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The American utility company Duke Energy announced that it is planning to decommission energy-storage batteries produced by the Chinese organization CATL at one of the U.S.’s biggest Marine Corps bases with additional plans to phase out CATL products at Duke Energy's civilian projects.
According to Reuters, the copmpany said in a statement that it is planning to voluntarily move away from using CATL battery storage technologies by 2027 to support a "robust American supply chain."
"In partnership with policymakers and the Department of the Navy, we have made the decision to decommission the CATL battery energy storage system at Camp Lejeune and replace it with a domestic or allied nation supplier," Duke Energy wrote in response to questions from Reuters questions.
Reuters previously reported in December that Duke Energy had chosen to temporarily disconnect industrial-scale CATL storage batteries from a project located at the Marine Corps base in Jacksonville, North Carolina after lawmakers and industry professionals warned the company of CATL’s ties to China’s ruling Communist Party.
The permanent shutdown of the CATL batteries comes less than a year after a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held at the U.S. military base involving the new technology.
Sources said that Duke Energy executives had been considering CATL batteries for roughly two dozen other projects.
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