US to award $3bn to boost battery storage, provisional winner list

The US Department of Energy (DOE) today [20 September 2024] unveiled provisional winners under its $3 billion (£2.25bn €2.68bn) grant programme aimed at firming up local supply chains for battery energy storage system (BESS) projects.

The grant will help fund 25 BESS and related projects located in 14 states.

The federal authorities claim that this investment will unlock $16 billion in private investment across the supply chain for this sector.

The grant disbursement is overseen by DOE's Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC).

MESC has progressed the 25 provisional grant winners to a second round, with the award expected to be finalised in the coming months following a negotiation phase.

The provisional winners are:

• ABTC (American Battery Technology Company) - lithium-ion battery recycling facility located in South Carolina. Proposed grant: $150 million
• Albemarle U.S - production of anode material for next-generation lithium-ion batteries in North Carolina. Proposed grant: $67,075,044
• Ascend Elements - recycled graphite production facilities in Kentucky. Proposed grant: $125 million
• Blue Whale Materials - building and operating advanced lithium-ion battery (LiB) recycling facilities in Oklahoma. Proposed grant: $55,232,669     
• Braskem America - retrofit and expand its existing ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene production units in Texas. Proposed grant: $50 million
• Cabot Corporation - production of battery-grade carbon nanotubes in Michigan. Proposed grant: $50 million
• Cirba Solutions - own, build, and operate a facility for processing large-scale battery-grade salts for cathode-grade manufacturing in South Carolina. Proposed grant: $200 million
• Clarios Circular Solutions - recycling lithium-ion battery production scrap into Cathode Active Materials in South Carolina. Proposed grant: $150 million
• The Dow Chemical Company – production of high-value battery-grade carbonate solvents in US Gulf Coast. Proposed grant: $100 million
• Element 25 - production of high-purity manganese sulphate monohydrate in Louisiana. Proposed grant: $166,128,094
• EnerSys Advanced Systems - lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing facility in South Carolina. Proposed grant: $198,679,760 
• Forge Battery - high-performance lithium-ion battery cell production in North Carolina. Proposed grant: $100 million
• Form Energy - instillation of first large commercial-scale 20GWh/yr iron-air battery manufacturing line in West Virginia. Proposed grant: $150 million
• Group14 Technologies - manufacture of large commercial volumes of silicon-based anode materials in Washington. Proposed grant: $200 million
• Honeywell International - to build a commercial-scale facility for the domestic production of Lithium (bis)FluoroSulfonyl Imide (LiFSI) – LiN(SO2F)2 in Los Angeles. Proposed grant: $126,586,497
• Li Industries - to establish a 10,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cathode active material (CAM) direct recycling and production plant in Ohio. Proposed grant: $55,243,798 
• Mitra Future Technologies - Lithium Iron Phosphate plant in Michigan. Proposed grant: $100 million
• Nanograf- establishment of an advanced silicon anode manufacturing facility in Michigan. Proposed grant: $60 million
• Revex Technologies - battery mineral mining in Michigan. Proposed grant: $145,000,000 
• SKI US - synthetic graphite production in South Carolina. Proposed grant: $150 million
• Solid Power Operating - production sulfide-based solid electrolyte materials in Colorado. Proposed grant: $50 million
• South32 Hermosa - mining for high-purity manganese sulfate monohydrate in Arizona. Proposed grant: $166,175,802 
• SWA Lithium & Equinor - commercial production of Lithium Carbonate from the smackover formation Brines in Arkansas. Proposed grant: $225 million
• TerraVolta Resources - production of lithium from brine using Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) technology in the Texarkana region. Proposed grant: $225 million
• Urbix - production of lithium-ion battery anode-grade coated spherical purified graphite (CSPG) in Alabama. Proposed grant: $124,638,300 

All the shortlisted projects are at advanced stages of development.

The latest grant proposal follows on from a previous initiative, which saw $1.82 billion awarded to 14 projects that firm up domestic production of advanced batteries and battery materials.