DoE announces funding boost for solid-state, flow battery manufacturing

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) has announced the selection of five projects, totaling $16 million, to advance domestic capabilities in solid-state and flow battery manufacturing. These selections will be crucial in the nation’s efforts to decarbonize the grid, industry, and transportation, paving the way for a clean energy future benefiting all Americans. Each project represents a collaborative effort between DOE National Laboratories and industry partners to expedite the transition from innovation to battery manufacturing scale-up and commercialization.

Solid-state lithium batteries (SSBs) offer an energy-dense and safer substitute to the traditional lithium-ion batteries prevalent in electric vehicles (EV) and various portable devices. With the potential to amplify the EV driving range per charge, solid-state batteries present a significant breakthrough. Selected projects will establish capabilities or facilities dedicated to translating fundamental solid-state electrolyte research into large format/high-volume manufacturing, enhancing precision processing of large format SSB cells, and developing the capacity to rapidly verify the scalability of breakthroughs in SSBs, fostering innovation.

Flow batteries cater efficiently to the changing grid and onsite electricity requirements, enhancing adaptability for fluctuating renewable power sources. Given the dynamism of the requirements, a key challenge for flow batteries is the gap between potential flow battery use cases and the current state of manufacturing capabilities. Selected projects will develop innovative cell/reactor architectures that are targeted for simplicity, adaptability, and/or scalability for specific use cases and establish manufacturing and process standards, accelerating the adoption of automated manufacturing and decreasing costs.

Bolstering the domestic manufacturing capabilities for both battery types will help the U.S. achieve the goals set by the Biden-Harris Administration of carbon-free electricity by 2035 and net-zero emissions by 2050.

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