Home Care In Raleigh, NC

Natron Energy, the sodium-ion battery startup that last summer promised to create 1,000 jobs at a future $1.4 billion factory in Eastern North Carolina, will stop operating as a company Wednesday due to funding issues.

“We appreciate our customers and partners support though our journey,” John Schmidt, Natron’s chief commercial officer, wrote Tuesday in an internal staff email provided to The News & Observer. “And this is not how we or anyone at Natron wanted this to end.”

Natron’s largest shareholder, Sherwood Partners, plans to sell the company’s assets, Schmidt said.

“We will not be in a position to deliver on any current or future orders,” he wrote. “And due to no longer being Natron employees as of Wednesday we can’t comment on what the future looks like for Natron other (than) what we know now.”

Among alternative battery materials, sodium-ion is more abundant than lithium-ion and thus potentially less expensive. Founded in 2012, Natron patented a unique battery from an electrode family called Prussian blue, which produces longer-lasting batteries when combined with sodium ions. Backup power to data centers has been an early use.

In August 2024, Natron announced it would build the world’s first sodium-ion battery “gigafactory” about 60 miles east of Raleigh in rural Edgecombe County. It was the state’s biggest jobs headline of the year, and North Carolina leaders celebrated Natron’s commitment to the long-dormant megasite in one of the state’s poorer counties.

North Carolina awarded Natron $21.7 million in performance-based incentives to build its factory, plus another $30 million toward upfront construction. The state had not distributed any money through the projects’ grants, and the megasite near the city of Rocky Mount looks unchanged a year later.

“Release of program funds to the county is conditional on the company (Natron in this case) providing evidence of funding,” Denise Desatnick, vice president of marketing and research at the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, told The N&O in July.

Most incentive-backed economic projects have fallen short of their original hiring and investment targets since North Carolina introduced its main recruitment tool, the Job Development Investment Grant, in 2003. Around one in five projects have been terminated without creating any jobs, but it is unique for a JDIG recipient to dissolve less than 14 months after getting an award.

Natron’s funding crunch

Natron Energy has experienced liquidity concerns for at least several months. In June, the tech-business industry news outlet The Information reported that many of the company’s more recent investors have frozen scheduled payments to the company.

And while the battery maker had $25 million in booked orders, it couldn’t see this revenue until it gets certified from Underwriters Laboratory, an independent lab whose certification investors often require.

The chief advantage of sodium-ion over lithium-ion, availability, has been undercut by the falling price of lithium. “Lithium carbonate prices have crashed by more than 70% over the past several years, negatively impacting the business case for sodium-ion batteries,” S&P Global wrote in a June article.

The headwinds Natron faced have affected other U.S. battery startups, says Steve LeVine, an editor at The Information who wrote the article detailing Natron’s funding crunch.

“It’s super expensive to scale up,” he told The N&O last month. “The money dried up. Like Silicon Valley, private equity. They’ve been almost unwilling to finance battery companies.”

Sherwood Partners had made “several attempts” to sell its stake in Natron, Schmidt told staff Tuesday, but the investment firm ultimately placed Natron into a debtor process known as Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors, or ABC.

Sodium-ion is an emerging battery material, and Natron has received nearly $20 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to fund its initial commercial efforts, including a smaller manufacturing site in Michigan. This money was part of a broader Biden administration initiative to help scale “high-risk and potentially disruptive new technologies” in the energy sector.

On Tuesday, North Carolina Commerce Secretary Lee Lilley blamed Trump administration energy policy for contributing to Natron’s failure.

“Today’s news about Natron Energy is disappointing because it stood to create 1,000 good paying jobs in a growing industry,” Lilley, who was appointed by Democratic Gov. Josh Stein, wrote in an email to The N&O. “Instead, federal energy policy is hurting rural jobs unless you happen to have oil or gas in your state.”

First Triangle Tyre, now Natron

State and local economic leaders have tried to fill the 2,187-acre Kingsboro Business Park megasite for more than a decade. In the 2010s, a few hundred acres in the center of the site were graded and cleared in anticipation of the Chinese tiremaker Triangle Tyre building its first U.S. factory in Edgecombe. The deal collapsed before any tires were made.

Edgecombe officials had hoped Triangle Tyre would help reverse the county’s troubling socioeconomic trends. Among all North Carolina counties, Edgecombe routinely ranked near the bottom of most positive categories — like health outcomes and wages — and near the top of the undesired metrics like unemployment, obesity, and injury death rates.

Natron was meant to be the answer. “This is the best place for our new home,” Colin Wessell, Natron’s founder and then-CEO, said during an event celebrating Natron’s announcement in August 2024. “We choose to build here, we choose to grow here for decades to come.”

Local economic development officials say the site remains attractive. A 2023 state-commissioned report identified Kingsboro as the most “pad-ready” megasite (defined as at least 1,000 contiguous acres) in North Carolina, meaning a company could reasonably begin to build on it right away.

“It’s worth noting that the Kingsboro Megasite is one of the top megasites in the country,” Lilley said. “And we will be aggressive in marketing this location to great companies across the globe.”

A Powerball player just missed a $1.2 billion jackpot prize — but still won big in North Carolina.

The player bought a ticket that matched all but one number picked in the Sept. 1 drawing. Since the person spent an extra dollar on the Power Play option, their prize doubled to $2 million, results show.

The winning numbers: white balls 8-23-25-40-53, with red Powerball 5.

The player is in for a windfall after their $3 ticket matched all five white balls. It was sold to an online player in Clayton, a roughly 15-mile drive southeast from downtown Raleigh, the N.C. Education Lottery wrote on its website and in emails to McClatchy News.

Two NC Lottery players won big on Powerball yesterday! A player with a ticket from Online Play won a $2 million prize and a player with a ticket from Refuel 146 on Rockfish Road in Raeford won a $50,000 prize. Now the jackpot has been raised to $1.3 BILLION for the next drawing… pic.twitter.com/w34iU7iXfZ

— NC Education Lottery (@nclottery) September 2, 2025

The life-changing ticket was one number from hitting the jackpot, which stood at an estimated $1.2 billion the night of the drawing. The jackpot amount is expected to rise to $1.3 billion for the next drawing on Sept. 3, according to the Powerball website.

The $2 million prize added to a lucky night for Powerball players in North Carolina. A ticket sold at a Refuel convenience store in Raeford scored $50,000 in the same drawing, lottery officials wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

As of early Sept. 2, no one had claimed the $2 million prize. In North Carolina, Powerball winners have about six months to cash in, rules show.

What to know about Powerball

To score the jackpot in the Powerball, a player must match all five white balls and the red Powerball.

The odds of scoring the jackpot prize are 1 in 292,201,338.

Tickets can be bought on the day of the drawing, but sales times and price vary by state.

Drawings are broadcast Saturdays, Mondays and Wednesdays at 10:59 p.m. ET and can be streamed online.

Powerball is played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Many people can gamble or play games of chance without harm. However, for some, gambling is an addiction that can ruin lives and families.

If you or a loved one shows signs of gambling addiction, you can seek help by calling the national gambling hotline at 1-800-522-4700 or visiting the National Council on Problem Gambling website.

North Carolinians who long for a snowy winter may be in luck.

The Old Farmer’s Almanac recently released its winter forecast, and in North Carolina, the almanac predicts a snowy winter with colder-than-normal temperatures.

In Raleigh, the average minimum temperature in December is around 34 degrees, historically, and the average high temperature is about 55 degrees. Average high and low temperatures for the Charlotte area in December are almost the same, 54.9 degrees and 34.5 degrees, respectively.

January is usually even colder in both areas, where average maximum temperatures have historically been more than 2.5 degrees colder, compared to December. Average minimum temperatures in both places dip below freezing in January.

So if the Old Farmer’s Almanac is right in its prediction that the coldest days in North Carolina will come in mid-to-late December, early and late January and early February, our coats and mittens will be getting a lot action this winter.

NC winter weather

Don’t confuse the Old Farmer’s Almanac with the Farmers’ Almanac. They are separate publications with differing forecasts.

The Farmers’ Almanac, established in 1818, predicts average temperatures and more precipitation in North Carolina this winter.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center has only released a seasonal forecast through November, predicting above-normal temperatures for September, October and November.

In September, when the peak of Atlantic hurricane season occurs, most of central and eastern North Carolina is expected to get above-normal precipitation, according to the Climate Prediction Center. But for the three-month period ending in November, meteorologists said there are equal chances for above-normal versus below-normal precipitation.

Should you trust Farmers’ Almanac forecasts?

Both the Old Farmer’s Almanac, which has been in publication since 1792, and the Farmers’ Almanac accurately called the snow that fell across the Triangle in late February.

The Old Farmer’s Almanac says it uses solar science, the study of sunspots — which are magnetic storms on the sun’s surface — and other solar activity, climatology and meteorology to make its forecasts. A Scientific American article from 2023 reported that the Old Farmer’s Almanac also analyzes long-distance and long-term atmospheric patterns such as El Nino and La Nina.

The Farmers’ Almanac says its forecasts are formed using a formula that considers sunspots, the motion of the moon, fluctuations in the environment, meteorological conditions and other “proprietary factors.” According to Scientific American, the Farmers’ Almanac considers tidal action and winds in the stratosphere over the equator.

Unlike these almanacs, NOAA doesn’t make specific long-range forecasts. Meteorologists with the National Weather Service won’t issue daily temperature and precipitation expectations for their areas more than about a week in advance.

Farmers almanac 2024 winter forecast

In its forecast for last winter, the Old Farmer’s Almanac predicted warmer than average and snowy weather for western North Carolina, a mild and wet winter for the central part of the state, and cooler and wetter winter in the east.

It also predicted above-average snowfall for the Southeastern United States, and it did end up snowing in January and February in the Triangle.

The Farmers’ Almanac didn’t mention snow in its forecast for North Carolina until February.

The News & Observer’s Martha Quillin contributed to this story.

Have a question about your community you’d like answered? Or maybe a tip or story idea you’d like to share? The service journalism teams at The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer want to hear from you.

Forget the cut-off sleeves. The alleged football genius got pantsed in his college debut.

North Carolina paid $10 million for Bill Belichick and got sold a bill of goods. The students gave up before the third quarter was halfway over, right after the defense.

It’s certainly possible that this could have gone worse for Belichick and the Tar Heels, but that’s an argument over a matter of degrees. Belichick and his brain trust promised the 33rd NFL team and yes, this was certainly at the level of what the Cleveland Browns annually perpetrate on their fans.

North Carolina gave millions upon millions to a guy who convinced them this would be easy, that his genius would untie knots none of his predecessors could, and his NFL pedigree would do things none of his new peers could, only to find out that maybe this business wasn’t as easy as it looked from the outside after all?

The opening drive was a clean, clinical, 83-yard stroll to the end zone. The defense forced a routine stop. The first six minutes of the Belichick Era were everything he promised. The rest of it? It looked an awful lot like so many eras of UNC football previous. You fire everyone and bring in 70 new players and spend tens of millions of dollars … and nothing changes.

There are a lot of coaches who could have gotten hosed 48-14 by Texas Christian on Labor Day for a lot less than what North Carolina spent for Belichick and his sons and his cronies.

“We’re better than what we were tonight,” Belichick said. “We have to show that, prove it. Nobody’s going to do it for us. We have to do it ourselves.”

Oh, you could hear the laughter from Raleigh, where one imagines another ACC football coach with his feet up and a cigar lit and a red Solo cup full of the good stuff as he cackled his way through the second half. You could hear it from across the border in Clemson, and from wherever Mack Brown and Larry Fedora are now, and from Chestnut Hill to Coral Gables.

TCU looked every bit like an established football program that knows what it’s doing — maybe not at its peak, but still — having its way with a football stew, a bunch of parts and pieces thrown into a pot to simmer in hopes some magical flavor would emerge at the hands of a celebrity chef.

Other than those first six minutes, it tasted like UNC football always tastes: Bitter. Disappointing. Unfulfilling.

Now, if this were some other coach, any other coach, Jon Sumrall or Jeff Monken or whomever, most if not all of this would be written off to roster turnover and philosophical changes and all the other flotsam and jetsam that comes with a coaching change. Which is certainly true here as well. There is, if nothing else, room for improvement, and the opening few minutes certainly offered a template of how things might look if they ever go well.

But neither of them would have promised what Belichick promised, or demanded what Belichick demanded. He pledged a new paradigm and delivered a debacle. He was the answer, the solution, the personification of football expertise, and befitting a man of such stature, Belichick was escorted by a phalanx of three state troopers and a campus cop — a security detail bigger than the governor’s, even though they’ve won the same number of games at North Carolina. (Belichick does get paid more.)

It all went so wrong, so fast. His million-dollar quarterback went more than two hours without completing a pass and generated more touchdowns for TCU (two) than UNC (one). The defense ran out of gas at halftime before giving up the ghost entirely, in a tribute to Tar Heel defenses past.

All those new players, and still the two most effective on offense, Caleb Hood and Jordan Shipp, were holdovers from the old regime. The secondary full of transfers was a mess. The lack of talent was stunning. It’s going to take all of Belichick’s skills to coach up this bunch.

All the money. All the hype. All the celebrity starpower. Everything North Carolina’s trustees and boosters threw at the program in the desperate hope of football relevance. And what did they get for it, on a night the entire sports world was watching? Well, people will still tune in, but certainly not for the reasons the Tar Heel gentry hoped.

It may get better. It almost has to get better. But you never forget your first, and Belichick promised — and UNC coughed up millions for — more than this. Better than this.

“Don’t lose hope,” said quarterback Max Johnson, who took over for Gio Lopez in the second half. “We’re going to continue to put our best foot forward. Continue to work.”

For nine months the image of supreme confidence, Belichick’s face in the second half bore the same befuddled look as Brown’s did before him, and so many others before Brown. North Carolina football is undefeated in that respect, if none other.

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The Virginia Cavaliers and NC State Wolfpack play on Saturday, Sept. 6, at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh, North Carolina, in a game on the college football Week 2 schedule.

Which team will win the college football Week 2 game?

Check out these college football Week 2 picks and college football Week 2 predictions for the game, which can be seen at 9 a.m. MST on ESPN2 (stream with FUBO).

NC State is a 3-point favorite over Virginia in college football Week 2 odds for the game, according to BetMGM Sportsbook.

The Wolfpack are -155 on the moneyline, while the Cavaliers are +130. The over/under (point total) for the game is set at 53.5 points.

College football Week 2 picks: Arizona State vs Mississippi State | Weber State vs Arizona | Baylor vs SMU | Iowa vs Iowa State | Oklahoma State vs Oregon | Kansas vs Missouri | Delaware vs Colorado | West Virginia vs Ohio | Army vs Kansas State | Stanford vs BYU | Michigan vs Oklahoma | Illinois vs Duke | Virginia vs NC State | Utah State vs Texas A&M | Ole Miss vs Kentucky | South Florida vs Florida | Georgia Southern vs USC | The Republic's Big 12 predictions | Big 12 odds | Big 12 schedule

Dimers.com: North Carolina State 26, Virginia 25

It writes: "After extensive simulations, our model gives Virginia a win probability of 47%, while North Carolina State has a win probability of 53%."

ESPN: Virginia has a 51.4% chance to defeat NC State on Saturday

The site gives the Wolfpack a 48.6% shot at winning the college football Week 2 game over the Cavaliers on Sept. 6.

Sports Betting Dime: NC State 27, Virginia 24.4

The site's formula predicts that the Wolfpack will defeat the Cavaliers in the college football Week 2 game this week.

SB Nation: NC State 24, Virginia 14

The site is going with the Wolfpack against the Cavaliers in the Saturday college football Week 2 game.

Fayetteville Observer: NC State 30, Virginia 21

Rodd Baxley writes: "A nonconference game between two of the founding members of the ACC, N.C. State and Virginia meet again at high noon in Week 2. The Wolfpack, which has won five of the last six in the series, will keep it rolling against the Hoos in Raleigh."

Sports Illustrated: NC State 34, Virginia 27

Jackson Caudell writes: "NC State was a huge disappointment last season, but they are flying under the radar heading into 2025. Young QB CJ Bailey showed some serious talent last season and he will have running back Hollywood Smothers and tight end Justin Jolly back this season. If the defense bounces back, this should be a sneaky good team in the ACC. This is going to be the first road trip of the year for UVA and it is one of the toughest places to play. I like the Wolfpack to get the win."

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