Skip to Content
Return to Search

GFO-24-304 – California Battery Pilot Manufacturing Line

Grantor:
CA Energy Commission
Departmental Grant ID:
GFO-24-304
Portal ID:
95327
Status:
Active
Opportunity Type:
  • Grant
Last Updated:
Categories:

Details

Purpose:

The purpose of this solicitation is to fund the establishment of a battery pilot manufacturing line capable of manufacturing and testing a variety of emerging lithium-ion based technologies.

Description:

The purpose of this solicitation is to fund the establishment of a battery pilot manufacturing line capable of manufacturing and testing a variety of emerging lithium-ion based technologies. This solicitation supports the approved Electric Program Investment Charge 2021–2025 (EPIC 4) Investment Plan’s strategic objective to enable successful clean energy entrepreneurship across California. This solicitation’s research topics fall under the EPIC 4 Scaling Clean Energy Technology Initiative.

Lithium-ion batteries are a critical component of the clean energy transition – supporting transportation electrification, renewables integration, and load management. California is expected to need 52 GW of storage by 2045 to support a 100-percent clean energy grid, and lithium-ion batteries are expected to play a large role in meeting this need. Additionally, California currently has more than 1 million electric vehicles (EVs) registered and expects more than 15 million EVs on the road by 2035; these vehicles will largely be powered by lithium-ion batteries.

Alongside this growing demand for lithium-ion batteries, there exists room for improvement and continued evolution of the technology. California has seen significant growth in the development of innovative battery technologies addressing critical areas such as safety, cost, performance, supply chain security, and end-of-life management. While these innovations show great promise in improving the overall value proposition of lithium-ion batteries, scaling their deployment and incorporation into end-use applications, particularly domestically, has been challenging.

Battery innovations often take place at the component level (i.e., anode, cathode, electrolyte, or separator). However, customers, such as large battery manufacturers or EV manufacturers, seek fully formed battery cells. This disconnect creates a challenge for companies developing battery innovations: they must either invest in internal manufacturing capacity – which is capital and time-intensive – or seek out limited capacity third-party manufacturing services, which are currently scarce in California. As a result, inefficient investments are undertaken, leading to slower time to market and hindering commercialization and scaling of new battery technologies.

The purpose of this solicitation is to establish a Battery Pilot Manufacturing Line that will provide full-service battery cell fabrication and testing services for battery innovators in California. This pilot line will be a shared-use facility allowing battery innovators to leverage the pilot line’s manufacturing capacity and on-site staff in order to transform their innovative components into fully-formed battery cells.​ Battery companies may provide the battery cells to potential customers for evaluation or use them to support their ongoing technology development. The goals of the pilot line are to support rapid prototyping, de-risk new battery technologies, accelerate commercialization and customer adoption of new battery technology, and provide these services in California.

 

Eligibility Requirements

Eligible Applicants:

  • Nonprofit

This solicitation requires the prime applicant to be a private non-profit organization. 

Eligible Geographies:

The following entities are not eligible to be prime applicants for projects under this solicitation:

·       Private for-profit companies

·       Public and private universities

·       National Labs

·       Utilities

These organizations are eligible to be subrecipients.

In accordance with CPUC Decision 12-05-037, funds administered by the CEC may not be used for any purposes associated with local publicly owned electric utility activities

Matching Funding Requirement:

Applications must include a minimum 20 percent total match share for this solicitation.

Important Dates

The date (and time, where applicable) by which all applications must be submitted to the grantmaker. Time listed as “00:00” equates to midnight.
The date on which the grantor expects to announce the recipient(s) of the grant.
Week of May 19, 2025
The length of time during which the grant money must be utilized.
Until funds expire

Funding Details

The total projected dollar amount of the grant.
$25,000,000
A single grant opportunity may represent one or many awards. Some grantors may know in advance the exact number of awards to be given. Others may indicate a range. Some may wish to and wait until the application period closes before determining how many awards to offer; in this case, a value of “Dependent” will display.
Dependent
Grant opportunities representing multiple awards may offer awards in the same amount or in varied amounts. Some may wish to wait until the application period closes before determining per-award amounts; in this case, a value of “Dependent” will display.
Dependent
Certain grants require that the recipient(s) provide a letter of intent.
No
Certain grants require that the recipient(s) be able to fully or partially match the grant award amount with another funding source.
20%
The funding source allocated to fund the grant. It may be either State or Federal (or a combination of both), and be tied to a specific piece of legislation, a proposition, or a bond number.
  • State

Funding Source Notes:

EPIC Program

The manner in which the grant funding will be delivered to the awardee. Funding methods include reimbursements (where the recipient spends out-of-pocket and is reimbursed by the grantor) and advances (where the recipient spends received grant funds directly).
  • Reimbursement(s)

Funding Method Notes:

Reimbursement(s)

How to Apply

State agencies/departments recommend you read the full grant guidelines before applying.

Resources

For questions about this grant, contact:
Brad Worster, 1-916-897-1647, Brad.Worster@energy.ca.gov

Similar to This Grant