The robots were doing practice runs.
It was the day before production was set to begin, and every few seconds, machines folded a stack of paper-thin battery cells into a metallic sheath. Then they sealed the pouch around the edges.
This tightly choreographed assembly line is the result of yearslong American efforts to match China’s industrial policy in areas like battery manufacturing. Ultimately, the batteries produced at this Michigan factory by LG Energy Solution, a South Korean company, will help balance the supply and demand for power on U.S. electric grids.
The silver-colored pouches — roughly the size of two computer keyboards set end to end — will be placed into large battery containers that can be more than 20 feet wide. In the last few years, electric utilities and other energy companies have begun spending billions of dollars to install scores of such big batteries around the country in parking lots, at old industrial sites and on what used to be farmland.
The batteries play an increasingly central role in the electricity business, especially in states like California and Texas, which have lots of solar and wind farms that produce energy only some of the time. The batteries serve as a sponge, soaking up energy when a lot of it is available and dispensing it when homes and businesses need it most.
But President Trump’s tariffs on China may knock this fledgling industry off course. Another threat is brewing in Congress, where House Republicans, with Mr. Trump’s blessing, have passed a budget bill that analysts say would drastically restrict access to subsidies for making and using rechargeable batteries.
Tristan Doherty, chief product officer for LG Energy Solution’s U.S. energy storage unit, Vertech, compared tariffs to a drug that can be deadly at high concentrations.
Demand for LFP Batteries Is Outpacing U.S. Ability to Make Them
The United States is just starting to produce the batteries made with lithium, iron and phosphate that are widely used in energy storage systems.