WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) today announced it closed a $102.1 million loan to Syrah Technologies LLC for the expansion of its Syrah Vidalia Facility—a processingfacility that produces graphite-based active anode material (AAM), a critical material used in lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) and other clean energy technologies. This marks the first loan from the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) Loan Program since 2011, and the first ATVM loan exclusively for a supply chain manufacturing project. The project is expected to create approximately 150 construction jobs and 98 good-paying, highly skilled operations jobs. This investment demonstrates DOE’s commitment to building a strong domestic supply chain for zero-emission transportation solutions and supports the Biden Administration’s commitment to growing the U.S. workforce to support domestic battery manufacturing for EVs.
“Securing critical materials, such as lithium and graphite, is essential to increasing domestic production of batteries to power the growing number of EVs on our roadways,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “DOE’s investment in Syrah Vidalia builds on President Biden’s goals to secure our clean transportation future and grow the United States’ electric vehicle and advanced battery manufacturing workforce.”
The loan will help finance the construction of the Syrah Vidalia Facility, which is the only vertically integrated, large-scale AAM manufacturer outside of China, and the first of its kind in the United States. With this expanded production capacity, the Syrah Vidalia Facility is expected to produce enough natural graphite-based AAM to support approximately 2.5 million EVs by 2040, thus saving an estimated 970 million gallons of gasoline.
This latest loan closing supports the Department’s first-ever comprehensive strategy to secure America’s clean energy supply chain by increasing the availability of the critical minerals and related materials for clean energy technologies. This announcement builds on the March 2022 authorization by President Biden to use the Defense Production Act to secure sustainable and reliable domestic sources of critical materials for large-capacity batteries, including graphite.
Across all its programs, LPO has attracted 77 active applications for projects totaling more than $79 billion in requested loans and loan guarantees as of June 2022. With this loan closing, LPO now has $15.1 billion in remaining ATVM loan authority.
For more information about the project and the role it could play in the U.S. clean energy economy, read the conditional commitment blog post and LPO portfolio project web page.
