Li-Bridge is a public-private effort to develop a strategy for the United States to build a robust and sustainable lithium-ion battery industry and supply chain in North America. The Federal Consortium for Advanced Batteries (FCAB) recently released a National Blueprint for Lithium Batteries, 2021 – 2030. As a step to developing and sustaining a robust, domestic supply chain for batteries envisioned in the blueprint, Argonne National Labs is managing the Li-Bridge initiative. NY-BEST, and our partner convening organizations, NAATBatt International and New Energy Nexus, were asked by the Department of Energy and Argonne National Laboratory to help facilitate private industry’s input into this important project. The convening organizations in turn hired the Boston Consulting Group, one of the top management consulting firms in the world, to manage the project and coordinate industry’s input.

The Li-Bridge Report - “Building a Robust and Resilient U.S. Supply Chain” was released on February 15, 2023 by Argonne National Lab and convening organizations NY-BEST, NAATBatt, and New Energy Nexus. The report is a result of collaboration of more than 40 companies who collectively employ more than 1.2 million people and generate approximately $900 billion in annual revenues. 

The report includes 26 recommended actions for how to bolster the domestic lithium battery industry.  Key recommendations in the report include:

• forming a buying consortium for raw energy materials,
• creation of a system of shared pilot lines to speed the commercialization of new battery technologies,
• significant investment in battery industry workforce training, and
• permitting reform.

Securing a domestic supply chain for lithium batteries is crucial to achieving the U.S.’s climate objectives, and to enable the U.S. to benefit from the economic value and job growth created by the exponential demand of lithium batteries.  The report estimates that the U.S. could generate $33 billion in revenues and create 100,000 jobs by 2030 by implementing the recommendations within.   NY-BEST is extremely proud of the work to come out of Li-Bridge and looks forward to supporting efforts to aggressively move forward the public and private actions recommended in the report. 

Learn more by viewing the Argonne National Lab’s Press Release and by reading Li-Bridge Report - “Building a Robust and Resilient U.S. Supply Chain”.

Contact us at info@ny-best.org if you’d like more information on NY-BEST’s role in this important initiative.

Past Li-Bridge News 

On March 16-17, 2022, Li-Bridge sponsored a listening session by the U.S. Department of Energy titled "Bridging the Gap: Advancing America's Battery Manufacturing and Supply Chain". The program included a series of short presentations by companies working in the North American lithium battery supply chain and industry polls. Videos of the company presentations and poll results may be seen by clicking here. You can learn more about the Li-Bridge initiative on Argonne National Lab’s page here. You can subscribe to Argonne National Lab’s Li-Bridge mailing list here.

Li-Bridge established six committees, each focused on a different aspect of the supply chain challenge:

1) Technology, Innovation & Transparency,

2) Demand, Supply and Availability,

3) Economic Competitiveness & Differentiation,

4) Manufacturing & Infrastructure,

5) Workforce & Communities,

6) Go-Forward Operating Model.

The individual committees, after study of their designated areas of focus, met in a series of four forums. Summaries of two of those working forums can be found here (Forum #1 Briefing, Forum #2 Briefing).