NAATBatt

The Conundrum of the North American Lithium-Ion Battery Supply Chain

Jim Greenberger2020-10-22T11:50:43-04:00

Electricity unattached to the grid will power the technologies that shape the 21st Century. Unless and until fuel cells, green hydrogen and other electricity micro-generation technologies mature, advanced batteries, and in particular lithium-ion batteries, are likely to be the source of much of that power. Where those batteries are made and who makes them matters. Ensuring adequate supplies of lithium-ion batteries will be an important national security issue. Lithium-ion batteries are also an important tool in the fight to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But most importantly, lithium-ion batteries and the technologies they enable are likely to create substantial wealth and many [...]

Time for NAATBatt 2.0?

2020-05-01T22:42:49-04:00

Twelve years ago a group of U.S. businessmen and battery experts came together to create a consortium to make sure that American companies would be an important force in the global competition to dominate lithium-ion battery manufacturing. The founders named the consortium “NAATBatt”, at the time an acronym for National Alliance for Advanced Transportation Batteries. The idea behind NAATBatt was based on the SEMATECH consortium founded by leading companies in the American semi-conductor industry in the 1980’s. SEMATECH was to help U.S. semi-conductor manufacturers fight off competition from an aggressive Asian competitor, which was seeking at the time, perhaps by [...]