Epsilon Advanced Materials, the India-based company with plans for a graphite manufacturing facility in Brunswick County, recently secured $115 million in federal tax credits to support the project. 

Epsilon CEO Sunit Kapur said the sizable award will be a tool to help the company cover the up-front costs of developing the facility. The company, which makes graphite for the lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles, announced it had received the tax credits in a social media post last month.  

Despite the incoming Trump administration’s push toward oil and more traditional energy sources, Kapur said Epsilon remains “optimistic” about its future because it will support an existing electric vehicle market. 

In 2023, Epsilon announced plans to build a 1.5-million-square-foot facility in Brunswick County’s Mid-Atlantic Industrial Rail Park in 2023. At the time, officials said they expected the new plant to create 500 jobs with an average salary of more than $52,000. 

Kapur said the size of the proposed facility and the number and types of jobs it will create have not changed. The company’s investment in the facility, however, will likely exceed the $650 million figure announced in 2023, he said. 

The company is currently working to secure preconstruction permits for the Brunswick County facility, and then the project will move into its design and engineering phase, Kapur said. The firm also plans to hire a U.S.-based employee to oversee progress on the Brunswick County facility.  

Bill Early, executive director of economic development group Brunswick Business & Industry Development, said Epsilon officials are working to secure required state permits and getting close to finalizing wetlands permits needed for the site’s development.  

Brunswick Business & Industry Development and Epsilon officials are also working with the N.C. Department of Transportation on plans to construct an access road for the Mid-Atlantic Industrial Rail Park. Early said the road will not only provide access to the Epsilon site but will also open up other areas of the industrial park for future tenants. 

Epsilon aims to complete the facility by 2027, according to the company’s tax credit announcement. Early said he expects the project could break ground this year. 

Before selecting Brunswick County for its first facility outside India, Epsilon looked at more than 100 sites in the U.S. alone and spent a year in talks with North Carolina officials.  

Company officials have said they chose Brunswick County because of its available workforce, the availability of an industry-ready site, proximity to the Port of Wilmington and outlook for workforce training programs, among other factors. 

When the project was initially announced, company officials had said they expected to break ground on the facility in 2024, begin operations by 2026 and reach full capacity by 2031. Kapur said the project faced delays in securing the clearance it needed for the new facility.  

Early, too, acknowledged progress on the plant has been slower than expected. Brunswick Business & Industry Development wrote several letters of support for Epsilon in the company’s efforts to secure the federal tax credits, but the organization wasn’t directly involved in the application, Early said. 

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

Epsilon received its federal tax credits from the Internal Revenue Service under the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act’s Section 48C program. 

On Jan. 15, the IRS announced its plans to allocate $6 billion in tax credits to more than 140 projects across 30 states as part of the 48C program, according to a news release from the agency. The recent announcement marked the program’s second tax credit allocation.  

The 48C program is administered by the Department of the Treasury and IRS in partnership with the Department of Energy. It aims to fund projects that expand clean energy manufacturing and recycling capacity in the U.S., grow critical materials processing and refining capacity, drive process efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions at American industrial facilities, the release stated.  

The tax credits were awarded to Epsilon after the Department of Energy performed a technical review of plans for the Brunswick County facility, according to the company. The company’s announcement states the tax credit award is a “significant milestone” for the firm, bringing it “one step closer to accelerating the clean energy transition in the U.S.”