US battery materials projects stall

The once-rapid investment in battery materials in the US is stalling. Some companies are downsizing, delaying, or canceling projects that don’t fit with the Donald J. Trump administration’s priorities. For other firms, tariffs, technological hurdles, and a lack of demand are preventing projects from moving forward. The result is an industry in partial retreat.Fueled by a flood of government support in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), companies announced 19 US battery component or mineral extraction projects, representing $6.7 billion in planned investment, during the first 6 months of 2023, according to data compiled by the Big Green Machine, a Wellesley College initiative tracking clean technology investments. Since Trump took office, companies have announced only 3 new US projects. The Trump administration’s campaign to cut government spending on clean technology is signaling to companies that they should slow investment, says Jay Turner, an environmental historian who leads the Big Green Machine. “As soon as Trump was elected, it was clear that the policy environment was going to become very unfavorable,” he says. “Even before he took office, companies were starting to retrench.”In May, the US Department of Energy (DOE) announced that it would conduct reviews of 179 projects that received DOE awards, with a particular focus on those funded in the final days of the Joe Biden administration. One is a plant in Connecticut planned by Nanoramic Laboratories to produce a new type of battery binder. Nanoramic won a grant through the DOE’s Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC)