The United States wants to make sure that the batteries that will power the future of net zero emissions are made domestically. And they are putting up billions of dollars in new funding to do it.
What’s happening:
- The United States Department of Energy has launched a new $3B USD funding commitment for companies focused on domestic battery materials and lithium battery production
Why it matters:
- The new funding from the United States Department of Energy is yet another meaningful commitment for domestic clean energy, which closely follows their previous multi billion dollar funding commitment for domestic uranium supply
Who is making moves:
- Albemarle (NYSE: ALB) was awarded $67M USD to retrofit a plant in North Carolina for battery grade anode production
- American Battery Technology (NASDAQ: ABAT) was awarded $150M USD to build out a new commercial scale battery recycling facility
- Solid Power (NASDAQ: SLDP) was awarded $50M USD for the production of sulfide-based solid electrolyte materials to be used in advanced all-solid-state batteries
- Element 25 (ASX: E25) was awarded $166M USD to advance their manganese project in Louisiana
By the numbers:
- The new Department of Energy funding will be spread across 25 different battery startups, publicly traded companies and projects in 14 states
Going deeper:
- The new funding being provided to companies is a mixture of loans and grants, with a focus on expanding the overall production capabilities of the United States to reliably manufacture battery materials and new lithium batteries at scale
- Battery technology innovation also continues to show promise, with SES AI (NASDAQ: SES) and Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and Super Micro Computing (NASDAQ: SMCI) recently launching a new collaboration to leverage artificial intelligence models for potential breakthrough discoveries in material science and lithium batteries
