The Department of Energy announced on Tuesday that it will spend $428 million to expand battery manufacturing and recycling facilities in places that have suffered power plant and coal mine closures.
The award money will go toward 14 projects in 15 different communities in states that include Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Texas. The department said these projects will produce over 1,900 jobs.
“This investment is about securing America’s energy future,” DOE Deputy Secretary David Turk told reporters.
“These grants will accelerate our efforts to modernize and strengthen our energy infrastructure,” Turk said. “They represent a direct investment in key supply chains from batteries and [electric vehicles] to grid modernization components like generators; we’re making sure that American manufacturers have the tools and support they need to out-compete on the world stage.”
The DOE said investing in manufacturing clean energy technology will help strengthen national security and energy independence.
Under President Joe Biden’s administration, the federal government has spent tens of billions on incentives for electric vehicles, clean energy tech, and semiconductors through bills such as the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. President Joe Biden has touted the efforts as creating clean energy jobs and helping workers in fossil fuel industries. Still, the U.S. remains behind when competing with China’s EVs and batteries industry.
“Mineral security is climate security, and we’re pursuing it with the same vigor that would pursue the broad suite of climate solutions,” White House national climate adviser Ali Zaidi told reporters.
The DOE’s funding includes $24.9 million to produce lithium-ion battery cells for electric vehicles, defense applications, and consumer electronics in Louisville, Kentucky. The project is estimated to create 115 permanent jobs.
Another project involves spending $10 million at CleanFiber’s locations in Washington and Texas to establish two separate 60,000-square-foot production facilities to produce an advanced form of cellulose insulation from recycled cardboard.
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Revenue for these projects comes from the DOE’s Advanced Energy, Manufacturing, and Recycling Grants program. This is the program’s second round of funding, designed to provide grants to small- and medium-sized manufacturers to build facilities to produce or recycle clean energy products in areas where coal plants or mines have closed.
“The next generation technologies we’re building will reduce the burden of pollution in communities across our country, and that makes a real difference, particularly in former coal communities, which have worn the brunt of fossil fuel pollution for literally generations,” Turk said.