The energy startup SPARKZ said it plans to build an electric battery factory in West Virginia in 2022 that will employ at least 350 people. The company will partner with the United Mine Workers of America to recruit and train dislocated miners to be the factory’s first production workers. Batteries produced at the factory will be 100% cobalt-free batteries, an effort to bring down the cost of U.S. lithium-ion battery production. SPARKZ is in the final stages of site selection in West Virginia for the factory, but the exact location of the plant has not been determined.