In June 2023, Canadian Solar announced they would create 1,500 jobs and invest over $250 million into a Mesquite, Texas facility. With an annual output of 5 gigawatts (GW) of solar modules, or approximately 20,000 a day, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) spurred Canadian Solar to set up their first manufacturing facility in the U.S. “We are…excited to see the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, in the U.S. coming into effect. We believe it will drive a big acceleration in demand for clean energy, especially for solar energy and battery storage," said Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and CEO of Canadian Solar in September 2022.
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Jack Conness
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Few things are more traditionally American than packing the car and taking a road trip – that’s still true today, as more than 75% of Americans say they’ll take a road trip this summer, often planning months in advance. But one thing they can’t plan ahead of time how much fuel will cost.
Gas prices, like all volatile fossil fuels that are traded on a global market, remain highly unpredictable. And those volatile gas prices can cause pain at the pump: In 2022 the average summer (June-August) gas price was $4.60/gallon, in 2023 it was $3.78/gallon, and so far in 2024 gas prices are already up 12% from their January low of $3.20/gallon.
From the mid-to-late 1800s, a remote region of Nevada known as Silver Peak was one of the United States’ best sources for silver and gold, helping pay for the country’s westward expansion. Roughly 150 years later it’s now home to the United States’ only lithium mine, churning out 5,000 metric tons of unprocessed lithium a year, which help power our growing demand for batteries used in nearly every phone, laptop, and electric vehicle.
After the lithium is extracted, it is sent to Albemarle’s Kings Mountain processing facility in North Carolina, closing a domestic supply loop. While small compared to America’s total lithium demand of over 500,000 metric tons by 2032, it’s an important sliver of the U.S. supply chain. It is also a glimpse of what the U.S. lithium supply chain is capable of, and a sneak peek at our clean energy future.
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