(The Center Square) – Natron Energy , a California company planning a $1.4 billion plant in rural North Carolina , says on its company website operations ceased Wednesday.

Published reports in late July said the Santa Clara-headquartered company needed cash. To get incentive packages of $56.3 million from North Carolina and $129.6 million from Edgecombe County, jobs were necessary, and Natron had planned about 1,000.

Natron was a maker of “high-powered applications like AI, data centers, peak shaving and power quality management,” its website said. Employees of the company got an internal memo earlier this week letting them know of the changes.

Industry observers say it’s a setback to the sodium-ion technology that allows lithium-ion batteries to avoid mining and flammability ch

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