
#Begin again chinese drama license
companies that have been trying to get a license from the Department of Energy to make the batteries. manufacturing requirements, the statement said.įorever Energy, a Bellevue, Wash., based company, is one of several U.S. 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. companies have tried to get a license to make the batteries manufacturing obligations, DOE will explore all legal remedies." "If DOE determines that a contractor who owns a DOE-funded patent or downstream licensee is in violation of its U.S. "DOE takes America's manufacturing obligations within its contracts extremely seriously," the department said in a written statement. 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.

taxpayers millions of dollars ended up in China.

and its economy out front.ĭepartment of Energy officials declined NPR's request for an interview to explain how the technology that cost U.S. Now, China has forged ahead, investing millions into the cutting-edge green technology that was supposed to help keep the U.S. 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. First in 2017, as part of a sublicense, and later, in 2021, as part of a license transfer. The Chinese company didn't steal this technology. And more than 5,200 miles away, a Chinese company is hard at work making the batteries in Dalian, China. All the employees who worked there were laid off. Instead of the batteries becoming the next great American success story, the warehouse is now shuttered and empty. "We were seeing it functioning as designed, as expected."īut that's not what happened. "It was beyond promise," said Chris Howard, one of the engineers who worked there for a U.S. 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.

The batteries were about the size of a refrigerator, held enough energy to power a house, and could be used for decades. They were building a battery - a vanadium redox flow battery - based on a design created by two dozen U.S. They scrounged up tables and chairs, cleared out space in the parking lot for experiments and got to work. When a group of engineers and researchers gathered in a warehouse in Mukilteo, Wash., 10 years ago, they knew they were onto something big.
