Nanotech Energy opens R&D facility in Chico

CHICO — Nanotech Energy, a technology company based in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, announced the opening of a new research and development facility in Chico for the prototyping and scaling of graphene products and lithium-ion batteries.

“This is our new scale up and prototype facility. It’s taken us a lot of years to get here and a lot of work,” Chief Operations Officer Scott Laine said. “I look forward to changing things for humanity. I’m very honored.”

Laine said the new facility will focus on creating prototypes of its products to scale up at its future 517-acre battery and material manufacturing facility to be completed in Reno in 2025.

Laine said the lithium-ion batteries the company is prototyping are the only non-flammable lithium battery in the world and operate at minus 40 Celsius when most other batteries stop working at minus 10 Celsius.

The company will also be scaling up equipment to manufacture graphene products in mass quantities which Laine says is the world’s only two-dimensional product using technology developed at the UC Los Angeles.

The new facility is expected to bring in about 40 new jobs in the first year.

Laine said the company has partnered with the engineering departments at Butte College and Chico State and is actively hiring people in their programs.

“There’s a lot of students that come to Chico that would love to stay here and have their careers here but they can’t always find that particular job here,” Vice Mayor Kasey Reynolds said. “I think it’s awesome that we have an opportunity in a new sector to be groundbreaking technology and growth here in Chico.”

Laine said the company will be building a classroom setup with virtual reality to train people looking to work at their future manufacturing plant in Reno.

Chico Councilor Dale Bennet, Vice Mayor Kasey Reynolds, Chico State President Gayle Hutchinson, Congressman Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale) and state Assemblyman James Gallagher (R-Yuba City) attended a ribbon cutting ceremony Wednesday to congratulate the company.

“We have a few historical things here in Chico,” Reynolds said at the ribbon cutting ceremony Wednesday. “We have great beer; we have great ice cream, and now we’re going to have great energy.”