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Economy | |||
US energy department grants $375M loan for lithium battery recycling plant | |||
2023-03-03 | |||
[FoxNews] AZ plant expected to support battery needs for nearly 203,000 electric vehicles per year.
Monday's announcement is the third in the U.S. recently. Last Tuesday the large recycling firm Ecobat said it will build its first battery recycling plant in Casa Grande, Arizona. Earlier this month, the DOE Loan Programs Office also announced a conditional $2 billion loan to Redwood Materials to build a battery recycling facility outside Reno, Nevada. It will also make new EV battery cells out of recovered copper foil and other electrochemical materials. The Rochester facility is expected to support the battery needs of about 203,000 electric vehicles per year.
Recycling lithium is seen as far less environmentally damaging than mining it from the ground, and potentially less expensive. Mining lithium can degrade ecosystems and contaminate lakes and rivers. But mining both domestically and internationally is expected to dramatically increase to meet growing demand for electric vehicles and other clean technologies. The DOE announcement came within hours of another, by American Battery Technology Company, that it has discovered one of the largest known lithium deposits in the U.S. at Tonopah Flats in Big Smoky Valley, Nevada. It's estimated to contain 15.8 million tons of lithium carbonate equivalent. The Li-Cycle announcement is the fifth project related to critical materials and EV supply chain announced under the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program, part of DOE. In 2021, the U.S. set a target for half of all new domestic vehicle sold to be electric by 2030.
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Posted by:Skidmark |
#6 The people who gave us Carter wanted to give us Adlai Stevenson and Hubert Humphrey too. Hold that image in your mind while saying "Paul Ryan Republicans." |
Posted by: M. Murcek 2023-03-03 10:13 |
#5 I don’t understand why a government loan should even be necessary- batteries have to be the most concentrated ‘ore’ around; maybe the Lithium is in a hard-to-refine compound? |
Posted by: Glenmore 2023-03-03 09:12 |
#4 ^#1 - You are in electric power mode and you charge the battery with your ICE engine revving at a constant speed So it's an electric transmission with a gas-powered portable generator. At least it won't require any more power plants or drain the existing grid. |
Posted by: Bobby 2023-03-03 09:04 |
#3 Marlboro man leans on the windowsill of his mostly Chinese sourced electric pickup truck and uses his made-with-slave-labor iPhone to look for a charging station in the middle of nowhere. |
Posted by: M. Murcek 2023-03-03 07:21 |
#2 Reducing the need to buy lithium mined in China? Now we know why they let in so many unaccompanied alien children. |
Posted by: Procopius2k 2023-03-03 07:07 |
#1 Here's how Ram's electric pickup will go the distance with gasoline |
Posted by: Skidmark 2023-03-02 06:29 |