December 6, 2023: Lead battery developers are being urged to apply for US federal funding worth up to $3.5 billion after energy chiefs clarified their eligibility for the cash.
The Department of Energy said last month the funding was for projects in addition to lithium-based tech — and stressed in a December 1 update to its call for proposals that all battery materials processing and manufacturing technologies are eligible.
North American lead battery industry trade body, Battery Council International, said it was an important acknowledgment that the US requires the full breadth of energy storage options for its clean energy transition: “That includes battery technologies ranging from lead to sodium ion to redox flow.”
BCI said policymakers must continue to support an equitable, balanced approach to energy storage that makes the most of proven domestic battery industries in the US.
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The update comes after BCI president Roger Miksad (pictured) said on October 18 that US government funding for batteries had been improperly tilted in favour of a handful of technologies.
Miksad wrote in The Washington Times that current federal funding had failed to support the existing US industry — and did not “reflect the nation’s existing and future reliance on lead batteries across every sector”.
