September 27, 2024: The US Department of Energy has allocated more than $3 billion in potential funding for 25 projects across 14 states to boost the country’s battery manufacturing capabilities and reduce reliance on China.
The investment, announced on September 19, is part of the Biden-Harris administration’s Investing in America agenda and will increase domestic production of advanced batteries and battery materials, complying with the EV tax credit rules.
The portfolio of selected projects, once fully contracted, are projected to support over 8,000 construction jobs and over 4,000 operating jobs.
Subject to successful negotiations and environmental review, the selectees — managed by the Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC) — will modernize and establish new facilities for processing critical minerals, manufacturing battery components and recycling, the department said.
“Mineral security is essential for climate security,” said White House climate adviser, Ali Zaidi. “This sets us up to lead on the next generation of battery technologies — from solid state to other new chemistries.”
These are Round 2 selectees, the support for which follows a previous round of programme funding in which DOE awarded a total of $1.82 billion to 14 projects associated with the construction and expansion of commercial-scale facilities to extract lithium, graphite, and other battery materials, and battery component manufacturing.
The Biden administration has pushed to bolster the domestic battery industry, with the DOE just last month announcing $63 million in funding to help state and local governments expand battery recycling as well as make technologies such as advanced sensors and modelling more accessible to small and medium-sized manufacturers.
President Biden senior adviser for international climate policy John Podesta said: “The Biden-Harris administration is using every available tool to onshore and friend-shore the supply chain for EVs and batteries, working with our allies and partners, for the benefit of our national security, our economy and our planet.
“Today’s battery manufacturing grants from DOE will boost America’s manufacturing base, create good-paying union jobs all over the country and help tackle the climate crisis.”
The two largest awards to be negotiated will each be up to $225 million in size.
SWA Lithium, a US-based joint venture between Standard Lithium of Canada and Norway’s Equinor, plan to use the money for a project to produce battery-quality lithium carbonate in southwest Arkansas, while TerraVolta Resources intends to build a commercial-scale lithium extraction and refining facility to produce battery-grade lithium from domestic brine resources in the Texarkana region.
Cirba Solutions and Group14 Technologies were next with $200 million for the former’s lithium-ion battery recycling centre and the latter’s silane manufacturing plant, while EnerSys Advanced Systems could receive $199 million for its site, where it intends to produce battery cells.
Funding is being made available under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Final award totals are contingent on negotiations between applicants and the DOE, along with environmental reviews of each proposed project.
