WASHINGTON, D.C. – Thursday, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) announced that the U.S. Department of Energy’s (USDOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) has awarded a $3,876,363 grant to The Ohio State University (OSU) through the Electric Vehicles for American Low-Carbon Living program (EVs4ALL). This funding will allow OSU to scale its prototype high-power battery technology for electrified vehicles (EVs). At scale, the technology could potentially double battery lifetime, reduce size and costs, and enable faster charging, all of which would improve state of the art EV battery production in Ohio.
“Students and faculty at the Ohio State University are working to ensure that Ohio will help the United States lead the world in developing the electric vehicles that will propel our future. As more Ohioans buy electric vehicles to save on gas and reduce pollution, it’s important that they are built in America. Ohio State is helping to ensure that these vehicles are not only made here, but that the best state of the art technology for these vehicles is also developed here,” said Brown. “I will continue working with the Biden administration to secure additional funding for important Ohio projects like this one.”
“This grant is testament to the commitment of Ohio State’s research community to developing next generation battery technology for electrified vehicles. We appreciate the continued support of Senator Brown and the U.S. Department of Energy in this important work,” said Peter Mohler, Vice President for Research at The Ohio State University.
Brown secured an additional $4.5 million for OSU in the 2023 Fiscal Year government spending package to support an advanced battery lab and education center where the university and its partners innovate, build, learn and deploy together. With the support of Honda, Ohio State will leverage the university’s extensive expertise in mobility and build upon several leading campus-based institutes to address key challenges currently prohibiting the universal adoption of solid-state batteries.
In December 2022, Brown announced that in 2024, Honda’s Performance Manufacturing Center (PMC) in Marysville will begin producing Honda’s new hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV). The Honda FCEV will be the first mass-produced vehicle in North America to combine a plug-in feature and FCEV technology into one. Brown was a leader in passing the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Chips and Science Act of 2022 and Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which secured investments for production of electric vehicles and other technologies of the future in Ohio.
In October 2022, Brown announced that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) awarded a $74,999,925 grant to Cirba Solutions in Lancaster to expand and upgrade its existing lithium-ion battery recycling facility. In June, Brown sent a letter of support for Cirba Solutions’ project to the Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm. Funding for this investment was made possible through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which Brown helped to write and pass.
In February 2022, Brown announced that that the ARPA-E awarded more than $2.4 million to OSU through the OPEN 2021 program. This funding allowed OSU to create new and innovative manufacturing processes of electric machines for electrified vehicles (EVs).
The ARPA-E advances high-potential, high-impact energy technologies that are too early for private-sector investment. ARPA-E awardees are unique because they are developing entirely new ways to generate, store, and use energy.
