Battery materials campus in Charleston : Redwood Materials secures $2bn conditional loan from DOE

Redwood Materials has landed a $2 billion conditional loan from the US Department of Energy’s Loan Program Office (DOE) to construct and expand its first battery materials campus in Charleston, South Carolina.

The milestone-based financing for the battery materials and recycling startup is part of the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program (ATVM) focused on support the manufacturing of electric vehicles and qualifying components such as anode and cathode that are manufactured entirely overseas, mainly in Asia.

With the funding, Redwood Materials anticipates to manufacture 100GWh annually of ultra-thin battery-grade copper foil and cathode-active materials from both new and recycled feedstocks — enough battery materials to domestically produce over a million electric vehicles annually.

The battery materials campus in Charleston is anticipated to provide 3,400 construction jobs and full-time jobs to around 1,600 people.

Redwood Materials secures $2bn conditional loan from DOE for battery materials campus in Charleston, South Carolina. Photo courtesy of Redwood Materials Inc.

Last month, the battery materials producer commenced manufacturing anode copper foil at its Northern Nevada facility and anticipates to initiate cathode qualification later this year.

In December 2022, Redwood Materials announced plans to develop a new $3.5 billion battery materials and recycling facility on a 600-acre campus near Charleston to manufacture 100GWh a year of cathode and anode components.

The battery materials producer anticipates to break ground on its Carolina Campus in Q1 2023 and run first recycling process by the end of next year.

With domestic production of anode and cathode components, US battery cell manufacturers anticipate to retain more than $150 billion in the American economy by the end of this decade, according to Redwood Materials.