The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has selected battery component developer Elevated Materials for federal funding, granting the Californian firm $50 million to support the development of a new facility on American shores.

Elevated Materials representatives say the new facility will have an annual manufacturing capacity of about 3.5 GW, with the firm producing ultra-thin lithium films for next-generation battery products. With a total price tag of $100 million, the funding will fund about half of the facility’s total construction and early operations.

The new facility is expected to accelerate Elevated Materials’ path to achieving gigawatt-hour-scale for both production and commercialization of its products. The firm aims to create a new domestic source of ultra-thin lithium-metal films and prelithiated materials, in turn enabling higher energy batteries that charge faster than ever.

“The United States has made advanced battery manufacturing a national priority, and securing a domestic supply of critical materials that significantly increases energy density is central to that effort,” says Elevated Materials CEO Jim Cushing.

“We developed this technology in California with support from DOE R&D programs and are proud to have been selected by the Department of Energy to now ramp it up to giga-watt scale.”

Bringing the next generation to the U.S. market

Elevated Materials was among a group of seven companies that the DOE chose for a combined $500 million in funding. As the federal agency aims to strengthen domestic battery manufacturing and reduce reliance on international supply chains, the department’s Battery Materials Processing and Battery Manufacturing Grants program has become a high priority.

The new facility will be a core part of the U.S.’s battery production supply chain going forward, according to officials from Elevated Materials officials.

The firm’s roll-to-roll vacuum deposition platforms will manufacture its ELi brand of ultra-thin lithium metal films. From there, the ELi products will enable “next-generation anode architectures” across a number of markets, including grid-scale energy storage, EVs, consumer electronics, and defense applications.

“Demand has been particularly strong for lithium metal anodes, where ELi significantly improves both safety and performance,” the company says in a recent news release. “Over the past year, Elevated has achieved record output of ultra-thin lithium metal films, shipping over 250,000 meters of material to more than 30 customers worldwide.”

Tags: batteries, BESS, Department of Energy, Elevated Materials, ESS, lithium ion, manufacturing, storage