As the electric industry continues to decarbonize generation and support economy-wide decarbonization, demand will increase markedly for key clean energy technologies that enable a reliable and affordable transition. EPRI’s recent report, Strategies and Actions for Achieving a 50% Reduction in U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 2030, projects the accelerated deployment pace of clean energy technologies that could enable 2030 U.S. decarbonization goals. In addition to the deployment of clean energy generation technologies, deployment of battery electric vehicles is expected to accelerate significantly to achieve decarbonization goals.
To support this rapid growth in demand for clean energy technologies, material and manufacturing supply chains may need to be expanded significantly and transportation challenges overcome. Stresses and bottlenecks could emerge at various points of the supply chain. It is important to identify areas of potential risk and deploy research and resources to overcome and enable the market transformations required to support rapid and sustained growth.
This study addresses the following questions:
- What is the current state of the material supply chain and manufacturing capacity?
- What process or material/equipment availability bottlenecks pose risks to meeting accelerated deployment projections and targets?
- What steps could be taken to reduce or eliminate those risks?
This white paper focuses on the supply chain for wind, solar PV, and lithium ion batteries due to widespread expectations of significant near-term deployment in the United States and globally. It also examines the impact of electric vehicle deployment to the extent that it may impact demand for key minerals and lithium ion battery manufacturing.
Authors Robin Bedilion, et al.