This is news on a couple levels, more after the jump.
From Grist, June 10:
The president hasn't directly targeted the nascent industry, but his clean energy rollbacks could hurt it.
In a recycling facility in Covington, Georgia, workers grind up dead batteries into a fine, dark powder. In the past, the factory shipped that powder, known in the battery recycling industry as black mass, overseas to refineries that extracted valuable metals like cobalt and nickel. But now it keeps the black mass on site and processes it to produce lithium carbonate, a critical ingredient for making new batteries to power electric vehicles and store energy on the grid.
From Nevada to Arkansas, companies are racing to dig more lithium out of the ground to meet the clean energy sector’s surging appetite. But this battery recycling facility, owned by Massachusetts-based Ascend Elements, is the first new lithium carbonate producer in the nation in years — and the only source of recycled lithium carbonate in North America. The company is finalizing upgrades to its Covington facility that will allow it to produce up to 3,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate per year beginning later this month. Right now, the only other domestic source of lithium carbonate is a small mine in Silver Peak, Nevada.
Since January, President Donald Trump has taken a sledgehammer to the Biden administration’s efforts to grow America’s clean energy industry. The Trump administration has frozen grants and loans, hollowed out key agencies, and used executive action to stall renewable energy projects and reverse climate policies — often in legally dubious ways. At the same time, citing economic and national security reasons, Trump has sought to advance efforts to produce more critical minerals like lithium in the United States. That is exactly what the emerging lithium-ion battery recycling industry seeks to do, which is why some industry insiders are optimistic about their future under Trump.
Nevertheless, U.S. battery recyclers face uncertainty due to fast-changing tariff policies, the prospect that Biden-era tax credits could be repealed by Congress as it seeks to slash federal spending, and signs that the clean energy manufacturing boom is fading.
Battery recyclers are in “a limbo moment,” said Beatrice Browning, a recycling expert at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, which conducts market research for companies in the lithium-ion battery supply chain. They’re “waiting to see what the next steps are.”....
....MUCH MORE
The story doesn't even mention battery recycler Redwood Materials which is a huge omission.
Redwood is the largest battery recycler in the U.S. with a 70% market share. And Redwood turned down $2 billion in government money. Here's the latter story, our long-time readers are familiar with the former.*
From Axios Pro, May 25:
Why Redwood Materials canceled its DOE loan
Last fall, battery recycling and materials company Redwood Materials quietly walked away from a $2 billion loan offered by the Department of Energy, the company tells Axios.
Why it matters: Redwood was one of seven companies named in a story that says the DOE under the Trump administration plans to announce canceled loan and loan guarantee commitments.
- Most of the seven loan commitments named have already been abandoned in moves initiated by the companies.
Zoom in: "We were right at the finish line and had the opportunity to close, but made a unilateral decision after a careful consideration of Redwood's business priorities," says Alexis Georgeson, VP of government relations and communications.
- Redwood applied for the DOE loan in 2021 and was awarded a conditional commitment for $2 billion in 2023. The company stopped pursuing the loan in the fall of 2024, while the Biden administration was still in office.
- After applying for the loan in 2021, Redwood raised $2 billion in private funding and in 2024 generated nearly $200 million in revenue.
- "Given our financial strength, continuing with the loan just didn't provide benefit any longer," says Georgeson. "We've actually never received any federal funding."
The intrigue: In addition to Redwood, the other LPO awardees named include Sunnova, Aspen Aerogels, Kore Power and International Recycling Group. All of these companies have said they're stopping pursuit of the DOE loans for various reasons....
