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August 3, 2022
The U.S. made a
breakthrough battery discovery — then gave the technology to China
![](images/images_08_04_2022/2022-06-solarpowerstorage-jtamayo_18-edit_custom-487f4206e9508c8a9b9c81c37fdadcd840047338-s800-c85.jpg)
The former UniEnergy
Technologies office in Mukilteo, Wash. Taxpayers spent $15 million on
research to build a breakthrough battery. Then the U.S. government
gave it to China.
Jovelle Tamayo for NPR
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."
![](images/images_08_04_2022/pic6.jpg)
Chris Howard was an engineer at
UniEnergy Technologies.Jovelle
Tamayo for NPR
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.
![](images/images_08_04_2022/pic7.jpg)
UniEnergy Technologies and Avista's solar energy storage system is
displayed at an event in 2015.
Office of Gov. Jay
Inslee
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."
![](images/images_08_04_2022/pic8.jpg)
Joanne Skievaski is the chief
financial officer of Forever Energy in Bellevue, Wash. The company
has been trying to get a license from the Department of Energy to
make the batteries for over a year.
Jovelle Tamayo for
NPR
"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 southeast 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.
![](images/images_08_04_2022/pic9.jpg)
An employee looks at a
vanadium flow battery in Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's
Battery Reliability Laboratory in 2021.
Andrea
Starr/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
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.
![](images/images_08_04_2022/pic10.jpg)
Imre Gyuk (left), director of
energy storage research in the Office of Electricity of the
Department of Energy, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Gary Yang
of UniEnergy Technologies stand together in 2015.
Office of Gov.
Jay Inslee
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.
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]."
![](images/images_08_04_2022/pic11.jpg)
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.
![](images/images_08_04_2022/pic12.jpg)
Gary Yang launched UniEnergy
Technologies after the Department of Energy issued him a license
to manufacture and sell the vanadium batteries.
Jovelle Tamayo
for 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."
![](images/images_08_04_2022/pic13.jpg) |
Joanne Skievaski said she and
others from the company repeatedly warned Department of
Energy officials that the UniEnergy license was not in
compliance.
Jovelle Tamayo for NPR
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.
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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.
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