DOE battery strategy sets 2030 supply chain and 2035 leadership goals

The US Department of Energy wants a continuous domestic battery supply chain, "mine to market", by 2030 and US leadership in battery technology and manufacturing by 2035. Those are the two dated objectives in A National Strategy for American Leadership in Batteries, which DOE's Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation (CMEI) announced on October 28, 2026. A third objective, affordable, safe and reliable storage for the American public, carries no date.

The case rests on demand. The strategy projects US battery demand across transport and energy-storage applications rising from 179 GWh in 2025 to 707 GWh in 2035, and expects data centers alone to account for 25 percent of US battery storage demand by 2030. Both numbers are footnoted to commercial forecasters: the demand curve to BloombergNEF's base scenario, the data-center share to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.

The weak link it names is the middle of the chain: cathodes, anodes, electrolytes and separators. Federal incentives have spurred downstream cell and pack assembly, the strategy says, while midstream capacity remains underinvested, and China alone controls 60 to 100 percent of global production capacity across several midstream and cell sub-component stages.

Six pillars follow: target investment at upstream and midstream supply chain steps; accelerate commercial deployment of laboratory discoveries; prioritize manufacturing process innovation; deploy batteries for grid modernization, including support for load growth from data centers; coordinate with international partners; and invest in the workforce. The four-page document names no budget.

The one new vehicle launched with it is the Battery Manufacturing Accelerator, the PNNL-led consortium covered in our November 1 technology roundup; that announcement gave no budget either.