News Roundup
Battery Recycler Secures Conditional $2 Billion DOE Loan Commitment
On 9 February 2023 the U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office (LPO) made a conditional commitment to provide a $2 billion loan to Redwood Materials to build and expand a battery materials operation in Nevada. The facility will recycle end-of-life battery and production scrap and remanufacture that feedstock into anode copper foil and cathode active material. DOE states that when complete, this will be the first domestic facility to produce these materials through a closed-loop manufacturing process.
The facility is expected to produce roughly 36,000 metric tons per year of ultra-thin battery grade copper foil to use as an anode current collector, and roughly 100,000 metric tons per year of cathode active materials. This is LPO’s fourth funding announcement related to lithium-ion battery supply chains in the last eight months, following the closing of a total of $2.6 billion in loans to an active anode material supplier and a series of lithium-ion battery cell factories and a conditional commitment for a $700 million loan to a lithium carbonate processing facility.
Source: LPO Offers Conditional Commitment to Redwood Materials to Produce Critical Electric Vehicle Battery Components from Recycled Materials (DOE LPO)
California, Western Regional Grid Operators Approve Day-Ahead Market
Both the board of the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) and the Joint Western Energy Imbalance Market have approved the creation of an Extended Day-Ahead Market (EDAM) for the sale of electricity. This will extend the existing day-ahead market in CAISO’s service area to participating utilities across the West and follows on the 2014 creation of the Western Energy Imbalance Market, a real-time regional market.
A recent study by CAISO estimates that the EDAM will provide $543 million to $1.2 billion in annual economic benefit to participants, and CAISO further states that the day-ahead market can help to improve grid reliability and make it easier to integrate more wind and solar. The EDAM now goes to the federal government for approval and could be active in 2024.
News coverage: CAISO board approves Western day-ahead market, with expected economic, reliability benefits (Utility Dive)
3 GW Power Line to link Eastern, Western US Grids Planned
Two transmission companies have joined forces to attempt to build a power line that would more than triple the transmission capacity between two of the United States’ three major regional power grids. Allete and Grid United have announced plans to build a $2.5 billion, 385-mile transmission line between Colstrip, Montana, and central North Dakota, connecting the EastConnect and WestConnect grids.
The companies are planning to start federal permitting on the 600 kV North Plains Connector Project, which would provide 3 gigawatts of bi-directional capacity. The companies plan to begin transmitting power in 2029.
A study published in 2020 by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory shows that even in its base case a system of high-voltage transmission lines connecting the United States’ three regional grids (Eastern, Western, and Texas) would provide $4.5 billion in net benefits. In a scenario with high build-out of wind and solar, the benefit would increase to
$28.89 billion.
News coverage: Allete, Grid United plan $2.5B transmission line linking Western, Eastern interconnections (UtilityDive)
