The Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) is currently developing a proposal to the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) to seed a world-leading economic cluster in the Bay Area region that is focused on Next-Generation Solid-State Battery Technologies (NSBT). As a first step in this process, ABAG will apply for a Strategy Development grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration's (EDA) 2023 Regional Technology and Innovation Hub (Tech Hub) Program of $400,000. A core team that includes the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) is leading the application development process, and to achieve success, ABAG is committed to working with a range of stakeholders from higher education, state and local government, economic development agencies, and labor and workforce development organizations.
The current proposal would fund developing a Bay Area strategy that would position the region to access implementation funds of up to $75 million in Phase 2. The proposal envisions a network of facilities and programs that are co-located within an ecosystem that supports research and development, testing and prototyping, manufacturing and commercialization, workforce training, new business development, venture capital financing and community engagement. The goals of this proposed Tech Hub are to:
- Grow middle-wage jobs for workers without a college degree, in communities that have experienced decades of disinvestment and job losses.
- Revitalize the region's industrial lands into job centers, especially in areas that have not benefited from regional prosperity.
- Support clean energy transition, decarbonization and climate resilience initiatives.
The proposal will not only set a pathway to translate scientific advancement of the region's premier research and technology institutions and networks into globally competitive manufacturing centers in the transportation electrification, grid storage, and decarbonization sectors but also set new standards for ensuring equitable and inclusive economic growth and development. At its core, the Tech Hub will include a factory-of-the-future that is co-located with wrap-around training and education services to perform the following six key functions:
- Synthesizer facility for active material preparation and large-scale process development.
- Flexible manufacturing lines with dedicated specialties for key components for advanced solid-state batteries.
- Real-world test beds for materials and components for advanced solid-state batteries.
- Incubator and accelerator programs coalescing access to advanced battery manufacturing infrastructure, techno-economic and life cycle analysis and benchmarking, investment and commercial partnership opportunities, and community networks.
- Academy with programs, curriculum, and space dedicated to developing talent and a workforce for prototyping, manufacturing, and deploying advanced storage technologies.
- Reuse, remanufacturing, second life, and recycling facilities and programs designed to reduce the impact of extraction legacy.
The proposed tech hub will help create the infrastructure and ecosystem necessary to enable rapid acceleration of technology scale-up and commercialization, in alignment with the timelines and goals for decarbonization in the United States. Through a feedback loop enabled by the co-location of development, prototyping, and manufacturing, the NSBT-Hub will avoid the linear path from development to commercialization that can span multiple decades, and instead harness the scientific capacity and pipeline to expedite the path to market.
To achieve success, ABAG is committed to working with a range of stakeholders form higher education, state and local government, economic development agencies, and labor and workforce development organizations. The letter would support he ABAG application for developing a Bay Area strategy in which the County would be committing to participate. The process to develop a robust strategic plan will be based on an assessment of regional capacity, critical partnerships, and policy and implementation barriers. It would prepare for the implementation phase of a collective vision to establish globally competitive next-generation solid-state energy storage technologies that support domestic manufacturing and several high-priority local and regional economic and climate goals, including the Northern Waterfront Strategic Action Plan and the County's Climate Action Plan.
If the recommended action is not approved, the County would not be supporting ABAG’s proposal to the U.S. Economic Development Administration to establish a Next-Generation Solid-State Battery Technology Innovation Hub (NSBT-Hub) in the Bay Area. The County would not be committing to participate in the process to prepare the region for the implementation phase of a collective vision to establish a globally competitive next-generation solid-state energy storage technologies that supports domestic manufacturing and several high-priority local and regional economic and climate goals, including the Northern Waterfront Strategic Action Plan and the County’s Climate Action Plan.