Energy Secretary Rick Perry launched a multi-million dollar effort on Thursday to recover the critical elements in lithium-ion batteries, casting the recycling initiative as a matter of national security.
“We aim to reduce our dependence on foreign sources of this material by encouraging entrepreneurs to capture up to 90 percent of America’s lithium-based battery technology,” he said while speaking at an innovation forum hosted by the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington.
“Our goal is to reclaim and recycle critical materials from lithium-based battery technology that is widely used across our society,” Perry said.
The batteries have become ubiquitous power supplies, enabling everything from iPhones to the Tesla Model S, but the critical metals within them could become in short supply even as demand grows, thanks to renewable energy, electric cars, and other growing industries.
The U.S. is heavily dependent on China and other countries for its supply of critical ‘rare earth’ metals, such as lithium, used in these batteries. A recycling program would bolster U.S. supplies.
Perry said that he is launching a Lithium-ion Battery Recycling Prize to provide cash rewards up to $5.5 million to companies and others over the next three years to find innovative ways of recycling lithium and other critical metals found in the batteries.
“This would strengthen our energy security, expand our economic security, and bolster national security,” he said. “All of this places the federal government squarely on the side of innovation.”
Perry also announced the creation of a new $15 million lithium-ion battery recycling center at the Argonne National Lab, one of the 17 national labs that Perry oversees, in Chicago.
After making the remarks, Perry said he would be meeting with Rep. Bobby Rush of Illinois, who was made chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee’s energy subcommittee on Wednesday.
Perry said he would discuss his energy “vision” with Rush, with his message being “innovation works” and “now is not the time to trim ourselves … now is the time to move ahead” and empower our country. “Carpe diem is at hand.”
