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This 150-acre solar site will power the company’s planned $450 million cobalt processing facility.
US firm EVelution Energy LLC has commenced construction on a 28-megawatt (MW) solar facility in Yuma County, Arizona. 
This 150-acre solar site will power the company’s planned $450 million cobalt processing facility. Once operational, it will be the first commercial-scale, solar-powered operation for processing cobalt metal and cobalt sulfate in the United States. Any extra power will feed on-site batteries or flow directly into the local electric grid.
The project is a direct challenge to the foreign nations that currently dominate the critical minerals market.
“Today’s groundbreaking marks another important milestone in our effort to rebuild America’s domestic critical minerals processing capability, and we’re proud to be taking that next step here in Yuma County,” said Navaid Alam, President & CEO, EVelution Energy.
“The piles going into the ground mark the beginning of the renewable energy system that will power the first cobalt metal and cobalt sulfate processing facility in the United States. We’re equally proud that we’re building this project around 100% American-made structural steel, American engineering and American manufacturing,” Alam added.
At present, China refines most of the world’s cobalt. Cobalt is the quiet backbone of modern industry, acting as a non-negotiable ingredient in many items from EV batteries to military jet engines and defense systems.
EVelution Energy is dropping a solar-powered refinery right into one of the sunniest corridors of the American Southwest to build an independent blueprint for critical minerals.
Construction on the complete solar array is slated to span the next two years, stretching through 2026 and into 2027. When the facility reaches full commercial operation by the end of 2029, it will process 24,000 metric tons of raw cobalt hydroxide feedstock each year.
That is roughly 20,000 metric tons of battery-grade cobalt sulfate and 3,000 metric tons of alloy-grade cobalt metal. The amount is sufficient to instantly meet 40 percent of the projected U.S. cobalt demand.
The strategy is exclusively domestic. The company is using 100 percent American-made structural steel for the solar framework and is relying entirely on U.S. engineering firms, including Aquila Energy and M3 Engineering.
Even the location serves a dual purpose. Nestled in a rural Qualified Opportunity Zone near Tacna, Arizona, the project is designed to inject $1.2 billion in annual economic activity into a region targeted for community revitalization. It is expected to bring over 6,200 jobs over its lifespan. 
The raw cobalt won’t be mined in the U.S. Reportedly, EVelution has signed agreements to source the raw cobalt hydroxide feedstock from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). 
Physical construction of the solar facility is officially underway following the installation of permanent steel mounting piles across the 150-acre Arizona site. These foundational piles will support the thousands of solar panels designed to power the upcoming cobalt processing facility. 
The American green transition has long suffered from a glaring irony: manufacturing eco-friendly electric vehicles used carbon-intensive foreign supply chains to process critical minerals. 
This new facility could break that cycle by pairing heavy industrial refining directly with local solar power and battery storage. With the first steel piles officially in the ground, the countdown to the plant’s 2029 operational debut is underway.
Mrigakshi is a science journalist who enjoys writing about space exploration, biology, and technological innovations. Her work has been featured in well-known publications including Nature India, Supercluster, The Weather Channel and Astronomy magazine. If you have pitches in mind, please do not hesitate to email her.
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