American Battery Factory (ABF) has secured 4.5 GWh of long-term offtake for its Tucson, Arizona lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cell gigafactory, giving the company committed demand as it ramps a plant that is central to onshoring U.S. stationary storage supply.
Anchoring an Arizona LFP gigafactory
The Pima County facility is designed to deliver 5.5 GWh of output over its first five years, with a defined path to scale to 15 GWh. That maps closely to the surge in U.S. utility-scale battery storage additions — projected at 24 GW of new capacity in 2026, roughly double last year's record — driven in large part by AI data-center power demand.
Domestic LFP as strategic supply
LFP is displacing NMC in stationary storage on cost and safety, but production remains concentrated in China. "The agreements bring the company closer to its primary goal of onshoring the domestic supply chain and accelerating the growth of the country's clean-energy economy," ABF CEO Jim Ge said. The company joins Ford Energy's 20 GWh Kentucky BESS build and a growing set of North American cell projects.
Offtake unlocks the ramp
Committed offtake is the difference between a permitted gigafactory and a financed one. Utility, data-center and independent-power buyers have started signing multi-year LFP tolling deals to insulate storage projects from cell-supply risk, a pattern echoed by projects like Sunrun and Tesla's Renew Home 16 GW virtual power plant and Vopak's 230 MW Oosterhout BESS.
Domestic supply race intensifies
U.S. battery manufacturing could cover domestic BESS demand within a few years if projects like ABF's stay on schedule. Combined with the record 353.4 GWh of storage capacity the world is expected to add in 2026, the sector has shifted from questioning whether LFP scales in North America to negotiating who gets first delivery.
Reporting based on coverage from Energy-Storage.News and Solar Power World.