US unveils USD-3bn investment in battery manufacturing industry

The US Department of Energy (DOE) on Friday opened the doors for 25 projects to negotiate their portion of a USD-3-billion (EUR 2.69bn) funding award through which the government seeks to boost the domestic production of advanced batteries and battery materials nationwide.

Subject to successful negotiations and environmental review, more than two dozen projects across 14 states will receive funding in the form of grants and loans under a programme administered by the DOE’s Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC). The selectees are expected to retrofit, expand, and build new plants for battery-grade processed critical minerals, battery components, battery manufacturing, and recycling.

These are Round 2 selectees, the support for which builds off of a previous round of programme funding in which DOE awarded a total of USD 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.

More information about the Round 2 projects selected for award negotiations is available on the DOE website. The two largest awards to be negotiated each will be up to USD 225 million in size.

SWA Lithium LLC, a US-based joint venture between Standard Lithium Ltd of Canada and Norway’s Equinor ASA, plans to use the money for a project to produce battery-quality lithium carbonate in southwest Arkansas, while TerraVolta Resources LLC intends to build a commercial-scale lithium extraction and refining facility to produce battery-grade lithium from domestic brine resources in the Texarkana region. Both companies rely on the Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) technology.

There are three more companies that could receive about USD 200 million each. Group14 Technologies, for example, could be awarded this amount to build a silane factory in Moses Lake, Washington. The company says that using its proprietary intellectual property allows for the production of silane at a significantly reduced capital and energy requirement compared with the conventional process. According to Group14, its so-called Battery Active Materials (BAM-2) factory will be the world's largest for advanced silicon battery materials, having an initial annual capacity of 4,000 tonnes of SCC55 or 20 GWh of silicon battery material. Initial production could be achieved next quarter already.

"The largest global source of silane today is China, so the supply of silane gas in the US must be increased to secure the US silicon battery industry," commented Rick Luebbe, co-founder and CEO of Group14.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.896)

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