Energy Department said funding would ‘ensure our clean energy future is American-made’
Collin Anderson • January 11, 2023 1:50 pm
The Biden Energy Department announced in October that a $50 million grant to a lithium battery company would “ensure our clean energy future is American-made.” But the company sources its battery materials in China, highlighting the difficulty the administration faces in ushering in any sort of green energy transition without boosting America’s top geopolitical foe.
The Energy Department’s lucrative award went to Amprius Technologies, a California-based company that has leaned on Chinese manufacturing. The company built a battery factory in the Chinese city of Wuxi in 2014 after striking a $40 million joint venture with the city’s public investment arm, a move that Amprius CEO Kang Sun said at the time would help the company cut costs. Amprius also uses a spin-off company in Nanjing to produce its battery materials, while acknowledging in corporate filings that U.S. sanctions could one day threaten its ability to import those materials.
Amprius’s dependence on China reflects the broader challenges facing the Biden administration as it attempts to spur growth in the Chinese-dominated green energy industry. President Joe Biden’s so-called Inflation Reduction Act, for example,…
