Battery supplies and recycling startup Redwood Materials has secured a conditional dedication for a $2 billion mortgage from the Division of Power as a part of the Biden Administration’s bid to construct up a provide chain for EVs in the US.
The conditional dedication from DOE’s mortgage program workplace, which was introduced Thursday, is a part of the Superior Expertise Automobile Manufacturing Mortgage Program. The milestone-based financing will likely be supplied to Redwood in tranches to assist its development and the enlargement of its headquarters in Nevada.
Lithium-ion batteries include three essential constructing blocks. There are two electrodes, an anode (unfavorable) on one aspect and a cathode (optimistic) on the opposite. Usually, 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, include lithium, nickel and cobalt. Anode accommodates copper and graphite and is essentially chargeable for a battery’s charging efficiency.
Right this moment, 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 Discount 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 yr — though it’s one the biggest. In June, GM and LG Power acquired a $2.5 billion loan to assist finance the development of recent lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing services. Final 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 Mission in Esmeralda County, Nevada.
This newest monetary enhance will assist Redwood attain its purpose to provide 100 GWh yearly of ultra-thin battery-grade copper foil and cathode energetic supplies from each new and recycled feedstocks — sufficient battery supplies to domestically produce greater than 1,000,000 electrical autos a yr.
Redwood’s foremost operations as we speak are in Carson Metropolis, Nevada, the place a number of years in the past it started recycling the scrap from battery cell production on the Gigafactory operated by Tesla and Panasonic. Redwood extracts and processes supplies like cobalt, nickel and lithium which might be sometimes mined, after which supplying them again to Panasonic. The corporate additionally recycles client electronics like cellular phone batteries, laptop computer computer systems, energy instruments, energy banks, scooters and electrical bicycles to entry, course of and provide essential supplies to firms like Panasonic and Amazon.
Redwood Supplies has skilled explosive development previously two years from raising $700 million in 2021 and transferring past recycling and into cathode and anode production to saying a brand new battery materials campus in Charleston, South Carolin and expanding its partnership with Panasonic, together with a multi-billion-dollar deal to provide 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 yr.
And its footprint guarantees to get bigger within the coming yr. Redwood introduced in December plans construct a new battery materials and recycling facility on a 600-acre campus close to Charleston, South Carolina. That campus will finally have the capability to provide 100 GWh a yr of cathode and anode elements.
Redwood founder and CEO JB Straubel has beforehand advised TechCrunch he expects manufacturing of each anode and cathode to scale to 500 GWh/yr of supplies by 2030, sufficient to energy 5 million electrical autos.