Originally published by NAATBatt International


Problem:

The National Association of Advanced Technologies in Batteries (NAATBatt) held a conference in February 2022 focused on addressing economic, technological, and logistical challenges regarding the rapidly increasing demand for US-made Lithium-ion batteries. Forge Nano hosted a roundtable discussion focused on Supply Chain with participants from all sectors of the market(1). This report summarizes that discussion and the findings realized to continue ensuring time-relevant information flow to governmental decision makers working to ensure the energy security and prosperity of the US.

Identified Challenges:

Actionable solutions:

The US is behind in the Lithium-ion race, but this will not always be the case. To gain the lead in this developing industry we must finalize our market assessment, establish a long-term plan which can survive changing administrations, and then simply get going. The US does not have the capability to do it alone and so it is imperative that the US work with established and developing nations to provide incentives to our allies, with our strengths, to establish production in the US and unlock critical jobs and training opportunities. We must begin with the end in mind, define what we want our nation to look like, assign a completion target date, and then reverse engineer the ‘how’. We want employed Americans and energy security.

More Information

NAATBatt is a not-for-profit trade organization focused on promoting the development and commercialization of electrochemical energy storage technology and the revitalization of advanced battery manufacturing in North America.

Author

James Trevey Ph. D, CTO of Forge Nano, is an entrepreneur, an expert in Li-ion batteries and supply chain, and a thought leader in materials science and technology scaling. He is an Officer of NAATBatt and Vice Chair of the Military Power Sources Committee (MPSC), among numerous other advisory boards, where he is an active supporter and enabler of collaborative industry and government relations focused on energy security.

(1) Round Table Participants: SAFE, Eagle Picher, Urbix, Piedmont Lithium, Lithium Nevada, H&T Battery Components, Global Battery Solutions, SLAC Precision Equipment, Halocarbon Electronics Solutions, Armor, LG Chem America, Volta Energy Technologies, Busch Vacuum Solutions, RGP Northwest Ohio, Birla Carbon, American Electric Power, GruEnergy, and Mitsui.