The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) has closed a $102.1 million loan to Syrah Technologies LLC for the expansion of its Syrah Vidalia facility, a processing plant that produces graphite-based active anode material (AAM), a critical material used in lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles (EV) 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.
“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,” says 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 a vertically integrated, large-scale AAM manufacturer, 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. 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.
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