JB Straubel's battery component recycling enterprise, whose headquarters are based in Carson City, Nevada, has pulled in a gigantic new investment. Simultaneously, the U.S. Department of Energy has approved a loan commitment of two billion dollars to help out the growing business. The proceeds will be employed to expand its presence beyond Nevada's borders.
Redwood Materials, the battery and e-waste recycling startup founded by JB Straubel, formerly Tesla's CTO, declared on Tuesday that they have successfully completed a $1 billion financing round to extend their operations in the U.S.A. This company otherwise dismantles spent electric car batteries and then re-purposes the metals inside them - including nickel, copper, cobalt and lithium - into new battery elements. In addition to recycling, Redwood is also involved in refining and reprocessing, and incorporates "sustainably mined materials" when necessary, reported Straubel to CNBC earlier this year.
In the earlier part of 2021, Redwood gained a $2 billion loan commitment from the U.S. Department of Energy. The money will be used to extend ventures in the country, including those beyond Redwood's Nevada HQ and a Battery Materials Campus close to Charleston, South Carolina. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm identified this kind of domestic production of batteries and parts as one of the ways to meet the increasing demand for electric vehicles, and to facilitate the shift from fuel to green energy.
Currently, utilizing petroleum products remain to be the major form of energy around the globe, and are responsible for a majority of the man-made CO2 emissions and other air and particle pollutants that are damaging the climate. According to the Energy Information Administration, despite the surge of electric cars, gasoline, apart from fuel ethanol, made up 52% of the energy utilized in the U.S. transportation sector last 2022. It is estimated that North America's battery production capacity could reach nearly 1,000 Gigawatt hours annually by 2030, as per research from Argonne National Laboratory.
Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Capricorn's Technology Impact Fund and funds managed by T. Rowe Price Associates led the deal of Redwood's series D of equity funding. This has brought their total capital up to almost $2 billion. OMERS, industrial giant Caterpillar Inc., Microsoft's Climate Innovation Fund and Deepwater Asset Management were also investors of the round.
Comments