An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Cheap, light, flexible, yet robust circuit boards are critical for wearable electronics, among other applications. In the future, those electronics might be printed on flexible circuits made out of bacterial cultures used to make the popular fermented black tea drink called kombucha, according to a recent paper posted to the arXiv preprint server. "Nowadays kombucha is emerging as a promising candidate to produce sustainable textiles to be used as eco-friendly bio wearables," co-author Andrew Adamatzky, of the University of the West of England in Bristol, old New Scientist. "We will see that dried -- and hopefully living -- kombucha mats will be incorporated in smart wearables that extend the functionality of clothes and gadgets. We propose to develop smart eco-wearables which are a convergence of dead and alive biological matter."

Adamatzky previously co-authored a 2021 paper demonstrating that living kombucha mats showed dynamic electrical activity and stimulating responses, as well as a paper last year describing the development of a bacterial reactive glove to serve as a living electronic sensing device. Inspired by the potential of kombucha mats for wearable electronics, he and his latest co-authors have now demonstrated that it's possible to print electronic circuits onto dried SCOBY mats. The team used commercially sourced kombucha bacteria to grow their mats, then air-dried the cultures on plastic or paper at room temperature. The mats don't tear easily and are not easily destroyed, even when immersed in water for several days. One of the test mats even survived oven temperatures up to 200 C (392 F), although the mats will burn when exposed to an open flame. Adamatzky et al. were able to print conductive polymer circuits onto the dried kombucha mats with an aerosol jet printer and also successfully tested an alternative method of 3D printing a circuit out of a conductive polyester/copper mix. They could even attach small LEDs to the circuits with an epoxy adhesive spiked with silver, which were still functioning after repeatedly being bent and stretched.

According to Adamatzky et al., unlike the living kombucha mats he worked with previously, the dried SCOBY mats are non-conductive, confining the electrical current to the printed circuit. The mats are also lighter, cheaper, and more flexible than the ceramic or plastic alternatives. Potential applications include wearable heart rate monitors, for instance, and other kombucha-based devices. "Future research will be concerned with printing advanced functional circuits, capable for detecting -- and maybe recognizing -- mechanical, optical, and chemical stimuli," the authors concluded.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: A revolution in artificial intelligence could slash the amount of time people spend on household chores and caring, with robots able to perform about 39% of domestic tasks within a decade, according to experts. Tasks such as shopping for groceries were likely to have the most automation, while caring for the young or old was the least likely to be affected by AI, according to a large survey of 65 artificial intelligence (AI) experts in the UK and Japan, who were asked to predict the impact of robots on household chores. But greater automation could result in a "wholesale onslaught on privacy," warned one of the report's authors.

The experts involved in the research, published in the journal Plos One, estimated that only 28% of care work, such as teaching or accompanying a child, or caring for an older relative, would be automated. But they predicted that 60% of the time spent on shopping for groceries would be cut. However, predictions about robots taking over domestic work "in the next 10 years" have been made for several decades, but the reality of a robot able to put out the bins and pick lego up from the floor has remained elusive.

Alphabet is shutting down its Everyday Robots project -- another casualty of job cuts at Google's parent company and the latest in a long list of failed hardware ventures. From a report: According to a report from Wired, Everyday Robots will no longer exist as a discrete team at the tech giant. "Everyday Robots will no longer be a separate project within Alphabet," Denise Gamboa, director of marketing and communications for Everyday Robots, told the publication. "Some of the technology and part of the team will be consolidated into existing robotics efforts within Google Research." Everyday Robots launched in 2019, with an aim of designing armed robots that could help out in domestic and office settings; taking on light custodial work like sorting trash and cleaning tables. The project's prototype, single-armed, wheeled robots were tested in Google's offices from 2021, and in 2022 received an upgrade courtesy of Google's AI language research, letting them process natural language commands.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: It is the children's toy, invented in Britain, that inspired a passion for engineering, science and technology in generations of youngsters -- and their parents. Meccano building sets filled with reusable perforated metal -- and later plastic -- strips, plates, nuts, bolts, winches, wires, wheels and even motors have been used to construct models and mechanical devices for more than 120 years.

Now the last dedicated Meccano factory in the world is being closed and dismantled. The Canadian company that owns Meccano has said the plant at Calais will close at the beginning of 2024, putting 51 people out of work. It blamed the soaring cost of raw materials and "a lack of competitiveness" for the closure. Spin Master, which bought the brand in 2013, said Meccano toys would continue to be produced by its "network of partners in Europe, Asia and Latin America."

"We have no other choice than to envisage the end of industrial activity at the Calais factory," Spin Master said in a statement, adding that the factory had "never managed to break even" in spite of receiving 7 million euros in investment since 2014.

Meccano was the largest toy manufacturer in the UK by the 1930s. "By the 1920s Meccano Magazine had a monthly circulation of 70,000 and Meccano groups had sprung up around the world," adds The Guardian. "It has been in decline since the 1950s."

According to Bloomberg, Apple's quest to bring blood glucose monitoring to the Apple Watch is now at a "proof-of-concept stage." The last remaining hurdle is for it to be made smaller. Engadget reports: The technology, which uses lasers to gauge glucose concentration under the skin, was previously tabletop sized but has reportedly advanced to the point where an iPhone-sized wearable prototype is in the works. The system would not only help people with diabetes monitor their conditions, but would ideally alert people who are prediabetic, the insiders say. They could then make changes that prevent Type 2 (adult onset) diabetes.

The project has supposedly been in development for a long time. It began in 2010, when an ailing Steve Jobs had his company buy blood glucose monitoring startup RareLight. Apple is said to have kept the effort secret by operating it as a seemingly isolated firm, Avolonte Health, but folded it into a previously unknown Exploratory Design Group (XDG). CEO Tim Cook, Apple Watch hardware lead Eugene Kim and other top leaders have been involved.

Any real-world product is likely years away, according to Bloomberg. The industry also doesn't have a great track record of bringing no-prick monitors to market. In 2018, Alphabet's health subsidiary Verily scrapped plans for a smart contact lens that would have tracked glucose using tears. Even major brands with vast resources aren't guaranteed success, in other words, and it's not clear how accurate Apple's solution would be.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: Wilson has been working to redesign the basketball with a prototype that's covered in an intricate pattern of holes but never goes flat. Although calling the basketball "airless" is a bit of a misnomer given air is still able to pass right through it, it's the most common term that's been used to describe this technology that replaces the need for pressurized bladders in objects designed to bounce or absorb impacts. Wilson partnered with a company called EOS which specializes in the use of 3D printing for industrial uses including medical and aerospace applications, to manufacture the unorthodox basketball design that's covered in a pattern of open hexagons instead of sealed leather panels.

EOS relied on additive 3D printing technology which, instead of building up layers of extruded melted plastic, uses a powdered resin that's hardened by a laser to create ultra-thin stacked layers with even more detail. The result is a completely hollow basketball that nearly matches the "performance specifications of a regulation basketball, including its weight, size and rebound (bounce)." The 3D-printed ball can even be dyed in various colors, with the prototype being made all-black for its debut during the 2023 NBA All-Star Game festivities this past weekend. "The NBA currently doesn't have any plans to switch to Wilson's 3D-printed airless basketball design, but that doesn't mean it's a failure," notes Gizmodo. "[E]ven if it never finds its way into the NBA, it could still help make the game more accessible on playground courts across the country where pick-up games will never have to be canceled because no one can find a pump to fix a flat ball."

The company explains how the prototype basketball was made in a video on YouTube.

Subway said on Tuesday it plans to add charging parks to select restaurants. "Dubbed Subway Oasis, the EV parks will be outfitted with 'charging canopies with multiple ports, picnic tables, Wi-Fi, restrooms, green space, and even playgrounds,'" reports Insider. From the report: Subway is working with EV tech startups GenZ EV Solution and RED E Charging to open these parks. Additionally, the company said that Subway is opening smaller fast-charging EV stations at new or newly remodeled restaurants across the US this year. "On average, the smaller-format, fast EV chargers will offer a 120-mile charge in 17 minutes for approximately $20," the company said. Once open, EV customers might also get the added perk of receiving Subway discounts while waiting for their cars to charge, the company said. Subway did not specify how much it would cost consumers to charge their cars at their new charging stations, nor did they mention where and when the first Subway Oasis would be built.

"No massive cooling towers, miles of concrete, expansive evacuation zones," writes the Washington Post, describing modular nuclear reactors instead as "space-age plants that can be small enough to fit in a large backyard," using "downsized" reactors like the ones on nuclear-powered submarines.

And America's coal country "is a ripe target for this experiment, with infrastructure that can be repurposed, capable workforces and communities eager to reclaim prominence in the energy economy." More than 300 retired and operating coal plants in the United States are good candidates for a nuclear conversion, according to a recent Department of Energy report that has touched off a frenzy of activity. Communities that previously rejected nuclear power as unsafe or a threat to the coal industry are now clamoring to be a part of what might be branded nuclear 2.0. "See that hilltop over there?" said Michael Hatfield, a former coal company engineer who is now the administrator for Wise County [in Virginia]. "If you put a nuclear plant someplace like that, it is not going to be near anybody's backyard. This would keep us in the forefront of the energy business. We see it as our future...."

It was only a year ago that nuclear power was banned in West Virginia, under a state law intended to protect the coal industry. The state is among several to either lift such a ban or pass a law encouraging development of small nuclear reactors over the last few years. Political leaders see opportunities to boost regional economies and to get a piece of the billions of dollars in subsidies for generating "advanced nuclear" power available through the recently enacted Inflation Reduction Act.... Virginia is among at least eight states pursuing a small reactor. At least another eight have launched feasibility studies, according to federal energy officials.
And back in Washington D.C. there's also high hopes for the technology: U.S. climate envoy John F. Kerry said in a recent interview with The Post that the technology's success is vital for meeting the world's goal of avoiding the most catastrophic fallout from climate change by limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

"I don't think we get there without it," Kerry said.

An activist group is spreading misinformation to stop solar projects in rural America Activist Group Spreads Misinformation to Stop US Solar Projects An energy company's plans for a solar plant powering 25,000 homes were thwarted after a four-year battle with a nonprofit that teamed with locals to restrict large-scale solar projects, reports NPR. That non-profit's name? "Citizens for Responsible Solar." "Citizens for Responsible Solar" is part of a growing backlash against renewable energy in rural communities across the United States. The group, which was started in 2019 and appears to use strategies honed by other activists in campaigns against the wind industry, has helped local groups fighting solar projects in at least 10 states including Ohio, Kentucky and Pennsylvania, according to its website.

"I think for years, there has been this sense that this is not all coincidence. That local groups are popping up in different places, saying the same things, using the same online campaign materials," says Michael Burger, executive director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University. Citizens for Responsible Solar seems to be a well-mobilized "national effort to foment local opposition to renewable energy," Burger adds. "What that reflects is the unfortunate politicization of climate change, the politicization of energy, and, unfortunately, the political nature of the energy transition, which is really just a necessary response to an environmental reality."

Citizens for Responsible Solar was founded in an exurb of Washington, D.C., by a longtime political operative named Susan Ralston who worked in the White House under President George W. Bush and still has deep ties to power players in conservative politics. Ralston tapped conservative insiders to help set up and run Citizens for Responsible Solar.... And when Ralston was launching the group, a consulting firm she owns got hundreds of thousands of dollars from the foundation of a leading GOP donor who is also a major investor in fossil fuel companies. It's unclear what the money to Ralston's firm was used for. Ralston has previously denied that Citizens for Responsible Solar received money from fossil fuel interests....

[H]er group's rhetoric points to a broader agenda of undermining public support for solar. Analysts who follow the industry say Citizens for Responsible Solar stokes opposition to solar projects by spreading misinformation online about health and environmental risks. The group's website says solar requires too much land for "unreliable energy," ignoring data showing power grids can run dependably on lots of renewables. And it claims large solar projects in rural areas wreck the land and contribute to climate change, despite evidence to the contrary.
Local politicians fear the political blowback from challenging misinformation, the article suggests — about both solar and wind projects. The result? "A 2022 report by the Sabin Center at Columbia University found 121 local policies around the country that are aimed at blocking or restricting renewable energy development, a nearly 18% increase from the year before."

A long-time Slashdot reader brings news from the EU: This week the Dutch Government approved the construction license for the PALLAS reactor, a new nuclear reactor to create medical isotopes. The PALLAS reactor will replace the 60 year old reactor in Petten which produces about one third of all the medical isotopes used globally. Receiving the building permit is a major milestone as highlighted here.

There may soon come a time when your car "also serves as the hub of your personal power plant," writes the Washington Post's climate columnist. And then they tell the story of a New Mexico man named Nate Graham who connected a power strip and a $150 inverter to his Chevy Bolt EV during a power outage: The Bolt's battery powered his refrigerator, lights and other crucial devices with ease. As the rest of his neighborhood outside Albuquerque languished in darkness, Graham's family life continued virtually unchanged. "It was a complete game changer making power outages a nonissue," says Graham, 35, a manager at a software company. "It lasted a day-and-a-half, but it could have gone much longer." Today, Graham primarily powers his home appliances with rooftop solar panels and, when the power goes out, his Chevy Bolt. He has cut his monthly energy bill from about $220 to $8 per month. "I'm not a rich person, but it was relatively easy," says Graham "You wind up in a magical position with no [natural] gas, no oil and no gasoline bill."

Graham is a preview of what some automakers are now promising anyone with an EV: An enormous home battery on wheels that can reverse the flow of electricity to power the entire home through the main electric panel. Beyond serving as an emissions-free backup generator, the EV has the potential of revolutionizing the car's role in American society, transforming it from an enabler of a carbon-intensive existence into a key step in the nation's transition into renewable energy.
Some crucial context from the article:

• Since 2000, the number of major outages in America's power grid "has risen from less than two dozen to more than 180 per year, based on federal data, the Wall Street Journal reports... Residential electricity prices, which have risen 21 percent since 2008, are predicted to keep climbing as utilities spend more than $1 trillion upgrading infrastructure, erecting transmission lines for renewable energy and protecting against extreme weather."

• About 8% of U.S. homeowners have installed solar panels, and "an increasing number are adding home batteries from companies such as LG, Tesla and Panasonic... capable of storing energy and discharging electricity."

• Ford's "Lightning" electrified F-150 "doubles as a generator... Instead of plugging appliances into the truck, the truck plugs into the house, replacing the grid."

• "The idea is companies like Sunrun, along with utilities, will recruit vehicles like the F-150 Lightning to form virtual power plants. These networks of thousands or millions of devices can supply electricity during critical times."

China's Lenovo reported a 24% revenue decline for the third quarter, its largest revenue fall in 14 years as global demand for electronics slumped, and said it would look to cut spending and make workforce adjustments. Reuters reports: The world's largest maker of personal computers (PCs) said on Friday that total revenue during the October-December quarter was $15.3 billion, down 24% from the same quarter a year earlier. The results trailed an average Refinitiv estimate of $16.39 billion drawn from seven analysts. The outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020 provided a huge boost in electronic sales for Lenovo and its peers worldwide as many people opted to work remotely and replaced or upgraded their equipment. However, demand has begun to fall and Lenovo's revenue started contracting in the July-September quarter last year.

Lenovo Chief Executive Officer Yang Yuanqing told an analyst call after its earnings that the entire PC and mobile market experienced a "severe downturn" in the last quarter, and the company was looking to reduce expenses and improve efficiency. Lenovo is aiming to reduce its run rate operational expenses by approximately $150 million to achieve a medium-term goal of doubling net margin, its chief financial officer, Wong Wai Ming, added. "This includes overall reduction in operational spending as well as workforce adjustments where necessary and appropriate." he said.

In exchange for installing one of Heata's water-heating server units in your home, the UK networking company will offer you free hot water for a year. Tom's Hardware reports: The unit doesn't replace your existing heating unit, it works alongside it -- providing some, but not all, of your hot water needs. According to the company, the unit will provide "a useful base load" of hot water, and can provide up to 4.8kWh of hot water per day, though the exact amount will depend on usage as well as other factors. Heata is obligated to provide a minimum of 2.5kWh per day. Heata estimates its hosts will save up to 200 pounds per year, based on average household hot water use.

Heata will take care of the installation, which takes under two hours and has been tested with British Gas engineers and checked to ensure it doesn't invalidate cylinder warranties with "a leading cylinder manufacturer." Not everyone will be eligible to join Heata's trial, of course -- Heata's unit is designed for vented domestic hot water cylinders with a diameter of 425 - 450mm, and there will need to be an adequate amount of clearance space around the unit for the installation. The unit will need both electricity and broadband to run. Heata will take care of the electricity via reimbursement: the electricity used to run the unit will be metered (visible to the host), and Heata will credit the host for the electricity used at 10% above the market rate.

It's not quite as clear how the broadband will be taken care of -- in Heata's FAQ on its trial signup page, it says that Heata will need to connect to your broadband to communicate with the units. While the company assures that "most of the time the unit will simply be sending some monitoring information (temperatures/fan speeds etc) back to base)," so you "shouldn't notice any impact," that's still not great from a privacy standpoint. [...] As for the server, you won't be able to access it or use it to mine crypto or whatever you were hoping to do with it. Heata sells its compute services to businesses looking for sustainable alternatives to data centers. The Heata trial lasts for one year, and may be extended, "depending on how things go." Heata says it will take care of removing the installed unit and re-insulating the section of the cylinder that the unit was attached to.

Tesla will open part of its U.S. charging network to electric vehicles (EVs) made by rivals as part of a $7.5 billion federal program to expand the use of EVs to cut carbon emissions, the Biden administration said on Wednesday. Reuters reports: Such a move could help turn Tesla into the universal "filling station" of the EV era - and risk eroding a competitive edge for vehicles made by the company, which has exclusive access to the biggest network of high-speed Superchargers in the United States. By late 2024, Tesla will open 3,500 new and existing Superchargers along highway corridors to non-Tesla customers, the Biden administration said. It will also offer 4,000 slower chargers at locations like hotels and restaurants.

A White House official said at a briefing that Tesla would be eligible for a subsidy - including retrofitting its existing fleet - as long as its chargers would allow other vehicles with a federally backed charging standard called CCS to charge. The administration said Tesla has not committed to adopting CCS as its standard, but it must comply with the requirements to qualify for federal funds.

Apple has once again delayed its announcement event for the Apple AR/VR headset. Originally expected to debut in the spring, Bloomberg reports that Apple is now targeting its WWDC conference in June as the new date for the product's unveiling. 9to5Mac reports: That's a delay of two months compared to the previously-rumored April release date. The headset device, likely branded the 'Apple Reality Pro', will represent Apple's first hardware venture in the augmented reality and virtual reality market. The product has been many years in the making, and has faced multiple late-stage hardware and software development setbacks in the run up to launch.

Of course, nothing is set in stone until Apple officially announces the event publicly. But there was strong indications that Apple was originally ramping up for a mid-late 2022 debut. This was then pushed back to January of this year, and then April, and now early summer -- according to Bloomberg. The Bloomberg report says the reason for the latest delay is multi-faceted and both hardware and software issues are to blame.

Ford said on Tuesday that it had stopped production and shipments of its F-150 Lightning electric pickup after discovering a potential battery issue during pre-delivery checks. Reuters reports: "We are not aware of any incidences of this issue in the field," Ford spokesperson Emma Bergg said in an email. She said the production stop was issued at the start of last week. Ford added it was investigating the matter, which was earlier reported by CNBC and first reported by Motor Authority. Shares of the automaker were down 1% in afternoon trade. Bergg says Ford has not established a timeline for when production and the shipments will resume. "The team is diligently working on the root cause analysis," she told CNBC, adding the company is "doing the right thing by our customers" to resolve any potential issues before resuming production and shipments.

Security camera company Arlo is reversing course on its controversial decision to apply a retroactive end-of-life policy to many of its popular home security cameras. The Verge reports: On Friday, Arlo CEO Matthew McRae posted a thread on Twitter, announcing that the company will not remove free storage of videos for existing customers and that it is extending the EOL dates for older cameras a further year to 2025. He also committed to sending security updates to these cameras until 2026. The end-of-life policy was due to go into effect January 1st, 2023, and removed a big selling point -- seven-day free cloud storage -- for many Arlo cams. McRae now says all users with the seven-day storage service will "continue to receive that service uninterrupted." But he did note that "any future migrations will be handled in a seamless manner," indicating there are changes coming still.

The thread did not provide details on specific models other than using the Arlo Pro 2 as an example of a camera that will now EOL in 2025 instead of 2024, as previously announced, with security updates continuing until 2026. There was also no update on the plans to remove other features, such as email notifications and E911 emergency calling, or whether "legacy video storage" will remain. The EOL policy applied to the following devices: Arlo Gen 3, Arlo Pro, Arlo Baby, Arlo Pro 2, Arlo Q, Arlo Q Plus, Arlo Lights, and Arlo Audio Doorbell.

This year in America some electric cars could become "as cheap as or cheaper than cars with internal combustion engines," reports the New York Times, citing figures from the International Council on Clean Transportation, a research and advocacy group. Prices are likely to continue trending lower as Tesla, General Motors, Ford Motor and their battery suppliers ramp up new factories, reaping the cost savings that come from mass production. New electric vehicles from companies like Volkswagen, Nissan and Hyundai will add to competitive pressure.... Falling prices for materials like lithium and cobalt have also helped. The price of lithium used in batteries has fallen 20% from its peak in November, though the metal still costs more than twice as much as it did at the end of 2021. Cobalt has fallen by more than half since May, in part because carmakers are selling some models that do not require it, reducing demand. New lithium mines are beginning to produce ore, which could keep a lid on prices...

As electric-vehicle sales soar — rising 66% in the United States last year to 810,000, according to Kelley Blue Book — automakers are getting better at making them.... Auto executives say that they are finding it is easier and cheaper to design and build new electric models than gasoline-powered ones. The battery cells made by Ultium, for example, are part of a collection of components that can be mixed and matched in many types of vehicles. Carmakers have long used the same platforms in multiple models, but the strategy works even better with electric vehicles because the cars have far fewer parts than internal combustion vehicles. The Ultium platform cuts the time needed to develop a new vehicle by almost two years, Dan Nicholson, vice president of electrification at GM, said at a Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago conference in January. As a result, GM will be able to introduce three Chevrolet electric vehicles this year: the Equinox, a Silverado pickup truck and a Blazer SUV. "That's how we get the economies of scale," Nicholson said.
The article cite's legislation passed last year subsidizing battery manufacturers, which "could cut the cost of making electric vehicles by as much as $9,000," as well as the legislation's tax credits for cars priced below $55,000.

But besides making it cheaper to purchase an electric car, "the car will need less maintenance," the article points out, "and the electricity to power it will cost less than the gasoline used by its combustion engine equivalent."

Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader 140Mandak262Jamuna for sharing the article.

In 2019 Slashdot covered Mycroft, an open-source voice assistant for Linux-based devices (including Raspberry Pi boards). But this week the company's CEO posted on Kickstarter that "without immediate new investment, we will have to cease development by the end of the month....

"We will still be shipping all orders that are made through the Mycroft website, because these sales directly cover the costs of producing and shipping the products. However we do not have the funds to continue fulfilling rewards from this crowdfunding campaign, or to even continue meaningful operations."

The announcement details Mycroft's long, strange trip, from a hardware-focused partner that couldn't provide stable hardware to their switch to using off-the-shelf parts — followed by supply chain disruptions (with hefty import and manufacturing fees): The best plan we could devise to fulfill the remaining campaign rewards was to use the slim margins we have on new sales to cover the increased costs of hardware production. With that plan in mind, we pushed forward and started production. We got plastic injection molds cast. We started printing custom PCBs. We engaged audio engineers to optimize the quality and volume of the sound output. We got the device FCC and CE approved. Many of these steps took multiple iterations to get right, and there are many more things that I'm glossing over. All up this costs — a lot of money. Far more than the total contributions from the campaign, which is why I personally committed so much additional funding. I could see a clear way forward that strengthened Mycroft as a project, as a business, and as a community.

So what went wrong? The single most expensive item that I could not predict was our ongoing litigation against the non-practicing patent entity that has never stopped trying to destroy us. If we had that million dollars we would be in a very different state right now.

With so much of our focus on hardware, and less funding to devote to improving our software — the quality and features available on the Mark II at launch were clearly underwhelming. It is more robust and stable than it has ever been, but this came at the cost of fewer new features. That in turn I believe has resulted in less than flattering reviews, and little mainstream coverage. The hardware itself has proven itself to be a solid base to work from, but without good reviews you get less sales, and without strong sales, the plan doesn't work.
Thanks to stx23 (Slashdot reader #14,942) for sharing the news.

Last year Redwood Materials announced a new program recycling EV batteries (including partnerships with Ford and Volvo). Now Politico reports that America's Department of Energy tentatively awarded them a $2 billion loan, "which the company says will allow it to produce enough battery materials to enable the production of more than a million electric vehicles a year." The Nevada-based company said it plans to ultimately ramp up to producing 100 gigawatt-hours annually of ultra-thin battery-grade materials from both new and recycled sources in the United States for the first time." Redwood founder CEO JB Straubel, who previously worked at Tesla, said at an event announcing the loan that he had a "front row seat" while at the Elon Musk-helmed electric vehicle maker to "some of the bigger challenges the the entire industry would face as it scales," particularly around the battery materials supply chain. "It was somewhat clear even way back then, eight years ago, that this would be a really big bottleneck for the entire industry as it scaled," Straubel said....

Redwood plans to manufacture battery anodes, containing copper and graphite, and cathodes, containing all the critical metals in a battery — like lithium, nickel, and cobalt — amounting to nearly 80 percent of the materials cost of a lithium-ion battery.
A Detroit newspaper reports Ford will also announce plans Monday to help build a $2.5 billion electric-vehicle battery plant in Michigan.

In fact, this year in America some electric cars could become "as cheap as or cheaper than cars with internal combustion engines," reports the New York Times — specifically because of "increased competition, government incentives and falling prices for lithium and other battery materials."