US Secretary of Energy Visits Ohio Battery Recycling Facility

Earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm visited Lancaster, OH to break ground on Cirba Solutions’ $250 million battery recycling facility.

“We have the opportunity to get all of these batteries, whether it is from your phone, or your laptop or your vehicle and take all that material inside, which normally we would be getting from China or other places, and re-use it,” said Granholm.

Once the facility is open, the site anticipates that it will make 200,000 electric vehicle batteries per year.

Granholm adds that recycling batteries where they’re made will show a boost in the economy and make electric cars more affordable.

“The price of the battery is dropping as well. Cirba Solutions and what they are doing to recycle will help bring down the cost of the battery,” she said.

CEO and President of Cirba Solutions, David Klanecky, said that the $82 million investment from the federal government was essential for the project. As the industry is growing rapidly, Cibra Solutions must keep up.

“We can’t build plants fast enough to recycle these materials. The goal now is to get assets on the ground, hire people, train people. It’s a new industry so a lot of training has to go on,” said Klanecky.

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