A wholesale shift in strategy to cultivate a U.S. industry developing and producing next-generation batteries will require three types of policies: (1) robust R&D funding, (2) funding to rapidly scale up new technology, and (3) protected markets for the early deployment of these new products.
With global energy needs evolving, next-generation batteries are poised to play a pivotal role in enabling a sustainable and efficient future. Current mainstream battery technologies, particularly lithium-ion batteries, are grappling with significant limitations that affect their wider adoption.
Still, China’s battery companies are looking for ways to produce in the United States for the American market. Building and equipping an electric-car battery factory in the United States costs six times as much as in China, said Robin Zeng, the chairman and founder of CATL. The work is also slow — “three times longer,” he said in an interview.
Researchers in China lead the world in publishing widely cited papers in 52 of 64 critical technologies, recent calculations by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute reveal. China’s advances in battery research have helped it gain a dominant position in electric vehicles. Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times
The United States battery industry has fallen dangerously behind the global leaders. A cornerstone of the modern economy, batteries are essential and ubiquitous across consumer electronics such as cellphones, military equipment such as drones, and clean energy products such as electric vehicles (EVs) and power grid storage installations.
Although the executive branch already has some leeway to develop these small procurements, Congress should explicitly authorize the U.S. federal government to prioritize next-generation U.S. battery technologies over existing ones.