power that built our nation, and this funding will help CorePower Magnetics and its workers continue that tradition as we create the technology of the future,” said U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pennsylvania.
Also receiving funding from the region were Alpen High-Performance Products in Vandergrift, which will get $5.8 million for a factory to build more triple/quadruple pane insulated glass windows; and Boston Metals, which will receive $50 million to build a refractory metal alloy factory in Weirton, West Virginia.
