Critical Material Insights and Innovations to Build Resilient Critical Materials Supply Chains

The clean energy applications in which these critical minerals and materials are used—wind and solar power generation, grid storage, electric vehicle motors and batteries, vehicle lightweighting, power electronics, electrolyzers, fuel cells, LED lighting—are crucial for meeting U.S. climate goals. These goals include achieving 100 percent carbon pollution-free electricity by 2035 and a 100 percent clean energy economy with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Globally, CMM demand for clean energy technologies may quadruple by 2040 to meet climate goals.<br/>The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has developed a broad CMM Strategy that build reliable, resilient, affordable, diverse, sustainable, and secure domestic critical mineral and materials supply chains to support the clean energy transition and decarbonization of the energy, manufacturing, and transportation economies while promoting safe, sustainable, economic, and environmentally just solutions to meet current and future needs.<br/>The CMM Strategy consists of four core pillars: Diversify and Expand Supply, Develop Alternatives, Improve Materials and Manufacturing Efficiency, and Build the Circular Economy. These pillars are interconnected and, in some cases, their areas of focus overlap. For example, recycled materials help to diversify material supplies and are also key to building a circular economy. To accelerate progress, DOE also conducts enabling activities: vital, crosscutting efforts that support all four pillars, such as criticality assessments and interweaving education and workforce development throughout the CMM portfolio.<br/>DOE employs a material-by-material approach to research investments. These investments are informed by ongoing analysis including, but not limited to, criticality assessments and supply chain assessments as well as active stakeholder engagement and coordination with other federal agencies. Based on the results of such analyses, DOE developed a set of critical materials known as the “electric eighteen” that enables DOE to prioritize critical material investments. These investments strategically span across the entire supply chain, from mining and recovery to component manufacturing, and across the innovation pipeline from basic science to commercial deployment.<br/>This presentation will highlight how DOE funded activities covering each of the four pillars of the CMM strategy yield material insights and innovations to build a resilient critical material supply chain.