Battery supplies and recycling startup Redwood Materials has secured a conditional dedication for a $2 billion mortgage from the Department of Energy as a part of the Biden Administration’s bid to construct up a provide chain for EVs within the United States.
The conditional dedication from DOE’s mortgage program workplace, which was introduced Thursday, is a part of the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Loan Program. The milestone-based financing shall be offered to Redwood in tranches to assist its progress and the growth of its headquarters in Nevada.
Lithium-ion batteries comprise three vital constructing blocks. There are two electrodes, an anode (unfavourable) on one facet and a cathode (constructive) on the opposite. Typically, an electrolyte sits within the center and acts because the courier to maneuver ions between the electrodes when charging and discharging. Cathode foils, which account for greater than half the price of a battery cell, comprise lithium, nickel and cobalt. Anode incorporates copper and graphite and is essentially liable for a battery’s charging efficiency.
Today, cathode and anode elements are manufactured abroad, predominantly in Asia. The U.S. authorities needs to construct up a home provide chain, a change spurred on by new legal guidelines just like the Inflation Reduction Act and assist from the mortgage program.
Redwood isn’t the one firm to safe a conditional mortgage for the reason that U.S. authorities revived the mortgage program final 12 months — though it’s one the biggest. In June, GM and LG Energy acquired a $2.5 billion mortgage to assist finance the development of recent lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing amenities. Last month, lithium firm Ioneer acquired a conditional dedication for a mortgage of as much as $700 million to assist it develop the Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron Project in Esmeralda County, Nevada.
This newest monetary increase will assist Redwood attain its objective to provide 100 GWh yearly of ultra-thin battery-grade copper foil and cathode lively supplies from each new and recycled feedstocks — sufficient battery supplies to domestically produce greater than 1,000,000 electrical autos a 12 months.
Redwood’s important operations in the present day are in Carson City, Nevada, the place a number of years in the past it started recycling the scrap from battery cell manufacturing on the Gigafactory operated by Tesla and Panasonic. Redwood extracts and processes supplies like cobalt, nickel and lithium which might be usually mined, after which supplying them again to Panasonic. The firm additionally recycles client electronics like cellphone batteries, laptop computer computer systems, energy instruments, energy banks, scooters and electrical bicycles to entry, course of and provide vital supplies to corporations like Panasonic and Amazon.
Redwood Materials has skilled explosive progress previously two years from elevating $700 million in 2021 and shifting past recycling and into cathode and anode manufacturing to asserting a brand new battery supplies campus in Charleston, South Carolin and increasing its partnership with Panasonic, together with a multi-billion-dollar deal to produce the corporate with cathode supplies.
Redwood not too long ago started producing anode copper foil at its Nevada headquarters and expects to start cathode qualification later this 12 months.
And its footprint guarantees to get bigger within the coming 12 months. Redwood introduced in December plans construct a new battery supplies and recycling facility on a 600-acre campus close to Charleston, South Carolina. That campus will ultimately have the capability to provide 100 GWh a 12 months of cathode and anode elements.
Redwood founder and CEO JB Straubel has beforehand informed TechCrunch he expects manufacturing of each anode and cathode to scale to 500 GWh/12 months of supplies by 2030, sufficient to energy 5 million electrical autos.