Redwood Supplies says it wins $2 billion DOE mortgage for EV supplies plant
Redwood Supplies says it wins $2 billion DOE mortgage for EV supplies plant
By Paul Lienert and David Shepardson
(Reuters) – Redwood Supplies stated on Thursday it has acquired a conditional dedication for a $2 billion mortgage from the U.S. Vitality Division to assist construct out a $3.5-billion recycling and re-manufacturing advanced in Nevada for electrical automobile battery supplies.
Redwood Supplies expects to attract down the primary mortgage tranche later this yr, Chief Govt JB Straubel stated in an interview.
The preliminary mortgage draw “will assist speed up (manufacturing) and compress the time for us to get to full scale” on the northern Nevada advanced, which has began to provide copper foil for battery anodes, Straubel stated.
Straubel stated there was “a frenzy of exercise” amongst electrical automobile and battery producers since President Joe Biden handed the Inflation Discount Act (IRA) in August. The IRA guidelines are designed to shift the U.S. battery provide chain away from China, which at present produces 70% of batteries for electrical autos.
Final July, the Vitality Division stated it could mortgage $2.5 billion to Ultium Cells, a three way partnership between Basic Motors Co and LG Vitality Resolution, to assist finance building of recent battery cell manufacturing amenities in Ohio, Tennessee and Michigan.
Final month, the division stated it deliberate to mortgage Ioneer Ltd as much as $700 million to construct its Rhyolite Ridge lithium mining venture in Nevada.
The loans are coming from the Superior Know-how Autos Manufacturing (ATVM) mortgage program. Greater than 10 years in the past, the ATVM program offered low-cost authorities loans to Tesla, Ford Motor and Nissan Motor, which included some cell manufacturing.
EXPANSION PLANS
Redwood Supplies, based in 2017 by ex-Tesla govt Straubel, is on a path to turn out to be one of many world’s largest recyclers and re-manufacturers of battery supplies, together with copper, lithium, cobalt and nickel.
Along with the Nevada web site close to Reno, Redwood Supplies in December stated it deliberate to assemble the same facility northwest of Charleston, South Carolina, additionally at a price of round $3.5 billion.
Every facility can have an preliminary deliberate capability to course of 100 gigawatt-hours of electrode supplies, sufficient to provide greater than 1 million EVs every. The South Carolina advanced ultimately could possibly be expanded to “a number of hundred gigawatt-hours,” Straubel stated.
Straubel stated the South Carolina venture is operating about two years behind the Nevada facility.
Redwood Supplies stated it can provide copper foil from Nevada to Panasonic for battery cells produced on the Nevada Gigafactory that Panasonic collectively operates with Tesla. It’s going to additionally provide cathode materials to Panasonic’s new Kansas battery plant, which is slated to open in 2025.
Redwood Supplies has provide agreements with plenty of producers, together with Ford, Toyota Motor and Volkswagen Group.
(Reporting by Paul Lienert in Detroit and David Shepardson in Washington; Enhancing by Sharon Singleton)
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