In a January 17, 2022, Financial Times article by Sarah Murray, EFI’s Director of Research and Analysis Alex Breckel commented on battery manufacturing in the United States. The growing demand for improved electrical storage and increasing investor interest in battery technology has led to an upsurge in construction of large-scale manufacturing plants.
Breckel, whose research focuses on the economic sustainability of energy systems, said battery production in the United States will rise sharply in the next two years. “It’s anticipated to grow by a factor of six with just the announced factories,” he said. “That is enormously fast scaling.”
Currently, electric vehicles are driving investment, and it is easier to transform car production than existing energy infrastructure. To this Breckel added, “Large-scale batteries are being incorporated into the power system at the wholesale level today but it’s a smaller share of total capacity.”
Lastly, Breckel highlighted that bureaucracy tends to slow down such projects, cautioning that, “trying to build anything in the power sector is a time-intensive process that requires a lot of planning.”
— Alicia Moulton
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