Pittsylvania megasite wins $1.3B battery separator project

Tennessee-based Microporous will invest $1.3 billion to build a battery separator manufacturing facility at the Southern Virginia Megasite at Berry Hill in Pittsylvania County, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Nov. 13. The company expects to create 2,015 jobs.

The megasite’s first tenant, Microporous will develop Lot 1 at the park in two phases, with each phase being about 500,000 square feet. Lot 2 of the megasite will be under consideration for Microporous’ potential future expansion. Virginia successfully competed with North Carolina for the project.

During the ceremonial groundbreaking for the project, Youngkin nodded at the controversy created in 2023 after word broke that the governor had pulled the Southern Virginia Megasite out of the running for a $3.5 billion Ford Motor Co. electric vehicle battery factory over national security concerns that a Chinese company would be involved in its operation.

“I want to say it very clearly,” Youngkin said. “This is an American company using American technology that will hire American workers and supply American companies.”

For more than eight decades, Microporous has produced separators for lead-acid batteries, the oldest rechargeable battery technology, which is typically used in vehicles and to power grid systems. The company’s headquarters are in Sullivan County, Tennessee, near Bristol, Virginia. It also has a facility in Austria.

At the megasite, Microporous plans to expand into creating battery separators for lithium-ion batteries, which are used in electric vehicles, energy storage systems and other applications.

Microporous CEO John Reeves says the facility will be at the forefront of clean energy: “We are driven by commitment to innovation, sustainability and growth, and today marks an extraordinary step in that journey.”

The company’s Berry Hill manufacturing facility will be fully operational by 2026, according to Reeves.

The Southern Virginia Megasite at Berry Hill is owned jointly by the City of Danville and Pittsylvania County through the Danville-Pittsylvania Regional Industrial Facility Authority (RIFA). Leaders in the two counties have worked to make the site a reality since 2008.

Last year, the U.S. Department of Energy announced Microporous was tapped to receive $100 million in federal funding for the project.

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with the Danville-Pittsylvania County RIFA, Pittsylvania County, the City of Danville, the Southern Virginia Regional Alliance, the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission and the General Assembly’s Major Employment and Investment Project Approval Commission to secure the project.