US government tips billions into battery manufacturing projects
America’s Biden administration has announced over $US3 billion in funding to support the country’s domestic production of advanced batteries and battery materials.
The Department of Energy (DoE) announced that it was investing $US3 billion, (around $A4.4 billion) for 25 projects across 14 states.
The investment builds on a previous round of funding in which the DoE awarded a total of $1.82 billion to 14 projects.
The first round focused on building and expanding commercial-scale facilities to extract lithium, graphite, and other battery materials, and battery component manufacturing.
According to the DoE, many of the facilities backed by the first round of funding are already under construction, with one facility already up and running.
Amongst the 39 projects to receive government funding are several production and recycling projects targeting both lithium-ion and lithium iron phosphate battery chemistries.
Another project to receive funding is the Realizing Advanced Production of Iron-Air Batteries for Commercial Deployment, or RAPID, project, which has developed a 100-hour iron-air storage energy system.