NES Person of the Year
2024
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By: The Editorial Team at NES
Jennifer Granholm
United States Secretary of Energy
U.S. Department of Energy
Distributing Multi-Billion-Dollar Domestic Battery Manufacturing Loans
The Significance of Being Named NES Person of the Year
Being named NES Person of the Year is not a popularity contest. It is a recognition of consequence.
In a world where energy security, industrial competitiveness and the materials that power modern life have become inseparable, NES exists to identify the people who are actually shaping outcomes, not merely commenting on them. The Person of the Year is the individual whose decisions, leadership and results over the preceding twelve months have most clearly advanced the reliable supply of energy and strategic minerals, strengthened the businesses that produce them, or altered the geopolitical and capital-market landscape in which those industries operate.
Selection signals that this person has moved the needle: unlocking production, securing supply chains, allocating capital with discipline, navigating complex jurisdictions, or forcing a clearer public and policy understanding of what is at stake. It is awarded to those who operate at the intersection of geology, engineering, finance and statecraft, the domain NES was created to cover with seriousness and depth.
For the recipient, the acknowledgement carries weight precisely because it is earned inside an industry that measures itself by tonnes, megawatts, contracts and long-term returns rather than by volume of coverage. It places the individual in a permanent record of the people who mattered when the energy transition, the AI power demand surge, and the contest for critical minerals moved from aspiration to hard constraint.
In short, NES Person of the Year marks the leader whose work in the past year most clearly helped determine whether the world will have the energy and the materials it needs. That is the standard. That is the honour.
Why This Person, Why This Year
In 2024, as the contest for battery supply-chain dominance intensified and concerns over dependence on foreign processing of critical minerals sharpened, Jennifer Granholm oversaw the most consequential year of federal financing for domestic battery manufacturing in U.S. history. Through the Department of Energy's Loan Programs Office and complementary grant authorities, multi-billion-dollar commitments moved from conditional announcements to closed loans and selected projects spanning cell manufacturing, materials processing, recycling and next-generation storage. For NES, this year's defining achievement is the concrete acceleration of a U.S.-based battery industrial base-linking capital, jobs, national security and the materials essential to both electric vehicles and grid resilience.
December 2024. In the final weeks of the year, the Department of Energy finalised some of the largest advanced-technology vehicle manufacturing loans on record. Billions of dollars were locked in for joint-venture battery plants in Kentucky, Tennessee and Indiana. Separate loan guarantees supported next-generation stationary storage manufacturing in Pennsylvania. Earlier in the year, more than three billion dollars in grant selections had targeted battery materials processing, component manufacturing and recycling across fourteen states.
Jennifer Granholm, the United States Secretary of Energy, stood at the centre of this mobilisation. The financing was not abstract policy. It was the practical instrument through which the United States sought to convert announced private investment into operating factories, to reduce reliance on concentrated foreign supply chains, and to place American workers and American materials at the core of the batteries that will power vehicles and stabilise grids. Critics questioned the scale of public risk and the durability of the projects under future administrations. Supporters saw the indispensable catalytic capital required to close the gap between laboratory leadership and industrial capacity. In a year defined by the race to secure the building blocks of electrification, Granholm's office made the largest concentrated push yet.
Jennifer Granholm, the United States Secretary of Energy, stood at the centre of this mobilisation. The financing was not abstract policy. It was the practical instrument through which the United States sought to convert announced private investment into operating factories, to reduce reliance on concentrated foreign supply chains, and to place American workers and American materials at the core of the batteries that will power vehicles and stabilise grids. Critics questioned the scale of public risk and the durability of the projects under future administrations. Supporters saw the indispensable catalytic capital required to close the gap between laboratory leadership and industrial capacity. In a year defined by the race to secure the building blocks of electrification, Granholm's office made the largest concentrated push yet.
Jennifer Granholm is NES Person of the Year because, in 2024, she directed the deployment of multi-billion-dollar federal financing that most directly advanced domestic battery manufacturing at commercial scale. The Loan Programs Office closed or advanced landmark deals for lithium-ion cell plants serving major automakers, while grant programmes under the bipartisan infrastructure law channelled additional billions into materials, components and recycling.
For an audience focused on energy, business and strategic minerals, this matters because batteries sit at the intersection of critical-mineral security, industrial competitiveness and the energy transition. The decisions taken in 2024 will shape where cathode and anode materials are processed, where cells are manufactured, and whether the United States can capture a meaningful share of the value chain rather than remaining primarily a consumer of imported components.
For an audience focused on energy, business and strategic minerals, this matters because batteries sit at the intersection of critical-mineral security, industrial competitiveness and the energy transition. The decisions taken in 2024 will shape where cathode and anode materials are processed, where cells are manufactured, and whether the United States can capture a meaningful share of the value chain rather than remaining primarily a consumer of imported components.
Key Facts
Age
65
Current Title
United States Secretary of Energy
Company HQ
U.S. Department of Energy, Washington, D.C.
Signature Focus
Multi-billion-dollar Loan Programs Office financings and grant awards advancing domestic battery cell manufacturing, materials processing and recycling
