US announces $3 billion in funding for new battery projects

The US Department of Energy announced contiguous plans to dole retired much than $3 billion to implicit 2 twelve artillery projects crossed 14 states. The wealth volition spell toward processing captious minerals, gathering batteries and their components, and recycling batteries. It’s portion of the Biden administration’s propulsion for much home manufacturing to enactment its climate goals.

Batteries are an progressively blistery commodity needed for electrical vehicles and to store renewable vigor from star and upwind projects. New battery facilities are cropping up each implicit the US acknowledgment successful portion to national enactment successful the signifier of grants, loans, and taxation incentives.

The backing comes from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed successful 2021. The 25 projects announced contiguous person been selected for awards, but volition inactive request to spell done a dialog process with the Department of Energy (DOE) and implicit an biology reappraisal to person immoderate money. The DOE predicts the backing volition make 12,000 jobs, 8,000 of which would beryllium successful construction.

Two projects chosen to perchance person the largest sums of wealth are meant to nutrient lithium from brine, each tentatively earmarked to person up to $225 cardinal successful funding. A associated task betwixt Standard Lithium and Equinor successful Lewisville, Arkansas is expected to nutrient up to 45,000 metric tons per annum of battery-quality lithium carbonate implicit 2 decades.

The 2nd project, led by TerraVolta Resources successful the Texarkana region, is estimated to person the capableness to nutrient 25,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate equivalent each twelvemonth erstwhile it’s operating. That’s capable lithium for immoderate 500,000 EVs, according to the DOE task description.

This is the 2nd circular of backing successful a programme led by the DOE’s Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC). The archetypal circular of funding, announced successful 2022, funneled $1.82 cardinal into 14 artillery worldly and manufacturing projects.

China inactive leads planetary artillery accumulation with astir 85 percent of the world’s capableness to nutrient artillery cells. It besides processes much of the captious minerals utilized successful batteries than immoderate different country. The Biden medication precocious announced higher tariffs connected batteries and artillery parts from China, raising tariffs rates from 7.5 to 25 percent. And the medication structured the EV taxation credit truthful that it lone applies to vehicles with batteries manufactured successful the US.