Cooperative Agreement DECD0000111

Award Date 1/1/25
Completion Date 12/31/31
Dollars Obligated $500M
Federal Agency
Department of Energy
Federal Grant Program
81.255
Assistance Type
Cooperative Agreement
Place of Performance
Chicago, IL 60606, USA

The Department of Energy (DOE) awarded a $500,000,000 Cooperative Agreement under the Clean Energy Demonstrations Program (CFDA 81.255) to Century Aluminum Co. to commence commercial operations of a new primary aluminum smelting and processing facility in Chicago, Illinois. The key objectives of this award include:

  1. Commissioning and successfully testing a new aluminum production facility capable of producing 500,000 tons per year of high-quality primary aluminum, including 20,000 tons per year of high-purity aluminum suitable for national defense applications.

  2. Demonstrating the facility's ability to modulate its electrical load by 50-250 MW, with at least 100,000 MW-hours of total load shifting and 10 load shifting demonstrations of 250 MW for 4 continuous hours.

  3. Sourcing and using 25-75% intermittent renewable wind or solar energy to power the aluminum smelting operations for a minimum of 4,000 continuous hours.

  4. Achieving a carbon intensity of 2.9 metric tons CO2 equivalent per ton of primary aluminum produced by 2030, a 75% reduction from the global primary aluminum industry average.

The award is intended to validate innovative clean energy technologies, reduce technical and financial risks, and catalyze private sector investment in low-carbon aluminum production at commercial scale.

Generated 3/25/25, 4:54 AM