Re: The U.S. made a breakthrough battery discovery - then gave the technology to China

[Climate Fairy Tales]

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> Washington state Democrats fucked this up.
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When a group of engineers and researchers gathered in a
warehouse in Mukilteo, Wash., 10 years ago, they knew they were
onto something big. They scrounged up tables and chairs, cleared
out space in the parking lot for experiments and got to work.

They were building a battery — a vanadium redox flow battery —
based on a design created by two dozen U.S. scientists at a
government lab. The batteries were about the size of a
refrigerator, held enough energy to power a house, and could be
used for decades. The engineers pictured people plunking them
down next to their air conditioners, attaching solar panels to
them, and everyone living happily ever after off the grid.

"It was beyond promise," said Chris Howard, one of the engineers
who worked there for a U.S. company called UniEnergy. "We were
seeing it functioning as designed, as expected."

But that's not what happened. Instead of the batteries becoming
the next great American success story, the warehouse is now
shuttered and empty. All the employees who worked there were
laid off. And more than 5,200 miles away, a Chinese company is
hard at work making the batteries in Dalian, China.

The Chinese company didn't steal this technology. It was given
to them — by the U.S. Department of Energy. First in 2017, as
part of a sublicense, and later, in 2021, as part of a license
transfer. An investigation by NPR and the Northwest News Network
found the federal agency allowed the technology and jobs to move
overseas, violating its own licensing rules while failing to
intervene on behalf of U.S. workers in multiple instances.

Now, China has forged ahead, investing millions into the cutting-
edge green technology that was supposed to help keep the U.S.
and its economy out front.

Department of Energy officials declined NPR's request for an
interview to explain how the technology that cost U.S. taxpayers
millions of dollars ended up in China. After NPR sent department
officials written questions outlining the timeline of events,
the federal agency terminated the license with the Chinese
company, Dalian Rongke Power Co. Ltd.

"DOE takes America's manufacturing obligations within its
contracts extremely seriously," the department said in a written
statement. "If DOE determines that a contractor who owns a DOE-
funded patent or downstream licensee is in violation of its U.S.
manufacturing obligations, DOE will explore all legal remedies."

Several U.S. companies have tried to get a license to make the
batteries
The department is now conducting an internal review of the
licensing of vanadium battery technology and whether this
license — and others — have violated U.S. manufacturing
requirements, the statement said.

Forever Energy, a Bellevue, Wash., based company, is one of
several U.S. companies that have been trying to get a license
from the Department of Energy to make the batteries. Joanne
Skievaski, Forever Energy's chief financial officer, has been
trying to get hold of a license for more than a year and called
the department's decision to allow foreign manufacturing "mind
boggling."

"This is technology made from taxpayer dollars," Skievaski said.
"It was invented in a national lab. (Now) it's deployed in
China, and it's held in China. To say it's frustrating is an
understatement."

The idea for this vanadium redox battery began in the basement
of a government lab, three hours southwest of Seattle, called
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. It was 2006, and more
than two dozen scientists began to suspect that a special mix of
acid and electrolyte could hold unusual amounts of energy
without degrading. They turned out to be right.

It took six years and more than 15 million taxpayer dollars for
the scientists to uncover what they believed was the perfect
vanadium battery recipe. Others had made similar batteries with
vanadium, but this mix was twice as powerful and did not appear
to degrade the way cellphone batteries or even car batteries do.
The researchers found the batteries capable of charging and
recharging for as long as 30 years.

Gary Yang, the lead scientist on the project, said he was
excited to see if he could make the batteries outside the lab.
The lab encourages scientists to do just that, in an effort to
bring critical new technology into the marketplace. The lab and
the U.S. government still hold the patents, because U.S.
taxpayers paid for the research.

In 2012, Yang applied to the Department of Energy for a license
to manufacture and sell the batteries.

The agency issued the license, and Yang launched UniEnergy
Technologies. He hired engineers and researchers. But he soon
ran into trouble. He said he couldn't persuade any U.S.
investors to come aboard.

"I talked to almost all major investment banks; none of them
(wanted to) invest in batteries," Yang said in an interview,
adding that the banks wanted a return on their investments
faster than the batteries would turn a profit.

He said a fellow scientist connected him with a Chinese
businessman named Yanhui Liu and a company called Dalian Rongke
Power Co. Ltd., along with its parent company, and he jumped at
the chance to have them invest and even help manufacture the
batteries.

At first, UniEnergy Technologies did the bulk of the battery
assembly in the warehouse. But over the course of the next few
years, more and more of the manufacturing and assembling began
to shift to Rongke Power, Chris Howard said. In 2017, Yang
formalized the relationship and granted Dalian Rongke Power Co.
Ltd. an official sublicense, allowing the company to make the
batteries in China.

Any company can choose to manufacture in China. But in this
case, the rules are pretty clear. Yang's original license
requires him to sell a certain number of batteries in the U.S.,
and it says those batteries must be "substantially manufactured"
here.

In an interview, Yang acknowledged that he did not do that.
UniEnergy Technologies sold a few batteries in the U.S., but not
enough to meet its requirements. The ones it did sell, including
in one instance to the U.S. Navy, were made in China. But Yang
said in all those years, neither the lab nor the department
questioned him or raised any issues.

Then in 2019, Howard said, UniEnergy Technologies officials
gathered all the engineers in a meeting room. He said
supervisors told them they would have to work in China at Rongke
Power Co. for four months at a time.

"It was unclear, certainly to myself and other engineers, what
the plan was," said Howard, who now works for Forever Energy.

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Yang acknowledges that he wanted his U.S. engineers to work in
China. But he says it was because he thought Rongke Power could
help teach them critical skills.

Yang was born in China but is a U.S. citizen and got his Ph.D.
at the University of Connecticut. He said he wanted to
manufacture the entire battery in the U.S., but that the U.S.
does not have the supply chain he required. He said China is
more advanced when it comes to manufacturing and engineering
utility-scale batteries.

"In this field — manufacturing, engineering — China is ahead of
the U.S.," Yang said. "Many wouldn't believe [it]."

He said he didn't send the battery and his engineers abroad to
help China. He said the engineers in that country were helping
his UniEnergy Technologies employees and helping him get his
batteries built.

But news reports at the time show the moves were helping China.
The Chinese government launched several large demonstration
projects and announced millions of dollars in funding for large-
scale vanadium batteries.

As battery work took off in China, Yang was facing more
financial trouble in the U.S. So he made a decision that would
again keep the technology from staying in the U.S.

The EU has strict rules about where companies manufacture
products
In 2021, Yang transferred the battery license to a European
company based in the Netherlands. The company, Vanadis Power,
told NPR it initially planned to continue making the batteries
in China and then would set up a factory in Germany, eventually
hoping to manufacture in the U.S., said Roelof Platenkamp, the
company's founding partner.

Vanadis Power needed to manufacture batteries in Europe because
the European Union has strict rules about where companies
manufacture products, Platenkamp said.

"I have to be a European company, certainly a non-Chinese
company, in Europe," Platenkamp said in an interview with NPR.

But the U.S. has these types of rules, too. Any transfer of a
U.S. government license requires U.S. government approval so
that manufacturing doesn't move overseas. The U.S. has lost
significant jobs in recent years in areas where it first forged
ahead, such as solar panels, drones and telecom equipment.
Still, when UniEnergy requested approval, it apparently had no
trouble getting it.

On July 7, 2021, a top official at UniEnergy Technologies
emailed a government manager at the lab where the battery was
created. The UniEnergy official said they were making a deal
with Vanadis, according to emails reviewed by NPR, and were
going to transfer the license to Vanadis.

"We're working to finalize a deal with Vanadis Power and believe
they have the right blend of technical expertise," the email
from UniEnergy Technologies said. "Our transaction with Vanadis
is ready to go pending your approval ..."

The government manager responded that he needed confirmation
before transferring the license and emailed a second employee at
UniEnergy. The second employee responded an hour and a half
later, and the license was transferred to Vanadis Power.

Whether the manager or anyone else at the lab or Department of
Energy thought to check during that hour and a half or
thereafter whether Vanadis Power was an American company, or
whether it intended to manufacture in the U.S., is unclear.
Vanadis' own website said it planned to make the batteries in
China.

In response, department officials said they review each transfer
for compliance and said that new rules put in place last summer
by the Biden administration will close loopholes and keep more
manufacturing here.

But agency officials acknowledged that its reviews often rely on
"good faith disclosures" by the companies, which means if
companies such as UniEnergy Technologies don't say anything, the
U.S. government may never know.

That's a problem that has plagued the department for years,
according to government investigators.

In 2018, the Government Accountability Office found that the
Department of Energy lacked resources to properly monitor its
licenses, relied on antiquated computer systems, and didn't have
consistent policies across its labs.

In this case, it was an American company, Forever Energy, that
raised concerns about the license with UniEnergy more than a
year ago. Joanne Skievaski said she and others from the company
repeatedly warned department officials that the UniEnergy
license was not in compliance. In emails NPR has reviewed,
department officials told them it was.

"How is it that the national lab did not require U.S.
manufacturing?" Skievaski asked. "Not only is it a violation of
the license, it's a violation to our country."

Now that the Department of Energy has revoked the license,
Skievaski said she hopes Forever Energy will be able to acquire
it or obtain a similar license. The company plans to open a
factory in Louisiana next year and begin manufacturing. She
bristles at the idea that U.S. engineers aren't up to the
challenge.

"That's hogwash," she said. "We are ready to go with this
technology."

Still, she says it will be difficult for any American company at
this point to catch up. Industry trade reports currently list
Dalian Rongke Power Co. Ltd. as the top manufacturer of vanadium
redox flow batteries worldwide. Skievaski also worries about
whether China will stop making the batteries once an American
company is granted the right to start making them.

That may be unlikely. Chinese news reports say the country is
about to bring online one of the largest battery farms the world
has ever seen. The reports say the entire farm is made up of
vanadium redux flow batteries.

This story is a partnership with NPR's Station Investigations
Team, which supports local investigative journalism, and the
Northwest News Network, a collaboration of public radio stations
that broadcast in Oregon and Washington state.

https://www.npr.org/2022/08/03/1114964240/new-battery-technology-
china-vanadium