Energy Awards $39 Million for Tech to Boost Clean Energy Transition

The Energy Department on Friday announced $39 million in funding for projects that expect to develop market-ready technologies to increase domestic supplies of critical elements necessary for the nation’s future transition to clean energy.

The funding—given to 16 projects across 12 states—will fund projects determined by the department to show promise in developing commercial, scalable technologies that will increase domestic supplies of copper, nickel, lithium, cobalt and other rare earth elements.

“A reliable, sustainable domestic supply chain of critical materials that power longer-lasting batteries and other next-generation energy technologies is crucial to reaching our clean energy future,” Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said in a statement. “With these investments, DOE is helping to reinvigorate American manufacturing to reduce our overreliance on adversarial nations and position the nation as a global leader of research and innovation.”

The awards are the latest in a series of moves by the Biden-Harris administration to fortify the U.S. transition to clean energy infrastructure. For example, in August the Energy Department issued a request for information regarding gaps in supply chains that process critical minerals. These minerals are necessary to create an assortment of clean energy technologies, from electric vehicles and lithium batteries to solar panels and wind turbines. However, there are geopolitical and other challenges in mining, processing and producing certain critical elements. According to Energy, the projects funded Friday “support the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to expanding domestic mining, production, processing and recycling of critical minerals and materials to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign sources, secure America’s clean energy supply chain and create good-paying clean energy jobs.”

Selected projects will be funded and managed through the Energy Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency, or ARPE-E. A full list of funded projects is available here.