Nevada Battery Recycler Wins $2B Loan From Energy Department

A Nevada company that recycles batteries for electric vehicles has won a $2 billion green energy loan from the Biden administration.

Redwood Materials, a recycling venture founded by the former chief technology officer at Tesla Inc., secured the conditional loan from the Energy Department's Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program, which helped Tesla more than a decade ago.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announced the grant Thursday at Redwood's facility in Nevada with Gov. Joe Lombardo, where they spoke from a stage to dozens of employees.

"This region is leading the way to a broader story of what is happening in the country," Granholm said, pointing to a map of 80 manufacturing or supply chain companies that are expanding or opening in the U.S. Most have been announced in response to the infrastructure law President Joe Biden signed in 2021 and the climate law he signed last year, she said.

Battery recycling will help the U.S. establish its own electric-vehicle supply chain, a major goal of the Biden administration as it seeks to move away from gas-powered cars in the larger fight against climate change. Biden also has promoted domestic production of critical minerals used in EVs and other electronics, as part of the climate fight and to counter China's longtime dominance in the supply chain.

The Energy Department said its conditional commitment demonstrates its intent to finance the Nevada project, but several steps remain before officials approve a final loan.

Redwood Materials was founded in 2017 by Jeffrey "JB" Straubel, Tesla's former chief technology officer. It now has more than 300 employees who recycle used batteries and has supply contracts with Ford and with Panasonic, which makes batteries for Tesla.

Straubel said the company already has more material than it can process from spent consumer batteries from lawnmowers, cellphones and toothbrushes, as well as production scraps from lithium-ion battery manufacturing.

The company says it can recover more than 95% of the elements in a spent battery, including lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, and copper. The metals are then used to make anode and cathode components for new battery cells.

Redwood Materials "is going to play this outsized role in bringing the batteries supply chain home—because you're focused on the pieces that we don't have in the United States,'' Granholm told employees at Thursday's event. "You guys are making history in this.''