Battery supply chain database maps out the state of North America’s manufacturing base

As america continues to transition to wash vitality, strengthening the home provide chain by growing the provision of vital supplies is paramount to enabling larger home manufacturing.

This deal with securing the clean energy provide chain—particularly domestically—is a key a part of the Nationwide Renewable Vitality Laboratory’s (NREL’s) analysis supporting the vitality transition. NREL researchers throughout clear vitality know-how areas examine methods to optimize provide chains by knowledge assortment, assessments, benchmarking, and value/sensitivity analyses.

NREL’s assist was vital to the latest U.S. Division of Vitality (DOE) report“America’s Strategy to Secure the Supply Chain for a Robust Clean Energy Transition,” which outlines key areas for strengthening provide chain resiliency, together with growing the provision of vital supplies and increasing home manufacturing capabilities.

As well as, NREL is partnering instantly with trade on lithium-ion batteries—one of many vital analysis areas recognized within the report—to advance collaboration between U.S. non-public sector industries throughout the availability chain.

As a part of ongoing efforts to map the battery panorama, NAATBatt Worldwide and NREL established the Lithium-Ion Battery Supply Chain Database to establish each firm in North America concerned in constructing lithium-ion batteries, from mining to manufacturing to recycling and every little thing in between.

NREL and NAATBatt have lately launched a brand new model of this first-of-its-kind database—first launched in 2021—with further entries and a web-based interface that makes it even simpler to map and filter the lots of of entries detailing corporations and their services and numerous segments within the provide chain.

“In response to industry requests, we have made this release of the database more intuitive, with easy- to-find information about companies involved in any aspect of the supply chain,” mentioned NREL’s Vicky Putsche. “We’ve even added an online version of the North American map to show a visual representation of where these companies are located.”

“We added filters to find companies working in different parts of the supply chain, allowing industry to identify competitors and collaborators and to help policymakers understand the current state of the U.S. industry,” mentioned NREL’s Maggie Mann, provide chain analytics group supervisor.

Scoping the early provide chain panorama

The lithium-ion battery manufacturing cycle interlinks services taking part in particular phases of battery growth like mining or processing uncooked supplies. The U.S. Federal Consortium of Superior Batteries’ National Blueprint for Lithium Batteries developed a blueprint to determine and increase the home provide chain for lithium-ion batteries, shifting away from counting on world dependence for such batteries.

Each the Bipartisan Infrastructure Regulation and the Inflation Discount Act handed by the U.S. Congress in 2021 and 2022, respectively, are investing billions of {dollars} in assist of the battery and electrical automobiles industries to develop a robust manufacturing provide chain in america.

The NREL-developed-and-managed Lithium-Ion Battery Provide Chain Database showcases key areas for coordination between provide chain corporations, equivalent to linking end-of-life services with midstream manufacturing capabilities.

“This database is an important step in better understanding the lithium-ion battery market and its North American players,” mentioned NREL’s Ahmad Pesaran, the laboratory’s chief vitality storage engineer. “The new online interface makes it even easier for companies in the supply chain and individual companies to find and connect with other players in this space, ultimately strengthening our supply chain security.”

As of March 2024, the database now affords a listing of almost 700 corporations and 850 services in North America throughout lithium-ion battery provide chain segments, together with mining, materials processing, cell and pack manufacturing, analysis and growth, providers, end-of-life administration, and product distributors.

It additionally contains necessary data on every facility, together with firm, location, workforce, and sort of services and products. Critically, the database summarizes key data equivalent to put in battery manufacturing capability and materials manufacturing functionality, plans for future capability, kinds of chemistries and processes, and growth plans by phase (e.g., upstream and downstream). An Excel model of the database can be accessible with detailed supply data.

Moreover, the up to date database contains different new and improved options:

• A simple-to-use interactive map to discover services, corporations, and segments throughout the database listing, providing customers the flexibility to look and filter merchandise and corporations by key phrase, location, and provide chain segments and sub-segments
• Quite a few new corporations and services
• Modifications to present services, equivalent to updates in quantity manufacturing or workforce
• A brand new phase for skilled providers equivalent to authorized, funding, consulting, and insurance coverage providers which can be knowledgeable within the battery house.

Within the span of underneath three years, the variety of corporations/services within the North American lithium-ion battery provide chain has doubled—growing from greater than 400 to over 800 from September 2021 till March of 2024, Pesaran added. This improve has been probably the most notable for uncooked materials manufacturing services, leaping from solely about 25 to greater than 80.

“We’re proud that we’ve been able to strengthen the database’s offerings to provide a more comprehensive picture of the supply chain landscape in lithium-ion battery material processing, manufacturing, and recycling,” Pesaran mentioned. “We have received a lot of compliments on the value and usefulness of the database.”

Assist us replace the database

Because the lithium-ion battery supply chain panorama grows, the net database will preserve tempo with that development.

Click on on “Access Database” on the website to entry the brand new on-line interface and/or obtain the Excel model of the database.

The database is recurrently up to date. So as to add your organization or replace your data, fill out the database questionnaire. All corporations within the database are inspired to overview these updates and email NREL with any corrections.