The US is getting serious about EV batteries, and we’re tickled pink about it… let’s get you up to speed on a few of the big projects coming down the pike so you can get excited too (because this means cheaper EV batteries for us all). The first project is the result of a $9.2 billion dollar loan from the U.S. Department of Energy going to Ford and partner SK On to build three EV battery manufacturing plants across sites in Tennessee and Kentucky.
At these plants, Ford (F) will build ultra-efficient US EV batteries as part of Biden’s effort to beef up our battery game and get good paying jobs back to the homeland. Estimates are telling us this push could not only employ thousands of people, but it could also end up cutting the cost of EV batteries for consumers by thousands of dollars. And they aren’t the only ones… LG Energy Solution is also ramping up production of EV batteries, with plans to invest $5.5 billion in manufacturing capabilities in Arizona.
So yes, this is amazing news all around… but, as science tells us, you can’t make moves without making ripples. The ripples we speak of here are the fact that we now need to start seriously considering what we want our battery supply chain to look like. From extraction and processing to assembly and sale… we need to start off on the right foot. While the entire process deserves ample attention, today we’re specifically concerned with the final state of batty life, called “end of life”.
The reason folks like us find renewables attractive in the first place is that we care. We care about the planet, ourselves, and others… so, it stands to reason that what makes the most sense is a circular battery economy. By “circular”, we simply mean we don’t waste and we’re mindful of reusing instead of dumping more junk into our already stuffed-to-the-brim landfills. We’re not in the first wave of the green movement anymore, this time it has teeth and more concrete expectations.
If you’re not exactly warm and fuzzy inside, and none of that moves you… let’s talk facts. If we do a few things to make battery recycling part of what we’re doing, it has very practical implications (see also: cha-ching). First, we have the internet now, and people are starting to have big opinions about how they see human rights being violated in mining. Recycling helps fix some of that by helping us extract less, and we expect this to be paired with autonomous technologies to help fix the rest.
Next, if we’re recycling, we have more batteries when we need them that are safer to make because some of the production risks are eliminated. More means cheaper, which means more people can afford them. We’re trying to pull in right now, to refortify our shell of a manufacturing sector… and by doing things in-house with materials and technology we have on hand, we’re stronger. That’s because we’re relying on ourselves, not others, to get our people what they need.
As you can imagine, we have some hurdles in recycling these batteries. For instance, they aren’t exactly designed to be safe or easy to recycle or disassemble, and it’s not cheap to do. Some propose policy fixes, such as implementing a standard federal compliance approach. While it’s too early to know how we’ll tackle speedbumps, what we do know is that EV battery recycling is currently in the single digits… and that’s just not good enough. But it’s okay, we’ll get there.
Maybe the south will help rescue us… because it seems that’s where a bunch of green ventures are planting their roots. Redwood Materials is building an EV battery recycling plant in South Carolina with a $3.5 billion price tag. It’ll be in Ridgefield, which, in southern terms, is just down the road a piece from Charleston. Redwood has ambitions of being a US battery powerhouse, and with this project marking the largest economic development in the state’s history, they’re proving they mean business.
As stated, it’s expensive and risky to work with used EV batteries. But new ways are being born… like German engineering company Bosch Rexroth’s fully automated discharging system. Their revolutionary kit is beginning to take hold, and it can discharge and shred huge batteries rapidly… we’re talking minutes instead of hours. And it can recognize different battery designs, which helps reduce the danger involved, and the energy being extracted is used to power the entire process. Now that’s “circular”.
The US EV recycling market sat at just under $2 billion last year. In around ten years, if estimates hold, it’s projected to reach over $30 billion. One key to upping our recycling capabilities is domestic manufacturing… and Biden is handling that. So, get ready, because the Department of Energy (DOE) estimates recycled batteries could provide a substantial amount of the materials we need by the end of the decade… and we’ll be here to bring you the action. See you next week.