EnergyState

There is a great deal of ENERGY here in the Elizabethtown-Fort Knox MSA and surrounding region since the September 2021 announcement that the $5.8 billion BlueOval SK Battery Park would be established here bringing with it 5,000 new jobs. The project, the largest in Kentucky economic development history, adds even more opportunity to our already vibrant economy and will make the area home to the largest EV battery plant by investment, square footage, capacity and employees in the world. Add to this our location on Interstate 65, centrally located among other EV battery announcements, and this community is well poised for residential, commercial and industrial growth.

With construction underway on the two 4.2 million-square-foot plants, our communities are hard at work embracing this once-in-a-generation opportunity. ENERGYSTATE represents the Chamber's efforts to convene, collaborate and communicate with stakeholders through this exciting process.

In 2022, the Hardin County Chamber of Commerce, along with three commissioning sponsors (Baptist Health Hardin, Elizabethtown Community and Technical College, and the Elizabethtown/Hardin County Industrial Foundation) and multiple donors from the Hardin County business community, launched an economic transformation study to better understand the impact of BlueOval SK's anticipated buildout. L.B. Schmidt & Associates managed the project and released its initial findings in a presentation to the Hardin County Chamber of Commerce in August 2023. The final report was released in September 2023.