Billions for batteries: US Energy funding major battery manufacturing construction

Render of Ascend Elements’ Apex 1 pCAM battery manufacturing facility in Kentucky, US. (Image courtesy Ascend Elements)

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced a new list of 25 selectees for its Battery Materials Processing and Battery Manufacturing and Recycling grant programmes, two funding mechanisms worth an overall US$16 billion allocated to develop battery manufacturing, processing and recycling across the country.

The most recent selected projects (‘round two’) are set to receive more than $3 billion from the fund. Earlier this year, the DOE awarded $1.82 billion to 14 projects as part of ‘round one’.

With billions still left to spend, the announcement means construction work on large-scale manufacturing facilities should be readily available, as projects are spread across the US. According to the government, the investment is meant to bolster and support domestic electric vehicle (EV) and energy storage system (ESS) markets.

The DOE said round-one schemes emphasise building and expansion of commercial-scale facilities to extract lithium, graphite and other needed materials for battery and battery-component manufacturing. Round-one grants have officially been awarded and some are in the construction phase (and one complete), according to DOE as of 23 September.

Round-two projects are generally designed to boost battery production nationwide and demonstrate new approaches to component manufacturing and material recycling. While round-one grants have officially awarded, the selectees in round two still require final federal approval.

Here’s a look at the four biggest awards between round-one awardees and round-two selectees.

Kentucky ‘Apex’ scheme awarded nearly $500 million