Energy Department announces $3B to bolster advanced domestic battery manufacturing

Sept. 20 (UPI) -- The Department of Energy on Friday announced $3 billion in funding to bolster battery manufacturing in the United States.

The funding, which is part of the Biden-Harris Administration's Investing in America agenda, will be distributed across 14 states for 25 projects to increase domestic production of advanced batteries.

The Energy Department's Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains will administer the projects, which will retrofit, expand, and build new domestic facilities for battery-grade processed critical minerals, battery components, battery manufacturing, and recycling.

"We're in the midst of a manufacturing revival in the United States as the Biden-Harris Administration's Investing in America agenda continues to breathe new life into communities and local economies across the country," U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm said.

When the projects are fully contracted, they will support more than 8,000 construction jobs and more than 4,000 operating jobs, with many being high-paying union jobs the Energy Department said.

The projects partner with unions, including North America's Building Trades Unions, Boilermakers, SMART International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers, Carpenters, Operating Engineers, United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada.

"By positioning the U.S. at the forefront of advanced battery manufacturing, we are creating high-paying jobs and strengthening our global economic leadership and domestic energy security, all while supporting the clean energy transition," Granholm said.

The Energy Department said the private sector has made a $120 billion investment in the EV supply chain during the Biden-Harris administration.

The new projects, it said, are "integral to the President's clean energy industrial strategy to bolster a domestic supply chain that enhances America's energy security and economic competitiveness."

Nearly 90% of the projects funded by the $3 billion announced Friday are located in or adjacent to disadvantaged communities.

According to the Energy Department, these projects represent the most essential building blocks of the domestic battery supply chain.

They include electrolyte salts, solid state electrolytes, polymers for separators, and cathode and anode materials. They will also cover current and next-generation lithium-ion battery chemistries.

The projects will help build and expand commercial-scaled facilities to extract and also recycle critical minerals like lithium, graphite, and manganese and to manufacture components.