Now that the dust has settled and more details have emerged, it would seem that Ascend Elements was one of the many companies impacted by the discontinuation of a grant with the U.S. Department of Energy.
Specifically, Ascend Elements—which develops sustainable battery materials through advanced recycling technologies—will lose a $316 million grant that supported the Apex I facility being built in Hopkinsville at Commerce Park II. Despite the loss of the grant, Ascend Elements officials remain confident in their plans at the Hopkinsville location.
President and CEO Linh Austin said in a statement, “The DOE’s decision regarding the grant doesn’t change our trajectory. We’re moving forward… Importantly, our funding path is diversified well beyond DOE. We are replacing the remaining unused portion of the DOE grant with a mix of other sources of funding available to the company including equity, project finance, municipal bonds, and other forms of debt. Our Kentucky project remains strategic. While construction at Apex 1 is paused, we will restart beginning in 2026, with both lithium extraction and pCAM lines aligned with commercial offtakes. Our business economics are not predicated on grants, but by customer demand, operational excellence and our patented Hydro-to-Cathode technology.”
Speaking with WHOP News Friday morning, Hopkinsville Mayor J.R. Knight says that statement matches what he has been told as well, so he currently remains hopeful that Ascend Elements is working in good faith.
He says he had hoped to have that facility open and hiring by now, but once matters are settled in court regarding payments to contractors, he hopes to see it back in action.
Mayor Knight says the City of Hopkinsville, Christian County Government and the State of Kentucky all have money in this project, so they’re working hard to make sure it comes to pass—and on the plus side, the site of the facility has had a lot of improvement in that area.
This isn’t the first grant removed from this project, as Ascend Elements and the Department of Energy came to an agreement to cancel a $164 million grant earlier this year to focus on CAM and lithium production.
As previously reported, a joint venture made of Turner Construction Company and Kokosing Industrial, Inc. filed a lawsuit in Civil Court against Ascend Elements in March, alleging Ascend failed to pay for work that was done and materials delivered by the Joint Venture by December 20 of 2024 at the location of the Apex 1 facility in Commerce Park II in Hopkinsville. The total owed, the plaintiff says, is $138.4 million. They go on to state that they are entitled to recover interest from Ascend at a rate of 12 percent, on top of what they are already owed.
That lawsuit was joined by numerous other contractors and companies—it remains in court undergoing arbitration at this time.