Ford Energy, the wholly owned subsidiary of Ford Motor Company, and developer EDF power solutions North America have announced a five-year battery energy storage system (BESS) supply agreement.
Announced 18 May, the agreement will give EDF the ability to procure up to 4GWh of BESS from Ford Energy annually, representing a total potential volume of up to 20GWh. Deliveries are expected to begin in 2028.
Ford officially launched Ford Energy last week (11 May), though the company first announced the move in late 2025.
Ford plans to invest roughly US$2 billion at its former electric vehicle (EV) battery manufacturing facility in Glendale, Kentucky, establishing production lines dedicated to prismatic lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery cells and DC BESS enclosures.
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The centerpiece of this effort is the Ford Energy DC block, a standardised 20-foot ISO containerised BESS. Built around 512Ah LFP cells, the platform is available in 2-hour and 4-hour duration configurations.
The company anticipates annual manufacturing capacity for the DC block will reach 20GWh. Each liquid-cooled unit provides 5.45MWh of rated energy capacity with a total weight of around 43.5 tonnes.
As highlighted in Ford’s announcement regarding the EDF supply agreement, the BESS units are fully assembled in the US. This positions Ford Energy’s products to meet foreign entity of concern (FEOC) and prohibited foreign entity (PFE) compliance requirements for US tax credits, while also qualifying for domestic content bonuses.
EDF has previously worked with North American supplier Powin, which was acquired by system integrator FlexGen in August 2025.
In the UK and Ireland, EDF has used BESS solutions from technology group Wärtsilä, expanding a long-term partnership in June 2025. Additionally, in South Africa and Israel, EDF has signed supply deals with China-headquartered PV inverter and energy storage system manufacturer-integrator Sungrow.
Tristan Grimbert, CEO at EDF power solutions North America, said of the agreement with Ford Energy, “Ford Energy’s commitment to domestic manufacturing and its rigorous approach to traceability and lifecycle support align with the standards we hold across our portfolio. This framework agreement gives us the supply visibility and product confidence we need to execute at the pace the energy transition demands.”
As reported by Energy-Storage.news Premium, two major Chinese clean energy companies, Envision Energy and JinkoSolar, recently divested majority stakes in their US manufacturing facilities.
According to Mona Dajani, at law firm Cooley, this signals “the US clean energy supply chain becoming recapitalised and politically restructured as the market starts to price, and take steps to mitigate, FEOC and related risks.” However, Dajani noted this does not necessarily mean Chinese firms are exiting the market entirely.
