The US Department of Energy announced $3 billion in new funding for battery and battery materials production. The announcement, made on 20 September, covers 25 projects in 14 states and follows a previous round of funding totalling $1.8 billion to 14 projects.
Enersys and Clarios were awarded $198 million and $150 million respectively in the latest round as two of the largest recipients.
The DOE said the selected projects cover strategic segments across the supply chain, building and expanding commercial-scale facilities to extract and recycle critical minerals including lithium, graphite, and manganese, as well as manufacture components.
“These components represent the most essential building blocks of the battery supply chain, like electrolyte salts, solid state electrolytes, polymers for separators, cathode and anode materials, that are critical to onshore a robust and reliable energy supply chain,” it said.
The selected projects (listed here) also cover traditional and next-generation lithium-ion chemistries, as well as non-lithium-ion technologies, to ensure that the US has a diverse portfolio of domestic battery technologies to strengthen energy security.
Photo: Battery manufacturing facility production line. Clarios