Image Credit: RudolfSimon / CC
The Center Square [By Jon Styf] –
Three Tennessee facilities will receive a combined $492 million in federal grants related to the production of electric vehicle batteries.
Microvast in Clarksville will receive $200 million, Novonix in Chattanooga will receive $150 million and Piedmont Lithium in McMinn County will receive $141.7 million in the first wave of funding from $7 billion earmarked in the federal in infrastructure law intended to promote and strengthen the domestic electric vehicle supply chain.
Twenty companies were awarded a combined $2.8 billion in the first wave of grants.
“This is truly a remarkable time for manufacturing in America, as President Biden’s Agenda and historic investments supercharge the private sector to ensure our clean energy future is American-made,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “Producing advanced batteries and components here at home will accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels to meet the strong demand for electric vehicles, creating more good-paying jobs across the country.”
Microvast plans to build the separator component of electric vehicle batteries at the plant capable of supplying 19 gigawatt-hour (GWh) of EV batteries. It will spend $304.5 million on the expansion. Microvast will work with General Motors to create a specialized separator for its vehicles.
The company intends to use U.S. sourced raw materials in the proposed facility and equipment manufactured within the U.S. or by U.S. allies.
Microvast received a $3 million FastTrack grant from Tennessee in February 2021 toward a $240 million investment in its Montgomery County facility.
FastTrack grants are state grants sent to local governments for specific infrastructure improvements or to companies to help offset the costs of expanding existing facilities or moving into the state with the goal of increasing the number of full-time jobs and the average wages of jobs available in an area.
Novonix’s $150 million grant will go toward plans to build a Chattanooga plant to produce 30,000 metric tons of graphite per year for the electric vehicle industry using raw materials primarily sourced in the U.S. Novonix plans to spend $877.3 million on the expansion.
The company’s PUREGraphite brand received a $3 million grant for a $160 million expansion at its Chattanooga plant in June 2021.
Piedmont Lithium plans to spend its $141.7 million grant on the $600 million development of Tennessee Lithium, which will produce 30,000 metric tons per year of lithium hydroxide, an EV battery component. This will double the current lithium hydroxide production capacity in the U.S.
Construction is expected to start in 2023 with production set to begin in 2025.
Piedmont Lithium received a $1.5 million FastTrack grant from Tennessee on Sept. 1 for a $582 million project in McMinn County.
About the Author: Jon Styf, The Center Square Staff Reporter – Jon Styf is an award-winning editor and reporter who has worked in Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Florida and Michigan in local newsrooms over the past 20 years, working for Shaw Media, Hearst and several other companies. Follow Jon on Twitter @JonStyf.
4 Responses
I will walk before owning one of these dangerous ev death traps. They’re already fussing about the electric power grid and they want us to use an inefficient mode of transportation. NO THANK YOU!!!
LOTSA bugs gotta be killed before EVs are viable.
Batteries gotta be TOTALLY isolated from salt water incursion,
gonna have to be LOTS of electricity supplied from???
Another way they trying to kill us and spend $$$$ that could be used for something good. We not buying these cars and for anyone that can and will, you only drive it until the battery goes out one time…. your done, you will never afford another battery, I hear.
Just one of the minerals used COBOLT
Is referred to as BLUE BLOOD
Because it mined by children many are injured & hundreds die every year from cave ins
The majority of the minerals come from CCP Belt &Road mines where the impoverished are abused and face hazardous & deadly conditions
I find it appalling that the US is paying China for these minerals & batteries that can not be recycled through reclamation
Huge wind mill blades are not viable for reclamation either, they are simply buried whole
*EVs are not efficient or safe
*Wind power mills are not efficient and kill thousands of birds every year
*Solar panels are environmental nightmares from production to hazardous waste with a 20 yr lifespan
*Local governments should take serious look at LNG, CNG & HYDROGEN for fleet vehicles
*The 911 COMMISSION clearly stated the US electrical grid is exceptionally vulnerable and easily be sabotaged
*THAT IS WHERE THE WASTED BILLIONS $$$ SHOULD BE USED
NOT TO PROP UP A USELESS INDUSTRY THAT IS ENVIRONMENTALLY HAZARDOUS FROM BEGINNING TO END