Energy Storage Journal — Issue 39, spring 2023

Here come the money men Investors swoop on the energy sector

2023: here it comes!

Our special technology panel outlines trends for the year ahead

Europe's giga-mess

The continent's dreams of self-sufficiency can't survive against US/China

Battery formation

Inbatec/Kustan duo scaling new heights to boost production

HERE COME THE MONEY MEN

Huge swathes of the battery industry — at both the grid level as well as the automotive one— are now being controlled by investors looking for a short term to medium exit. Surely a host of problems lie ahead?

SO IS COMPETITION WRONG?

European ambitions to become an EV battery powerhouse for the world are being frustrated by a tangle of red tape and lack of understanding of how commerciality is as important as sensible regulations.

FUTURE MARKETS

Surely the empires of the future are the empires of the mind? So what do Energy Storage Journal movers and shakers think of the opportunities and challenges ahead as business returns to our new-normal?

Europe's battery energy future lies in tatters if non-commercial bureaucrats decide its fate.

Britishvolt collapse spills over to other energy investors with little support appearing forthcoming.

Battery formation gets to grips with supply chains and demands from the new world order.

Our next EV revolution is going to be "powered by coal". Phew, climate change averted!

IN THIS ISSUE:

EDITORIAL: How to destroy Europe's battery industry in three short months | 4 PEOPLE NEWS Hammond sets up innovation council Stryten changes at the top | 7 GENERAL NEWS | 20 COVER STORY: HERE COME THE MONEY MEN: Strange to think decisions on our energy storage future are in the hands of short to medium term investors | 23 EUROPE'S GIGAFACTORY DILEMMA: The stifling impact of red tape on commercial acumen | 26 THE YEAR AHEAD: We ask leading figures in the battery and energy storage market for their take on the year gone by and the year ahead | 36 BATTERY FORMATION: A new leap forward | 41 UPCOMING

EVENTS: ESJ details conferences and shows ahead | 44 THE LAST WORD: The News-Puss Cometh! Enfin.

Editor: John Shepherd | email:john@energystoragejournal.com | tel: +44 7470 046 601

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Researcher: Frances Jones | email: frances@batteriesinternational.com

Finance: Juanita Anderson | email: juanita@batteriesinternational.com | tel: +44 7775 710 290

Energy

Publisher: Karen Hampton karen@energystoragejournal.com

+44 7792 852 337

Editor-in-chief: Michael Halls mike@energystoragejournal.com

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Any warranty to the correctness and actuality of this publication cannot be assumed. © 2023 HHA Limited. UK company no: 09123491

How to destroy Europe’s battery industry in three short months

In a former lifetime I spent over 20 years working as a financial journalist in the City of London. My speciality was the foreign exchange and derivative markets where a move of one US cent with leverage could earn a good trader’s bank a six figure profit in a matter of minutes.

In those days there were two types of trader. The analytical and the instinctive.

The first would work carefully at considering the trends, index weightings and charts looking for the pattern to make a winning trade. This is unmistakably similar to the analysis that goes on in predicting our future battery requirements, players, market penetration, investment subsidies and the like in working out the economies of the gigafactory and battery needs of the future.

The second trader was the instinctive one. They would have a gut feeling about the way a market was moving and would often choose something random as an omen. One favourite used to be the angle of the half-naked woman then found on page 3 of The Sun newspaper. Parts of her facing one way meant the dollar was going to go up. Or down.

Both traders made money. But they each did so in different ways. Interestingly enough they each had an interest in expensive wines — one would understand and savour the bouquet and taste. And the other? Well he’d spoof you that you couldn’t drink a $200 bottle of Château Lafite in one.

The relevance to the battery markets is that we’re in a situation where we have two fundamentally different approaches to how we can develop the gigafactories and battery cultures of the future.

Look to the US and China and you see two countries instinctively wanting to play at the top table for the new energy game in town.

The tax breaks in the US Inflation Reduction Act have been calculated and, yes, the entire $370 billion on offer has been analysed but fundamentally the American approach is knee-jerk and instinctive.

So too is China’s approach in handing out subsi-

In

dies to get the gigafactories of the future. The rest of the world — thinking particularly of Canada, Japan and South Korea — are also making moves.

If our electric future is going to be one powered by renewables with batteries for energy storage as now seems inevitable it’s just plain common sense that you’ll want to support your own nation’s attempts to become top dog in the technology.

But there’s also the analytic approach that seems to be part of a general European bureaucratic understanding of the world.

In this idealised future — imagine the whole continent is gently humming with everything from perfectly recyclable toothbrushes to infinite cheap power at its command — everything will be perfect.

In this analytic world the underpinning of it is being thrashed out now by the civil servants of the European Commission as we transition to this gleaming future where we all wear open-toed sandals, hum Joan Baez songs and there’s not a whiff of that deadly CO2 around.

But just a quick glance through the agenda that these dedicated and, we presume, well-meaning bureaucrats have, shows the immensity of the tasks they are setting out for themselves. And their inability to achieve them in any kind of sensible or time-realistic fashion.

The over-arching aim is set out in the European Green Deal but this and the regulation around it is huge.

Your eyes may blur over the next few paragraphs but there is a valid point considering the scope of what the European Commission seeks to achieve. We have the European Climate Pact, enabling the Green Deal, the Sustainable Products Initiative, the creation of the Circular Economy, the Renewable Energy Directive, the EU Biodiversity Strategy, the Zero Pollution Action Plan, the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, the Energy Taxation Directive, the Fit-for-55 Package (55% reduction of CO2 by 2030) and the soonto-go-live Battery Passport to name the first ones to come to mind.

To add misery to this blur of legislation we have

its Farm-to-Fork program the Commission sets the target to make 25% of EU agriculture organic by 2030 — none of the EU’s 440 million citizens or 12 million farmers were asked for their opinion let alone their vote on the matter.

just had the approval of the first phase of the Batteries Regulation (that update of the 2006 Battery Directive) which sets commercial logic to one side and says only batteries made to EU specifications can be allowed into the bloc.

However, to make the regulation actually work is going to require another six to eight years of secondary regulation and committee work to achieve its goals. As an aside is that really what European automotive OEMs want? More expensive batteries to go into their already expensive EVs?

The EU’s attempt to drive lead battery manufacturing out of Europe — sometimes it feels like the use of lead batteries too! — has its culmination in the magnificent REACH regulations banning all hazardous substances out of the continent. Lead, of course, being one of them.

At least it’s kept ILA staff more than busy for over a decade in combatting (mostly successfully) Commission inroads into the lead battery industry.

This attempt to regulate all life across the EU — the Economist newspaper once called it the potential de-industrialization of Europe — has even extended to the food we eat. In its Farm-toFork program the Commission set the target to make 25% of EU agriculture organic by 2030. A quirk of governance: none of the EU’s 440 million citizens or 12 million farmers were asked for their opinion or vote on the matter.

The odd thing about these targets — and let’s face it a lot of what the Commission hopes to achieve are sensible — is that no democratically elected body in Europe voted for most of them.

Europe’s system of governance is an odd one — the unelected civil servants set out the policy and the regulations while the elected European Parliament rubber-stamps them. This may be a slight over-generalization, but the generalization is valid.

The Commission itself is above the sordid world of business and accountable public expenditure — every month they ship the whole apparatus of EU governance from Brussels to Strasbourg for a few days as part of a treaty obligation to keep the French happy a couple of decades ago. (Imagine the uproar over the cost if the US moved the seat of government from Washington to New York for a few days every month!)

And in the next couple of months this difference in approach between the instinctive and over-analytic is going to come to a head as everyone that had previously been inclined to set up gigafactory plants in the EU is now voting with their feet and heading east and west.

The European Battery Alliance — an organization that stands out above others and dares to speak its mind — reckons that at least €100 billion ($106 billion) is needed to avert a potential investments meltdown for gigafactory plans.

EU Commission vice-president and batteries czar Maroš Šefcovic, who in fact set up the Alliance in 2017, has been told in no uncertain manner of the damage being done to Europe’s fledgling battery plans by foreigners.

But let’s not ignore the impressive achievements that the EU has made in drawing post-war Europe together and unifying a fractured continent. The ability, for example, to take a five-hour drive through Europe, going through seven different countries but using one currency is an impressive one.

The trouble with creating this cohesive entity — where there are 24 official languages by necessity — is that decision-making is complicated by the need to be consensual.

And, in the race to attract battery investment into individual member countries, a long, dragged-out partisan dialogue is more than likely to happen …

Mike Halls, Editor-in-Chief

We’re in a situation where we have two fundamentally different approaches to how we can develop the gigafactories and battery cultures of the future.

Stryten incoming CEO Judd reunites previous Johnson Controls management, Vargo to become chairman

and CFO effective February 1 to lead the company’s finance, accounting, treasury, information technology and strategic sourcing.

Before ENTEK Oklobdzija spent 18 years with Johnson Controls most latterly as VP and general manager Americas. He left the firm when it became Clarios after being bought by Brookfield Business Partners in May 2019.

Stryten Energy unveiled a major shake-up of its leadership team on January 4 with a reformulation of ex-Johnson Controls senior management that had worked together in the previous decade.

Stryten president and COO Mike Judd will be promoted to succeed CEO Tim Vargo, who will become chairman. Judd who joined Exide Technologies in 2019 before it became Stryten had also spent 12 years in senior positions in Johnson Controls.

Both appointments are to take effect before the end

of Stryten’s fiscal year on March 31.

Vargo, a former CEO and president of Exide Technologies, said Judd’s promotion to CEO was “the culmination of a succession plan the Stryten Energy board and I have developed over the last several years”.

“Mike is the right leader to take the reins of the business and achieve the company’s strategy for increased profitability and growth,” Vargo said.

Meanwhile, Petar Oklobdzija, CFO at separator manufacturer ENTEK, will join Stryten as executive VP

Jansen named as interim Solid Power CEO as Douglas Campbell retires

All-solid-state batteries developer Solid Power said on November 29 that CEO, board member and cofounder, Douglas Campbell, had decided to retire effective immediately.

David Jansen the company’s chair and president, has been appointed as interim CEO while the firm looks for a permanent replacement.

Solid Power independent director John Stephens said: “Since co-founding Solid Power in 2011, Doug

has served as a passionate entrepreneur, beginning with the company’s earliest stages as a spin-off from the University of Colorado.”

Stephens said Campbell and the board had decided new leadership was needed “as we enter the next phase in our evolution and build on our momentum as a newly public company”.

Solid Power has partnerships with both BMW and Ford to jointly develop allsolid-state batteries.

Meanwhile, Dan Autey joined the company on January 3 as executive VP commercial. Autey had previously spent 19 years with Johnson Controls/Clarios most latterly as VP/GM aftermarket, US and Canada.

A further appointment has been the promotion of strategic sourcing VP Jeremy Furr to that of senior VP of strategic sourcing. This was confirmed in a LinkedIn post on January 3.

Incoming CEO Judd said Oklobdzija’s career in operations and finance in the automotive and battery industries would help the firm accelerate plans to expand in new and existing energy storage markets. Autey’s automotive and industrial battery expertise

“will help strengthen our ability to serve our customers’ evolving energy needs”, Judd said.

Stryten arose from the creation of two standalone companies in 2020 — Stryten Manufacturing and Element Resources — following Atlas Holdings’ acquisition of lead battery manufacturer and recycler Exide Technologies’.

Stryten bought the vehicle power division of Galvion, a military equipment maker whose products included lithium batteries for onboard systems typically used in combat vehicles such as tanks, in 2021.

In January 2022, Stryten announced its move into vanadium following its acquisition of Storion Energy, a commercial spin-off from technology firm ITN Energy, which began its research into redox flow batteries in 2010.

That was followed in March 2022 by Stryten’s formation of two divisions — Motive Power and Essential Power — focused on developing and producing multiple battery technologies, including lead, for the energy storage market.

Highview Power appoints Redding as general counsel

Highview Power has appointed Sandra Redding as general counsel, the company announced on November 23.

CEO Rupert Pearce said Redding’s experience would be a huge asset in expanding and transforming the company “from a category disruptor to global market leader”.

Redding has more than 20 years of international experience across a num-

ber of corporates in the energy sector, and in a wide range of cultural and political environments. She most recently served as general counsel for Seadrill and prior to that as general counsel of the Dubai government-owned Dragon Oil.

She has also held several in-house legal positions within the RWE, Gaz de France and National Grid groups.

Mike Judd Tim Vargo

Grupe takes over as Digatron CEO

as new CEO of Digatron Power Electronics Inc in Connecticut on January 1 which will concentrate on expanding further into both the lead and lithium sides to the energy storage market.

Friedrich Grupe has been promoted to chief executive officer at Digatron Power Electronics, effective January 1 and will be based in Aachen, North RhineWestphalia, Germany.

The firm is the central core of the larger Digatron group which has operations in Qingdao, China; Pune India (working through Ador Digatron); Milan, Italy; and Shelton, Connecticut, US; as well as its headquarters in Aachen.

Grupe, who is a wellknown and well liked figure in the battery community, says he is expecting great things in this coming year. “We’ve got an exciting range of existing products and a couple of new ones in the pipeline,” he says. “One of which we will be launching shortly.

“The market for high quality testing equipment is booming. We are also steadily moving into lithium battery formation equipment where we are developing work with Digatron Systems Italy which was set up in 2019.

“I see this as a time for ourselves and the wider group to grow internally and externally. We’ve just moved into our brand new R&D facility here in Aachen and we have recruited new staff here with more to come.”

Grupe’s appointment comes at a potentially pivotal moment in the wider Digatron.

Bjoern Stoll took over

Ador Digatron last year launched its Quench, product which is making steady inroads into DC fast chargers for EVs in India.

Grupe takes over from Holger Driesch who has taken a senior management position in Mangoldt an electrical engineering firm.

Grupe has been with Digatron for almost 14 years and started as a project manager in May 2009. He was appointed vice president for sales and marketing in October 2015 and vice president for product management in September 2019.

Digatron was set up by Rolf Beckers in 1968.

Volt Resources makes Chintawar new CEO

Volt Resources promoted Prashant Chintawar to become CEO on January 1. Chintawar joined the Australia-based company as battery metals senior adviser on September 1. He is a former director of global business development and sales for German chemicals conglomerate BASF.

Volt MD Trevor Matthews became financial and commercial executive director on the same day, while COO Justine MacDonald, who joined Volt in 2021 after 22 years in the African mining industry, will expand her involvement in the operation and advancement of the company’s graphite assets, Volt said.

Non-executive chairman Asimwe Kabunga said: “Since joining Volt, Prashant’s high-level industry experience and deep industry networks have shone through in the work

Gianpaolo Giuliani has joined the Sunlight Group as commercial energy storage systems executive director, the company announced in a LinkedIn post on December 29. Giuliani, a former global sales director of energy storage for GE, will lead a team focused on prod-

EnerSys has appointed Tamara Morytko as a director, the company said on December 7. She joins the board with immediate effect for two years.

Morytko’s last worked as president of the pumps division at Flowserve, a US supplier of industrial and environmental machinery where EnerSys said she established a reputation as a supply chain

subject matter expert.

he has done and the projects he has underway.”

On October 4, Volt said it had formed a new business unit through which it is supplying graphite products for lead acid and lithium battery markets in the US.

The new unit, Volt Energy Materials, provides products including coated spheronized purified graphite (CSPG) for lithium ion batteries and graphite expander additives for negative electrodes for lead batteries.

uct management for Sunlight’s ESS high voltage portfolio and business development for global markets.

He brings over 15 years of experience in energy, management and renewable hybrid generation and, as of 2014, has specialized in renewables and energy storage.

Before that, Morytko spent two years as CEO of Norsk Titanium, a Norwegian aerospace and defence firm.

Previously Morytko spent seven years with oil services company Baker Hughes becoming Asia Pacific region president.

From 1996 until 2010, Morytko held a number of increasingly senior

positions at aviation components manufacturer Pratt & Whitney.

Friedrich Grupe

Tamara Morytko

Prashant Chintawar

Giuliani joins Sunlight’s executive team

EnerSys appoints Tamara Morytko to board

Hammond Group names four industry experts to Innovation Leadership Council

Hammond Group announced mid-December two senior fellows to guide its Innovation Leadership Council. They are John Miller, recently senior director of engineering for Stryten Energy, and Francisco Trinidad, recently the director of battery technology for Exide Europe.

“We’re excited to have John and Francisco join Hammond,” said Gordon Beckley, chief operating officer at Hammond.

“With their extensive battery industry knowledge base they will play a leadership role in supporting our research and development staff, enhance our product development efforts, and contribute to Hammond’s continued innovations towards the industry’s goals of advanced energy storage solutions.”

With 37 years in the battery business, Miller has a long history of introducing innovative products to the marketplace. Before his most recent position at Stryten, Miller led teams in the areas of product engineering, process engineering, applications engineering, and R&D at GNB and Exide Technologies.

He has participated in

various industry committees and forums and has helped write battery standards, handbooks, and white papers for Battery Council International and the Society of Automotive Engineers.

During more than 43 years of experience with different electrochemical systems, Trinidad has been the author of 24 articles, more than 70 presentations in battery conferences, and holds 14 international patents. He looks to promote new technological approaches for automotive and industrial applications, including the use of different materials for positive, negative, and electrolyte of current battery designs as well as determine the added value of new alternative designs like bipolar plates and spiral wound cells.

In 1977, he joined the Tudor group and was promoted first to the position of research manager in Azuqueca (Spain) and then the industrial devel-

opment director in Madrid and Soest (Hagen Industrial plant). Following Exide’s acquisition of the company, he became its research director in Paris, then, the development director of transportation Europe, basic research director, and more recently, director of battery technology.

Also joining Miller and Trinidad on the Council are Rosalind Batson, president of Clear Science, and Lash Mapa, professor of industrial engineering and technology Purdue NW.

Batson is a lead-acid battery expert specializing in characterization of leadacid battery materials. She owns Minneapolis-based Clear Science, a laboratory focusing on the testing, research and development of metals, powders, porous materials, coatings, and advanced materials.

She is a metallurgist working with advanced materials and is a recognized expert in the Taguchi DOE method, which is de-

signed to produce a highquality product at a low cost for manufacturers.

Earlier in her career as the R&D manager for GNB Technologies, Batson co-invented a patented continuous process for making lead-acid grids and plates for a family of cells and batteries.

Professor Mapa has several years’ experience as a chemical engineer, process and project manager with European and US lead-acid battery manufacturing organizations.

Currently, he is associated with the MS Technology program at Purdue NW and has managed over 30 projects including lean six sigma projects with manufacturing, service industry, and educational institutions.

Beckley said: “We welcome these important voices in developing Hammond’s next generation of innovations for the battery storage industry and look forward to the years ahead.”

“We welcome these important voices in developing Hammond’s next generation of innovations for the battery storage industry and look forward to the years ahead”

Francisco Trinidad Rosalind Batson

Lash Mapa

John Miller

Recharge Industries and Accenture gets set to build 30GWh gigafactory in Australia

Recharge Industries announced on January 16 that Accenture, the Dublin-based information technology services firm, will be its engineering and design provider to build its gigafactory in Australia.

The large-scale lithium-ion battery cell production plant, to be located in Geelong, Victoria, at full capacity will generate up to 30GWh of energy storage per year. Recharge Industries says it will make it one of the world’s

largest. Building will start in the second half of 2023, with the goal of producing batteries equal to 2GWh annually in the second half of 2024 and 6GWh by 2026.

At full capacity, the factory will employ up to 2,000 workers.

Recharge Industries has secured the production equipment for the first 2GWh production line, which is scheduled to arrive in Australia in May.

The two companies will

Asahi Kasei wins China patents legal battle

Asahi Kasei revealed on January 10 that it had won a series of court challenges in China to protect its patent for lithium ion battery separators.

The Japanese tech firm said a final ruling by China’s supreme people’s court, handed down on November 2, has ended four years of legal wrangling concerning Li battery separator patents in Asia.

The final ruling brought to an end a protracted legal battle launched in August 2018, when Asahi filed a patent infringement lawsuit with the Shenzhen intermediate people’s court against Shenzhen Xu Ran Electronic Co Ltd and others.

The move sought to prohibit the companies from selling their ‘single-layer Wscope’ battery separators in China and to receive damages for patent infringement amounting to a total of Rmb1 million ($148,000).

Asahi said its claim was initially accepted in full by the supreme people’s court in December 2020.

However, Xu Ran then tried to have Asahi’s patent invalidated — a bid that was rejected by the China

National Intellectual Property Administration and also by the Beijing Intellectual Property Court, which handed down its decision in September 2021.

Xu Ran made a final appeal to the supreme people’s court, whose November ruling ends the matter.

Asahi said it is paying close attention to protect its intellectual property rights, warning that it stands ready to deal with infringements.

also collaborate with Charge CCCV (C4V) a technology partner of Recharge Industries, to support the project’s timing. C4V will provide IP, supply chain blueprints and technology concepts for battery manufacturing, which will accelerate the project.

Rob Fitzpatrick,

CEO of

A new initiative using residential solar and battery storage systems to create a virtual power plant has been launched in California, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) and not-for-profit electricity supply firm Swell Energy announced on December 22.

The VPP aims to boost energy supply reliability and initially should give the district 10MW/20MWh of renewable capacity by recruiting, installing and aggregating capacity from customers’ battery storage systems in the utility’s service area.

However, the project

Recharge Industries, said: “Establishing a sovereign manufacturing capability to produce state-of-the-art lithium-ion battery cells is critical to Australia’s renewable energy economy — meeting national demand, generating export income and securing supply chains.”

could eventually be scaled up to 27MW/54MWh.

The initiative should start operating in April, with contract capability based on a two-hour deliverable capacity.

Around 600 SMUD customers already have domestic energy storage systems, with an additional 400 finalizing interconnections and “thousands more” projected over the next several years, according to the district.

SMUD chief zero carbon officer Lora Anguay said: “As more customers add solar panel systems paired with battery storage solutions, they’ll be better able to manage their carbon footprint.”

Italvolt enters strategic collaboration with StoreDot for XFC lithium-ion batteries

Italvolt, the Italian gigafactory developer, announced it had entered into ‘a strategic collaboration’ with Storedot, a lithium-ion battery developer, on January 16.

Italvolt will license StoreDot’s extreme fast charging technology (XFC) and IPR to manufacture XFC lithium-ion batteries at its plant, which is to start production in 2024 in Turin, Italy.

The agreement between the two companies will

allow Italvolt to scale and upgrade its battery cell production.

It also enables StoreDot to buy Italvolt’s batteries for its own business, once production is complete.

StoreDot’s ‘100inX’ product roadmap has an ambition to develop advanced battery cells capable of 100 miles of drive range in five minutes’ charge by 2024, reducing to three minutes by 2028 and two minutes by 2032.

Lars Carlstrom, founder

and CEO of Italvolt, said, “Our collaboration with StoreDot is an inflection point in our journey to deliver high-quality, lithiumion battery cells, at scale.”

Doron Myersdorf, CEO of StoreDot, said, “This agreement lets us obtain captive capacity so we can guarantee supply of cells to our future OEM customers. It is extremely important that StoreDot creates these strong relationships as we rapidly move towards mass production.”

Sacramento VPP aims to deliver 27MW/54MWh

Morrow signs deal for Norway battery plant shipments

Morrow Batteries has signed a logistics services agreement with Rhenus Norway for delivery of production equipment for its Norwegian battery cell factory, marking the starting point for Morrow’s operations through the deep water port of Eydehavn in Arendal, the company announced on January 11.

Lars Christian Bacher, who took over as CEO of Morrow on December 1, said the agreement includes the establishment of a new logistics hub.

“We are teaming up with an innovative and flexible agent. Rhenus Norway has developed a solution combining sea freight, integrated European locations han-

dling and last-mile services in Arendal, tailored for this highly demanding logistics project,” Bacher said.

Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre laid the cornerstone of Morrow Battery’s battery cells gigafactory on the country’s south coast in a ceremony last September.

Støre said Battery Factory

1, under construction in Arendal, was essential to his government efforts to make Norway an “attractive host country for sustainable and profitable activity along the entire battery value chain”.

Morrow has teamed up with Siva — the Industrial Development Corporation of Norway — in establishing a joint company to build the 30,000m2 plant in four phases with construction company Veidekke, at a cost of NOK400 million ($38 million).

Energy Vault in potential 700MWh

‘green hydrogen’ long duration BESS

Energy Vault Holdings is working with US utility Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) on plans to build a battery plus ‘green hydrogen’ long-duration energy storage system (BH-ESS) that will have a minimum capacity of 293MWh, the partners announced on January 5.

The system’s capacity could eventually be expanded to 700MWh.

The move comes after Energy Vault chairman and CEO Robert Piconi said in a third-quarter earnings update on November 14 that the introduction of green hydrogen into its technology portfolio “further validates our technical differentiation with our energy management software platform and the market for hybrid short and long duration integrated systems”.

Piconi said the company was positioning itself as the only energy storage company offering “a hardware agnostic portfolio of both short and long duration storage solutions, bringing innovative gravity, green hydrogen and hybrid solutions to the market for the first time”.

The system for PG&E, if given the go-ahead by the California Public Utili-

ties Commission, would be owned, operated and maintained by Energy Vault on a one-acre site. It would be the first project of its kind and the largest utility-scale green hydrogen project in the US, the company said.

BH-ESS includes a hydrogen fuel cell powered by electrolytic hydrogen derived from renewable energy sources. Green hydrogen, also called renewable hydrogen, is produced through the electrolysis of water. The process is powered entirely

by renewable energy.

The system will replace mobile diesel generators typically used by PG&E during broader grid outages to maintain its microgrid serving downtown and the surrounding area of the Northern California City of Calistoga.

Construction is to begin in the fourth quarter of 2023 with commercial operation by the end of second quarter of 2024.

Regional P&G VP Ron Richardson said: “This

breakthrough collaboration provides a template for future, renewable community-scale microgrids that successfully integrate thirdparty distributed energy resources, which is expected to cost customers less than the benchmark set by state regulators based on the alternative use of mobile diesel generators.”

Last May, Energy Vault said it had broken ground on its first gravity-based energy storage system in China.

Saft wins Meridian Energy contract to build New Zealand’s first large-scale BESS

Saft, a subsidiary of oil giant TotalEnergies, said on January 10 it had won a contract from New Zealand power firm, Meridian Energy, to build that country’s first large-scale grid-connected BESS.

The 100MW/200MWh facility, to support grid stability as renewable power generation increases, should enter service in the second half of 2024.

The BESS is the first stage of a project that will include the building

of a 130MW solar farm by Meridian, sharing the same location at Ruakaka in the country’s North Island.

The BESS will include 80 Intensium Shift battery containers, based on lithium iron phosphate technology with 40 inverters, 20 mediumvoltage power stations and a power management system provided by third-party suppliers. Saft will integrate this equipment with Meridian and Transpower 33kV switchgears, SCADA and

power station.

This will open multiple new revenue streams for Meridian, with the ability to load shift between price periods and participate in the North Island reserve electricity market. Meridian anticipates that the BESS will deliver annual revenues of up to US$35 million.

Neal Barclay, CEO of Meridian, said, “The shared infrastructure provided by the BESS will significantly improve the economics of the future solar farm.”

Redwood to start work on US battery materials site in $3.5bn investment

Redwood Materials plans to break ground for a cathode components processing complex in the US state of South Carolina in the first quarter of this year as part of a $3.5 billion investment in the region, the company announced on December 14.

Redwood said its ‘battery materials campus’ (pictured) outside Charleston will recycle, refine and manufacture anode and cathode components on a site spanning more than 600 acres. Initial operations are expected to start by the end of this year.

The campus will eventually produce 100GWh of cathode and anode components a year, which Redwood said is enough to power more than one million EVs. Production

capacity could be expanded to “potentially several hundred GWh annually”, the Nevada-based recycler said.

The site will form part of a new manufacturing corridor from Michigan to Georgia, becoming known as America’s ‘battery belt’, where hundreds of gigawatt-hours of battery cell production capacity annually are set to be built and start operating between now and 2030.

Redwood said the move is needed because anode and cathode components are not yet produced in North America and battery cell manufacturers have to source them from a global supply chain of more than 50,000 miles.

“As a result, US battery manufacturers will spend

more than $150 billion overseas on these components by 2030,” the firm said.

Charleston will be similar to Redwood’s Nevada operations in that the site will be 100% electric and will not use fossil fuels, Redwood claimed.

The Charleston project follows Redwood’s November 15 announcement that it would supply recycled materials for use in Panasonic Energy’s EV lithium ion batteries.

Recycled copper foil will be used in batteries made at Panasonic Energy of North America’s plant in Nevada starting in 2024. Recycled cathode active materials will be used in batteries manufactured at Panasonic’s new facility in Kansas starting in 2025.

Shandong Jinkeli opens R&D center, signs agreements

China’s

Shandong

Jinkeli Power Sources Technology Co opened up a new R&D building on November 10 at its headquarters in Zibo City, Shandong province.

The firm said it celebrated its 40 years of trading at the opening with the signing of strategic cooperation agreements with H&V, Yadea Group, KIJO Group, Xinfeng Group and Cane Battery. Separately, Shandong Jinkeli, became a member of the Consortium for Battery Innovation in late November.

Russia gigafactory plan is ‘first step toward batteries independence’

Russia’s prime minister Mikhail Mishustin says work has started on the first of a potential series of gigafactories as it scrambles to ramp up domestic battery manufacturing capacity for energy storage systems and EVs, after foreign investors and partners quit the country over the war with Ukraine.

Mishustin told a meeting of deputy prime ministers on December 26 that Russia had to achieve “technological sovereignty” for the automotive industry in particular — and stateowned corporation Rosatom had started building a 4GWh lithium ion batteries plant in the Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad.

The plant should start operations in 2025.

“We will need to create conditions for saturating the domestic market with cars, while many foreign corporations have

left Russia under pressure from their authorities, and to create our own components base with the widest possible range, from the simplest parts to complex elements,” Mishustin said.

Russia must also “create an infrastructure for charging stations” for EVs, he said.

Rosatom announced on November 23 that it had established a new subsidiary — Renera — dedicated to the manufacture of energy storage systems.

Lithium ion batteries are already being produced by Rosatom, but the group said Renera’s task would be to coordinate and expand manufacturing capacity and “consider” building additional gigafactories.

Kaliningrad, which lies between Poland and Lithuania, does not border mainland Russia but is home to Russia’s Baltic fleet. Rosatom says the Ka-

liningrad gigafactory will produce 50,000 EV batteries annually.

US-based battery producer EnerSys announced last March that it was suspending its operations in Russia following the country’s “illegal military action against a sovereign Ukraine”.

Last April, Energy Storage Journal reported that tougher new EU proposals to restrict trade with Russia were likely to include exports of lead batteries and related battery tech products and services.

Lithium battery systems manufacturer BMZ Group said on September 15 it intended to acquire a stake in German plastics supplier Schütz Kunststofftechnik, in part to shore up its materials supply chain.

BMZ said it would act as a strategic investor in supporting its supplier of battery cell holders.

The planned deal would give Schütz access to BMZ’s network of clients, including those in the energy storage and e-mobility sectors.

Schütz is a longstanding supplier of cell holders and spacers installed in BMZ battery systems.

BMZ founder and CEO Sven Bauer said: “Procurement bottlenecks, price developments and a shortage of skilled workers means we are in very challenging economic times. At the same time, our market is a future-proof growth industry.”

Strategic partnerships that enable BMZ to secure and expand its market presence “are only logical”, he said.

Schütz managing partner Michael Schütz said the investment deal was “a door opener for new sales markets, across industries and worldwide”

Nala’s Belgium BESS set for commercial start

UK-headquartered Nala

Renewables is on course to start commercial operations at one of Belgium’s largest battery energy storage systems to date in the first quarter of this year, joint owner Trafigura said on December 8.

The 100MWh Balen lithium ion battery project (pictured) involves investment of up to €30 million ($32 million) said Trafigura, which is the 50-50 partner with IFM Investors.

BASF in materials supply first for Toyota-Panasonic joint venture firm

BASF has delivered the first batch of customized nickelcobalt manganese cathode active materials (CAM) for high performance EV battery cells being produced by the Toyota-Panasonic joint venture Prime Planet Energy & Solutions (PPES).

BASF said on December 19 that its majority-owned BASF Toda Battery Materials company produced the

CAM at its Onoda calcination plant in Japan. Work to expand cell production capacity at Onoda to up to 45GWh is underway and the increased capacity will come online in the second half of 2024.

Toyota holds a majority 51% stake in PPES, which started operations in April 2020 to produce automotive prismatic batteries.

Construction launch for Neoen’s 200MW Blyth Battery in South Australia

Neoen said on January 5 had launched construction of its 200MW/400MWh Blyth Battery in South Australia.

Blythe is one of seven new grid-scale battery projects across the country that will be supported in part by financial backing from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.

NHOA Energy will be the battery storage specialist for the project. Details of the battery tech were not disclosed, but NHOA produces a range of lithium ion-based energy storage systems.

Blyth will mainly be deployed in combination with Neoen’s Goyder South Stage 1 wind farm to deliver 70MW of renewable baseload energy to mining group BHP.

Neoen said the energy will power BHP’s Olympic Dam operations in South Australia.

The construction period will last between 12 and 16 months and the battery will be Neoen’s fifth biggest in the country, taking the company’s overall Australian asset portfolio close to 3GW in operation or under construction.

Balen is being built at a zinc smelting facility owned by Trafigura subsidiary Nyrstar.

Trafigura said the BESS will be able to store 25MW for more than four hours and provide stability and balancing services for the Belgian grid, as well as help shift renewable energy pro -

duction into high-energy demand periods.

Nala is developing renewable energy generation and storage assets in Belgium, Chile, France, Greece, Netherlands, Poland and the US.

The company has grown its renewable energy asset portfolio to 2.8GW and is on track to meet its 4GW target by the end of 2025, Trafigura said.

Nala announced last March that it would also be developing four new BESS projects in New York State.

The company is working with New York-based power and infrastructure firm, Rhynland Energy, to start building the facilities by mid-2024. The units will have a combined storage capacity of 280MW.

US ‘set for 1,000GWh surge in EV battery capacity by 2030’

EV battery manufacturing capacity in North America is set to accelerate from 55GWh annually in 2021 to nearly 1,000GWh by 2030 as a wave of new manufacturing facilities come online, according to a US government forecast published on January 2.

The figures underline separate analysis, which indicated that the US is outpacing Europe in the battery gigafactories investment race, following tax incentives unveiled by the federal government in the Inflation Reduction Act last August.

According to the latest forecast by the federal Vehicle Technologies Office, most of the announced battery

plant projects are to begin production between 2025 and 2030.

By 2030, this production capacity will be capable of supporting the manufacture of roughly 10 to 13 million allelectric vehicles per year, the report said.

Many of the battery plants will be co-located with automotive plants to optimize supply chains, according to the report.

Most of the planned projects in the US are concentrated along a north-south band from Michigan to Alabama. Based on current plans, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and Michigan are projected to see the highest growth in battery manufacturing capacity.

Monbat takes hit following from collapse of Britishvolt

Monbat revealed on January 17 that it had been forced to delay part of a bond loan repayment as a result of the collapse of UK gigafactory developer Britishvolt, because a cash and shares deal between the two had not been completed in time.

Monbat’s announcement came on the same day administrators were appointed for Power by Britishvolt Limited, which had insufficient equity investment to continue — as reported separately in this issue.

Bulgaria-based lead acid batteries giant Monbat had previously agreed to sell its

lithium-based EAS Batteries company to Britishvolt in a cash and shares deal worth €36 million (about $38 million), which was announced in May 2022.

Monbat said in a Bulgarian market update on January 17 it had expected to use the proceeds of the Britishvolt deal to repay a bond loan linked to that agreement.

Instead, Monbat has been forced to “alternatively secure funds” for the first principal instalment on the bond loan in the sum of €5,603,000, due on January 20. This will now be paid not later than January

31, the battery maker said.

“Due to circumstances outside our control, the transaction with Britishvolt was not finalized within the planned timeframe,” the company said.

Under the terms of the bond loan, a substantial part of the proceeds from the issue were used to acquire shares in the capital of the entity Monbat Holding Germany, in the balance sheet of which the lithium-ion division of the Monbat Group was consolidated.

Monbat said the expected cash portion to be received from the transac-

tion significantly exceeded the amount of the obligation for its first principal payment of the convertible bond issue.

“For this reason, the intention of the management was to use the cash from the Britishvolt transaction to service this payment.”

Monbat, a predominantly lead battery manufacturer, acquired EAS in 2017. Under the terms of the deal with Britishvolt, Monbat said it would continue to be part of the expected growth of the lithium ion industry through a minority stake it would hold in the UK developer.

European Commission chief warns China, US over battery investments

European Commission president Ursula von der Lyen has warned of tough action against China and other countries engaged in “aggressive” moves to lure industrial projects including battery manufacturing away from the EU.

Von der Lyen told the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 17 that it was no secret the EU also feared new US tax breaks were luring gigafactory investments to North America.

“Our aim should be to avoid disruptions in transatlantic trade and investment. We should work towards ensuring that our respective incentive programmes are fair and mutually reinforcing,” she said. “But when trade is unfair, Europe must “respond more robustly.”

Von der Lyen’s warnings came as battery industry leaders warned that at least €100 billion

($106 billion) was needed to avert a potential investments meltdown for Europe’s gigafactory plans, because developers were being lured away by more lucrative deals and incentives in Asia and the US.

She accused China of openly encouraging energy-intensive companies in Europe and elsewhere to relocate all or part of their

production with a promise of cheap energy, low labour costs and a more lenient regulatory environment.

China simultaneously gives domestic energy heavy subsidises and restricts access to its market for EU companies, she said.

However, she agreed with critics in Europe that the Commission had to do

more to support the bloc’s nascent EV batteries sector, saying there was “a small window of opportunity to invest in clean tech and innovation to gain leadership before the fossil fuel economy becomes obsolete”.

See the special report on the EU’s battery investments crisis starting on page 22.

India’s Exide Industries said on January 4 it had changed the name of a lithium-focused subsidiary company set up under an initial joint venture with Swiss battery firm Leclanché.

Exide said the now wholly-owned Exide Leclanche Energy Private Limited, branded as ‘Nexcharge’, has been renamed Exide Energy Private

Limited.

The move follows Exide’s announcement on December 12 that it was considering proposals to merge the unit with another wholly-owned lithium subsidiary — Exide Energy Solutions (EES) — that was formed to collaborate with China’s SVOLT Energy Technology to manufacture lithium ion battery

cells in India.

Construction of the EES gigafactory in Bengaluru formally began on September 27.

Exide CEO and MD Subir Chakraborty said on November 16 the development and sale of lead batteries continued to be the company’s “core business”, despite its foray into the lithium ion sector.

Exide Industries renames lithium business unit

$58bn pledged for long duration storage projects since 2019

Commitments have been made to invest more than $58 billion in long duration energy storage (LDES) projects around the world since 2019, according to analysis released on December 7 by Wood Mackenzie.

If all of the pledges made by governments and companies went forward, it would lead to the installation of 57GW of LDES projects — equivalent to three times the global energy-storage capacity deployed in 2022, says Wood Mac’s Long-duration energy storage report 2022.

The report said projects representing $30 billion are already either under construction or in operation.

However, most LDES technologies are still nascent and developers will “struggle” to scale costeffectively before 2030.

The report also showed what are described as clear geographical disparities in the development of the LDES market. For the Asia Pacific region, the deployment of vanadium redox flow batteries and compressed air energy storage has accelerated rapidly in China, which has been largely driven by strong policy support.

Kevin Shang, senior research analyst at Wood Mac and report lead author said: “In the western hemisphere, the US continues to invest in and build its LDES industry, with companies actively pushing for innovation, and promoting pilot and demonstration projects.”

By contrast, most European countries have been less enthusiastic, said Shang, although the UK government has been an exemption, as it explores the role LDES technologies have to offer, while actively seeking to support industry players.

“Long-duration energy storage technology, with longer durations of eight to approximately 100 hours, holds great promise as a low-cost solution to enable a grid with more renewable sources.”

Wood Mac said support from governments is needed to help lower upfront capital costs, provide revenue certainty, and “generate market signals for investment” and the broader deployment of projects.

However, companies need to create new business models to attract private investors with a view to making profits without subsidies in the long term.

Amara Raja building lithium cells plant in Telangana

Amara Raja Batteries has agreed to a build a 16GWh lithium battery cells factory together with research facilities in the southern Indian state of Telangana, the company confirmed on December 2.

The lead batteries major said the new plant would include a 5GWh battery pack assembly unit, under the terms of a memorandum of understanding signed with the state government.

Amara Raja chairman and MD Jayadev Galla said Telangana would become the company’s ‘giga corridor’, featuring advanced laboratories and testing infrastructure for material research, prototyping, product life cycle analysis and proof of concept demonstration.

He said the partnership with Telangana was “a giant leap for Amara Raja and will bring in the impetus for innovations in sustainable technologies for the whole region, in addition to generating employment opportunities”.

The partnership follows Amara Raja’s launch of a new subsidiary, announced on November 3, to spearhead the addition

of lithium ion tech to the group’s lead battery manufacturing operations.

The company said then that a site for the subsidiary’s “multi-gigawatt” battery cells facility would be confirmed soon.

RPC partners BESS firm Eelpower to target UK market

Renewable Power Capital has announced its entry into the battery storage market in Great Britain in a partnership with BESS constructor-owner-operator Eelpower.

RPC said on November 23 that the joint venture will acquire, build and operate utility-scale projects and is targeting up to 1GW of storage capacity with a near-term 240MW projects pipeline.

The partners will take part in wholesale electricity markets and provide ancillary services to the UK’s National Grid.

RPC’s focus on the UK market follows its recent acquisition of a 528MW ready-to-build onshore wind portfolio in Sweden.

London-headquartered RPC was established in 2020 and is backed by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board — operating as CPP Investments.

Since its formation, RPC has committed nearly €1.5 billion ($1.6bn) in acquisitions including wind and solar PV in Spain and the Nordics.

According to RPC, Great Britain represents the largest utility scale battery storage market in Europe with 1.7GW installed by the end of 2021 and with growth forecast to be up to 10GW by 2030 on the back of increases in renewable power generating projects.

Eelpower announced in July that it had bought a 20MW lithium ion storage system from British firm Anesco for an undisclosed sum.

The Rock Farm battery storage system, which consists of 16 1.25MW BYD-made storage units, was developed, constructed and commissioned by Anesco in June.

‘Europe’s largest BESS’ goes online in England

Investment firm Harmony Energy Income Trust, an investment firm announced on November 21 that its Pillswood project, in Yorkshire, UK had gone live some four months’ earlier than previously planned.

The 98MW/196MWh facility is the largest BESS project in Europe by MWh, Harmony said. This is equivalent to power around 300,000 UK homes for two hours.

The project, using a Tesla two-hour Megapack, will provide balancing services to the UK electricity grid network, underpinning energy security and enabling the replacement of coal and gas power stations to renewable power sources.

Pillswood sits next to the National Grid’s Creyke Beck substation. This is planned to be the connection point for Phase ‘A’ and ‘B’ of Dogger Bank, the world’s largest offshore wind farm. Its first phase should go live in summer 2023.

The project was developed by Harmony Energy with construction managed by Tesla. Pillswood will be operated through Autobidder, Tesla’s algorithmic trading platform which has a strong track record. Two of its projects have been the top performers in terms of revenue generation in the UK this past year.

Harmony Energy Advisors director Peter Kavanagh said: “All stakeholders have recognized the importance of achieving energization for this project ahead of winter to ensure the BESS services can be provided during the initial winter months.”

Harmony Energy Income Trust has five battery energy storage systems under construction, set to go live next October and three new pipeline projects which will increase its portfolio to nine projects with a total capacity of 500MW/1GWh.

Canada clamping down on China investments

Canada has ordered Chinese companies to divest their holdings in three Canadian-listed junior mining companies planning to develop lithium deposits, in a bid to safeguard critical battery material supplies for the domestic market.

Industry innovation and science minister FrançoisPhilippe Champagne said on November 2: “While Canada continues to

welcome foreign direct investment, we will act decisively when investments threaten our national security and our critical minerals supply chains, both at home and abroad.”

Champagne said the decision had been taken under the Investment Canada Act following a review, supported by the nation’s intelligence services, into Canadian firms engaged in the critical minerals sector, including lithium.

As a result of that process, the government ordered Sinomine (Hong Kong) Rare Metals Resources to divest itself of its investment in Power Metals Corp, which is exploring and developing caesium, lithium and tantalum assets in Canada.

Chengze Lithium International was told to

divest itself of its investment in Lithium Chile, which is developing projects in Argentina and Chile.

Zangge Mining Investment (Chengdu) was also required to divest itself of investment in Ultra Lithium — a publicly-traded Canadian mineral exploration company focused on advanced lithium and gold projects in Argentina, Canada and the US.

Champagne said the decision coincided with the finalization of the government’s critical minerals strategy.

“Canada’s critical minerals are key to the future prosperity of our country,” he said.

“Increasing demand for these all-important minerals are presenting Canada with a generational economic opportunity. The federal government is determined

to work with Canadian businesses to attract foreign direct investments from partners that share our interests and values.

Power Metals chairman and CEO Johnathan More said on November 3: “While we are surprised by Canada’s stance towards Chinese investment into Canada’s critical minerals industry, it clearly shows that they see the opportunity and assets of Power Metals as too valuable for such foreign investment.”

More said then that Sinomine was looking into the appeal process.

Ultra Lithium said the announcement had been detrimental to its many Canadian shareholders and the company was “assessing its legal and other options to preserve value” for shareholders.

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ABC agrees bipolar lead BESS projects deal for California, confirms $50m capital raise underway

Bipolar lead battery technology is to be deployed in a 646MWh energy storage deal for California, Advanced Battery Concepts announced on January 18.

ABC said its BOX-BE system, launched last September, will be supplied under an agreement with renewable power generation projects company Coram to benefit customers in the Coachella Valley and Los Angeles regions. The BOX-BE system uses the firm’s EverGreenSeal battery tech.

The Coram supply agreement is based on an initial project set consisting of three phases — an initial demonstration, followed by two installations at two different identified sites. The two sites, representing 646MWh, will require about 2,000 BOX-BE units.

The Palm Desert area of Southern California was an early adopter of renewable energy, hosting wind and solar farms that supply residential, commercial and agricultural locations with electricity.

However, the intermittency of renewable power supply means grid operators have had to turn to fossil power generation to meet peak electricity demand.

Coram founder and president Brian O’Sullivan said: “We look forward to working with ABC to commercialize its utility-scale BESS and address the only remaining issue for a fully renewable electric grid — the control, storage and on-command dispatchabil-

ity of clean and economic electric energy.”

The California announcement comes after ABC founder and CEO Ed Shaffer confirmed to Energy Storage Journal on January 11 that a $50 million cash raise was underway to further advance development of the firm’s bipolar lead battery technology and products.

Shaffer had already told our sister publication, Batteries International (Autumn issue 125) that fresh investment was being sought, including for ramping up production at its Michigan plant.

Now the New York arm of investment bank Stephens has been named as the financial institution that is leading the series ‘C’ capital raise. This follows the series ‘B’ undisclosed growth equity round in October 2020 that was led by Nuveen, the global investment manager of TIAA Investments.

A series ‘C’ financing is typically for firms that are already quite successful. This type of funding is focused on scaling the company, growing it as quickly and as successfully as possible.

In addition to expanding

manufacturing plant capacity, the latest capital injection will be used to support increased bipolar battery production — especially the new EverGreenSeal batteries and to satisfy BOXBE energy storage system orders we have in development, Shaffer said.

He said the company has already had “serious discussions” with various groups that have expressed interest in the capital raise and talks are ongoing.

“Current investors have committed to participating in the series ‘C’ round of investment, for which we are grateful.”

In addition to expanding manufacturing plant capacity, the latest capital injection will be used to support increased bipolar battery production — especially the new EverGreenSeal batteries and to satisfy BOX-BE energy storage system orders we have in development

Ed Shaffer, founder and CEO, ABC

Private equity and venture capital investors have been circling the lead battery industry for well over the past decade. Their ownership can bring benefits but also difficult times — the only certainty with this type of parent is change. Wyn Jenkins and Michael Halls report.

For good, or for bad … here come the money men

A huge chunk of the lead battery industry — just think of such big names such as Clarios, Stryten, Ecobat, Microporous, C&D/Trojan — is under the throes of two types of aggressive investment ownership: venture capital and private equity.

Although there are differences between the two (see panel) both have one common aim. To buy into a company at one price and sell at a much higher one later on.

Profits from the investment and sale normally comes from a variety of types of banking endeavour.

For smaller start-ups, this may simply be enabling the financial backdrop for a company to succeed while it moves from transferring the technology of the laboratory to that of the manufacturing line.

This supportive behaviour enables the founders of the firm — who are frequently more technically oriented than commercially gifted — the scope

to advance product development and marketing untroubled by the vicissitudes of financial pressure.

It is equally as likely to involve detailed financial oversight and management — particularly of cashflow — to achieve the advancement of the company.

For financial oversight and management read one word. Control. And that for the good or the bad.

For the bad it can be stultifying. One UK start-up, with a technology that has since been brought to market by another firm, failed in the early 2010s.

“The problem we found was the op-

posite of what was meant to have had happened,” the former CEO told Energy Storage Journal after the closure.

“Rather than achieve a fast roll-out and the ability to sell the company at a healthy profit within a few years, we had problems with the technology. Our investing group of VC firms then tried to stem our losses by every which way they could. We lost staff through downsizing (firing) and a natural attrition as we all became demoralized.

“We had to produce finance reports each week and each month we’d have to spend several days preparing for a management meeting with the investor group. They didn’t provide the financial backdrop we needed — rather they became the problem rather than the solution.”

The shame of it all was that the micro-management resulted in the firm’s demise and the technology being successfully finished elsewhere.

Some of the tales of micro misman-

For financial oversight and management read one word. Control. And that for the good or the bad

agement are legendary and the rise of the so-called “bean counter”, the financial director out of kilter with the mood of the workplace.

Consequences

One battery start-up was apparently brought to its knees by the loss in morale caused when a free-to-use toprange coffee machine for the firm’s 40 staff was replaced with a kettle and a coffee kitty.

For larger firms the control is more absolute. The aim is for the financiers to examine all parts of the business and — typically — look at ways of improving the business model. This may involve huge structural changes, selling off or scrapping whole sections of a diversified business to provide a leaner more efficient business.

So, for example, one of the odd trends from the 1960s onwards was,

THE CLARIOS SAGA

It’s the case study that cannot be ignored — the story of how Clarios (formerly Johnson Controls Power Solutions) whose lead-acid batteries are used in about a third of cars globally.

Towards the end of 2018, the company, which boasts $8 billion in revenues, was sold by parent Johnson Controls International to investment firm Brookfield Business Partners, a listed private equity limited partnership that makes its investments through Brookfield Asset Management, for $13.2 billion.

The reason the business was sold is probably indicative of a trend, say industry observers, which is of larger conglomerates seeking distance from the negative associations with lead acid batteries — mostly as an established technology with no disruptive game-changing product and also,

the way corporate giants expanded their business into seeming growth areas that were unrelated to their core businesses.

The former Johnson Controls, for example, entered the battery business from its acquisition of Globe-Union in 1978, only to sell it to Brookfield Business Partners and create Clarios in May 2019. (This was in fact part of a larger restructuring including the merging with Tyco International in January 2016 to create a company headquartered in Cork, Ireland and (legally) away from many US tax requirements.)

In an odd fashion this underpins theories of capitalism, one business model is outdated or no longer fit for purpose, and is replaced with another.

The death of hugely successful firms such as Kodak which ignored the rise of the digital camera — perversely

enough invented by one of its own staff — and successive restructurings were in the end unable to resist the momentum of a new business model that was eventually to prove suitable for the masses on the phone.

As one financier told this reporter decades ago: “the lifeblood of successful capitalism is the ability it gives companies to reinvent itself, to shred off bits of its business that don’t work and invest in the parts that do.”

(Oddly enough the same financier said that one of the successes of the US financial system was that it enabled businesses to fail — particularly the so-called Chapter 11 and Chapter 7 provisions — but allowed them to pick themselves up and get going again until achieving potential success.)

“This isn’t an economic model that seems to fit with that found in Europe,” he said. “But it works with the

in terms of image, using a metal perceived to be unenvironmental.

At the time, Johnson Controls International said the sale would allow it to focus on its building technologies and solutions business, which makes heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, as well as building access control and fire detection systems.

While the batteries unit boasted healthy margins, it had been capital intensive for its parent. Investors overall welcomed the deal.

Equally, also in line with this trend, Brookfield eyed a different future for its new purchase, based on it moving in a greener direction.

In May 2019, the investment company rebranded the business as Clarios and mapped out a future in which it would become a “world leader in advanced energy storage solutions” including a move into making batteries for electric

vehicles.

“Our vision is to power progress by creating the world’s smartest energy storage solutions that benefit people, business, and the planet,” said Joe Walicki, president of Clarios, at the time.

“As a global leader with a product used in virtually every vehicle from conventional to fully electric, we are well positioned to capitalize on market trends, including a move toward more electrified and autonomous vehicles that are elevating the critical role of the battery and accelerating the need for more advanced batteries.”

Such a strategy would appear to align with broader trends in the industry towards diversification.

According to market research company IMARC Group, the global automotive lead-acid battery market reached a value of $12.7 billion in 2021 and it is anticipated to reach a value of $15 billion by 2027. At the same time, the top automotive lead-acid battery companies are increasingly focusing on extensive R&D activities to introduce miniaturized automotive lead-acid batteries with enhanced efficiency, an IMARC report said.

“Several leading players are heavily investing in the deployment of high-tech methods and the manufacturing of advanced and

To a private equity company, therefore, a strategy for a newly acquired lead-acid batteries might be clear. The business is already successful and profitable: realign its strategic direction towards innovation and greener technologies and increase its desirability to investors in the process — as well as its product range and ultimate growth prospects

way US businesses work and thrive.”

The history of restructurings and the like are also riddled with tales of financiers ripping the flesh of what could have been successful businesses in their search for easy profits. “People hate the term ‘asset strippers’” one financier told Energy Storage Journal several years ago, “but these practices keep industries lean and competitive.”

But at its basic it’s the way that outside investment entities — be they private equity or venture capital firms — take control of battery and related companies and try to push them into better financial circumstances.

The implications

So where does this all fit with today’s lead battery business? And, with a high number of lead- battery manufacturers and suppliers now owned by private equity or venture capital enti-

maintenance-free battery variants, which are propelling the market growth. Along with this, the growing environmental concerns and the increasing awareness among individuals about the harmful impacts of carbon emissions are providing lucrative growth opportunities to key players on the global level. In line with this, the widespread adoption of EVS among the masses is creating a positive market outlook.”

To a private equity company, therefore, a strategy for a newly acquired lead-acid batteries might be clear. The business is already successful and profitable: realign its strategic direction towards innovation and greener technologies and increase its desirability to investors in the process — as well as its product range and ultimate growth prospects.

One success it had in this regard was Clarios being selected in 2021 as a winner of the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize competition.

Clarios’ project, “Powering the Future,” was intended to develop and apply innovative technologies to identify and separate lithium-ion batteries from lead-acid batteries, ensuring the proper and safe recy-

ties, what implications are there given the investment timelines and horizons such companies work to?

Geoffrey May, director at FOCUS Consulting, a business that provides technology and business support to the battery industry, reckons that while trends can be seen in why leadacid battery-focused businesses have ended up in private equity ownership, what the future and future ownership of each company looks like is less clear.

Each need to be considered on a case-by-case basis. “There are good

cling methods for each chemistry.

Yet for all its ambition of moving the company in a new direction — perhaps a greener one more agreeable to mainstream investors — Brookfield has not so far succeeded in mapping a succession plan for the business. In May 2021, two years after a new strategic direction was unveiled, it filed paperwork with the SEC for an initial public offering.

Analysts suggested at the time, the company could seek a valuation of some $20 billion.

However, by July 2021, the flotation had been delayed. The company cited unsatisfactory market conditions. “While we are looking forward to taking Clarios public … we have elected to defer the IPO given current market conditions,” the company said at the time.

Certainly the huge volume of IPO flotations already that year would have certainly been a dampener on investor interest.

Analysts say the IPO will have to resurface — partly because Brookfield has so few other options. The business is too big for a trade sale; the number of potential suitors is limited plus regulators may well raise anti-trust or competition law concerns.

“That’s not to say Clarios is not a good investment opportunity

and bad aspects of being private equity owned, and that very much depends on the unique circumstances of businesses — you have to look at each individual scenario,” he says.

“When large companies have decided to push out their lead operations, private equity can be a good solution. They have found some willing buyers. What happens next is less clear, however. In the case of the biggest companies, a trade sale seems problematic; equally the equity markets have not had the appetite for an IPO in some cases.”

it’s more that its size and market position limits its parent’s options,” says FOCUS Consulting’s, Geoffrey May.

“Johnson obviously saw batteries as non-core and private equity gave them that exit. Assuming they [Brookfield] did their due diligence, it must be regarded as a reasonably good investment, but they will need an exit at some point,” he says.

“The opportunities for further consolidation on the trade side are limited. It was different in the past but if another major player tried to gobble up more competitors that could fall foul of antitrust regulators. They are clearly trying to change the company and move towards the sexier side of electric vehicles. But that is not necessarily easy, and their core business is automotive lead acid batteries. They are very successful at that.”

May believes it is hard for leadacid focussed companies to step into the lithium space in a meaningful way. “There are few common skillsets between lead and lithium,” he says. “The process is completely different, almost nothing is shared on the manufacturing side. So it is one thing wanting to innovate but simply moving from one chemistry to another will not be straight forward.”

“What people don’t realise is that from the moment we invest in a firm we’re also looking for the way to cash this in. Only an idiot invests without an exit strategy from the very get-go”

An IPO — an initial public offering — is a major exit strategy for both private equity and venture capital investors. In the IPO the shares of the new or restructured company can be bought by institutional and private clients.

Valuations of the profits private equity and VC firms make can seem extraordinarily high. In part this is to do with opportunity, but also to that of risk. For venture capital investors taking a firm from scratch to a high market capitalization also means taking the risk that other investments that don’t succeed at all, or don’t suc-

ceed in any hugely profitable way.

“If only one in three firms you invest in have a workable exit strategy then you have two that you’ve lost money on. It’s part of the business model,” one venture capitalist firm told Energy Storage Journal. “You balance the returns from the overall portfolio.

“What people don’t realise is that from the moment we invest in a firm we’re also looking for the way to cash this in. Only an idiot invests without an exit strategy from the very get-go.”

Perhaps distressingly for the longer good of some parts of the battery mar-

WHEN IT GOES WRONG — RIGHT-SIZING OR ‘TIGHT-SIZING’?

“Downsizing is so 1990s? It’s rightsizing!” That was the merger and acquisition mantra of years gone by.

Now, insiders from three firms talking to Energy Storage Journal, on the grounds of confidentiality, say the process of preparing their companies for a later sale, is better called “tight-sizing”.

Put simply: cutting costs to beef up the balance sheet to enable the sale — but not necessarily for the greater good of the firm.

“I’ve never seen the morale in our company so low and I’ve seen us go through some very rough times,” one senior executive confided to Energy Storage Journal before Christmas. “The new management

has got cut swathes of our top leadership starting at the top and replaced it with their own hires.

“Middle-management people have left in droves — are they the next to be axed they wonder? And now we have a culture not of can-do but how much does can-do cost?

“Their attempts, in my opinion, to cut costs and pretty-up the balance sheet have resulted in (probably) a better balance sheet but a less worthwhile company.”

Another executive told a similar story. “When I found that people in the accounts department were the ones approving my business trips for the firm, I gave up. For heaven’s sake, I’m the head of a department!”

IT’S NOT JUST THE BIGGEST OF THE BIG FIRMS …

Private equity firms and VC firms own at least far more than 40 “significant” companies in the battery industry, says one analyst. These include batteries manufacturers such as Lionano, which raised $22 million in Series ‘B’ funding in 2018 led by WAVE Equity Partners, Helios Capital Ventures and NXT Ventures; and EaglePicher Technologies, which, also in 2018, was sold by parent Vectra to GTCR, a Chicago PE firm.

A number of companies classed as battery distributors also fall into this category. In 2017 PR firm High Road Capital Partners acquired Storage Battery Systems. In 2018 it added Nolan Power to its portfolio; it plans

to combine the two businesses.

A similar story can be found in battery recycling. In 2018, Gopher Resource was sold by parent Norwest Equity Partners to Energy Capital Partners; in 2017, Eagle Battery was acquired by Cardinal Equity Partners.

Each of these companies will be on its own journey of change. Its investors may be investing or cost cutting, rationalizing or expanding the offering of each. Only one thing is certain: another change of ownership will occur for each at some point in the future. This may provide long term stability, or be yet another steppingstone to another owner — or worse.

ket, however, the venture capital play is generally — not always — for an investment window of around three to five years. Private equity tends to be a longer play given the complexities that can be involved.

Investing with purpose

This does, however, lead to the question of whether private equity owners are more likely or less likely to invest in and drive innovation in a company for the longer term. That said their aim will be to increase the value of a company within a specific time frame.

That can mean cost cutting and rationalization but also investment and innovation, in an attempt to realign a company’s offering.

Especially in the case of lead-acid batteries, it might seem prudent, as Stryten has done, to move towards alternative technologies. In the last two years, for example, it has moved into manufacturing sodium ion batteries, flow battery technology and the recycling of lithium batteries.

Andrew Haughian, general partner, Pangaea Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage advanced materials, energy and environmental technology companies backing entrepreneurs “who are making a meaningful impact in the world” offers some context on this point. He says there are several reasons a company might invest in a company operating in the energy storage/battery space.

“VC funds invest in companies that have a highly differentiated technology solving a significant pain point. The battery industry is one where economies of scale and supply chain are critical factors to success and therefore new entrants must have enough of a differentiation that leapfrogging incumbents (who are also improving every year) is a possibility,” he says.

“VCs also like companies that have the potential to be a large, standalone business that has the potential to go public versus a component or materials supplier that is most likely to find a home under the roof of a large incumbent industrial. Finally, the quality of the management team is a first and foremost consideration for any decision to invest.”

But he says that investors will also be looking to accelerate growth and innovation. He says that, generally, investors want to invest in companies that can hit meaningful inflection points within 12-18 months.

This can provide a basis for future fundraising. Investors will also look to help set priorities and make introductions from their network in order to accelerate growth.

The potential exit plan will never be far from mind, however — but this can be longer in the battery space than in other sectors.

Haughian says most investors playing in the battery industry understand the exit horizon will be at least five years, but possibly closer to eight to 10 years. “And there are only a small number of investors willing to make very early-stage bets where the horizon is even longer,” he says.

In general, VCs like companies that have the potential to be standalone independent companies with the potential to go public. However, if attractive M&A options arise long the way, most investors will be rational about considering a likely smaller but lower risk pathway to exit.

On the specific question of innovation, and the wider impact that can have on a sector, he admits that too much investment in one area can muddy the waters and cause an element of uncertainty.

“A perfect example of this is in that for developments in silicon anodes for lithium batteries where there are dozens of start-ups and an equivalent number of in-house corporate efforts. In such a competitive space, the bar is elevated for everyone. The challenge with this is that it may be difficult for the top players to become dominant as the performance differential compared to others can be limited.”

The Trojan story

If finding the exit strategy is part of any investor private equity/VC approach it is also the start of a new saga for the firms themselves.

In 2013 private equity business

Charlesbank Capital Partners acquired Trojan Battery Company, a specialist in deep cycle lead acid technology formed in 1925 by the Godber family.

Charlesbank’s acquisition marked the first outside equity for the company, with the Godbers, for a while, maintaining a significant ownership position. “It stopped being a family business at that point but it was the best way to achieve the investment needed for growth that we needed,” said a senior manager to Energy Storage Journal at the time.

In 2018, things had changed again when Charlesbank sold Trojan to

C&D Technologies, a manufacturer of mostly flooded lead-acid batteries but also making lithium ion batteries and related products, and itself a portfolio company of another private equity firm: KPS Capital Partners. KPS had acquired C&D in 2017 with the stated intention of aggressively growing the company both organically and through strategic acquisitions.

It is not always a happy ending, as UK battery company Atraverda, which made ceramic bipolar batteries, found in 2012 when it was forced to call in the administrators. Formed in 1991, the company had previously secured two rounds of venture capital funding raising some £20 million (currently $34 million). Another round, however, was not secured in time.

PRIVATE EQUITY AND VENTURE CAPITAL

Private equity is sometimes confused with venture capital because both refer to firms that invest in companies and exit by selling their investments in equity financing, for example, by holding initial public offerings. (IPOs are the process of offering shares of a private corporation to the public in a new stock issuance for the first time,) However, there are significant differences in the way firms involved in the two types of funding conduct business.

Private equity and venture capital invest in different types and sizes of companies, commit different amounts of money, and claim different percentages of equity in the companies in which they invest.

• Private equity is capital invested in a company or other entity that is not publicly listed or traded.

• Venture capital is funding given to start-ups or other young businesses that show potential for long-term growth.

• Private equity and venture capital buy different types of companies, invest different amounts of money, and claim different amounts of equity in the

companies in which they invest.

Private equity is a source of investment capital from highnet-worth individuals and firms. These investors buy shares of private companies—or gain control of public companies with the intention of taking them private and ultimately delisting them from public stock exchanges.

Large institutional investors dominate the private equity world, including pension funds and large private equity firms funded by a group of accredited investors.

Venture capital is financing given to start-up companies and small businesses that are seen as having the potential to generate high rates of growth and above-average returns, often fuelled by innovation or by carving out a new industry niche.

The funding for this type of financing usually comes from wealthy investors, investment banks, and specialized VC funds. The investment does not have to be financial, but can also be offered via technical or managerial expertise.

Time to fix Europe’s competitiveness problem

He was told of the damage being done to Europe’s fledgling battery plans by billions of dollars in tax credits for plants being awarded under the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) — unveiled in August 2022 and which took effect on January 1 — plus similar support schemes in Canada, Japan and South Korea and Europe’s continued “unbroken dependencies” on Asia.

In a December 15 statement the Alliance, which was launched by Šefcovic in October 2017 to create an innovative, sustainable and globally competitive battery value chain in the EU, warned: “The upcoming weeks will be decisive for decision makers to act and prevent the outflow of investment from Europe.”

A make-or-break summit deciding Europe’s battery future looks set to be held by early spring Energy Storage Journal has learned. At issue is whether the continent can compete globally — and quickly enough — with its rivals.

This follows a warning that at least €100 billion ($106 billion) is needed to avert a potential investments meltdown for gigafactory plans, as the US and Asia is luring developers away with more lucrative deals and incentives.

Industry leaders and trade bodies issued a damning report in December effectively accusing EU leaders of not doing enough to successfully steer policies aimed at creating a home-grown

battery manufacturing industry.

The European Battery Alliance report cited a litany of failings, including how permit procedures for battery and raw materials projects in the EU and individual member states lacked “speed and clarity, compared with that of other global economies… contributing to additional risks and delays in investment and project execution”.

The Alliance, whose 800-strong membership includes companies involved in the battery supply chain, revealed talks had been held earlier in December, with EU Commission vicepresident and batteries czar Maroš Šefcovic.

Energy Storage Journal understands a follow-up summit will be held in March, although the European Commission declined to comment as this issue went to press.

Meanwhile Commission executive vice-president Margrethe Verstager, who has responsibility for competition issues, wrote to all EU member states on January 16 to get their views on whether state-aid rules should be loosened further to allow governments to support companies that may be affected by the IRA.

Any relaxation of the rules would be in addition to the ‘temporary crisis framework’ adopted by the Commission last March, which was drawn up to support national economies in the wake of energy price hikes caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Europe’s ambition to become an EV batteries powerhouse could stall as lucrative US tax breaks lure gigafactory investors away and China extends subsidies. John Shepherd reports on EU crisis moves to salvage its electric dreams as industry leaders accuse policymakers of being asleep at the wheel

The EU lacks speed and clarity in handling permit procedures needed to launch battery and raw materials projects and still suffers from “unbroken dependencies” on Asia

A spokesperson for Verstager told Energy Storage Journal that member states had already used that “flexibility” to generate a total of more than €672 billion of funding so far, adding: “In the current context, however, more may be needed.”

Market fragmentation risk

The spokesperson did not refer explicitly to the IRA, but she said Verstager’s consultation would consider further simplification of EU state aid rules, possible new measures to accelerate the green transition and the need to “balance support for production in certain types of sectors strategic for the green transition with the possible risk of fragmentation of the single market”.

Industry insiders say Europe’s political leaders know they have to act fast. Independent analysis says the US is already outpacing the EU in the batteries investment race.

Meanwhile gigafactories being built in emerging markets such as India and Malaysia will have a combined battery production capacity of 104GWh by 2030.

Verstager’s letter to member states is, in part, a response to proposals discussed in the Alliance’s December round of talks with Šefcovic, which included calls for emergency measures to unlock more than €100 billon ($108 billion) of investments and speed up projects through 2023-2024.

The Commission was also urged to make the entire battery manufacturing chain, including raw materials through to recycling, a priority for cash awards under a planned new EU sovereignty fund.

If state-aid rules are loosened further, battery industry leaders say this could get cash quickly pumped into battery-related projects, together with the fast-tracking of planning applications and permits for battery-related projects.

An energy task force is also expected to be set up to ensure spiralling energy costs for industry in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war are brought to a “competitive level” across the EU in the next two years.

The Alliance also urged EU chiefs to find ways to combine European measures with US incentives laws and create a “level playing field, where battery manufacturers producing in Europe compete on equal terms, independent of higher subsidies or lower sustainability standards in Asia and the US”.

WTO challenge

It is not clear if, when or how quickly the proposals might be adopted and the US is not expected to drastically dilute its renewed domestic support for battery manufacturing to help Europe overcome its own difficulties — Chinese and other Asian battery makers less so.

However, the nuclear option understood to be under consideration is to challenge US financial support for its battery production and related supply chain industries at the World Trade Organization (WTO).

This could be coupled with a review of existing EU trade rules, including duties for EV components and EVs from third countries with different regulatory requirements and incentive schemes.

Thierry Breton, the Commission’s internal market chief, discussed technological sovereignty and European industrial policy with French prime minister Elisabeth Borne on December 19, when he said there was no time to lose in formulating a response to the IRA.

The spectre of taking the US to the WTO, risking a full-blown trade war, does appear to be a real prospect. France’s economy and finance minister Bruno Le Maire and Germany’s vice-chancellor and economic affairs minister, Robert Habeck, said in a joint statement after talks on November 22 that they would “closely coordinate a European approach to challenges such as the IRA… to prevent downside effects of protectionist measures by third countries and ensure that WTO rules are respected by all”.

However, it remains to be seen just how EU leaders will agree on a coordinated response to pressures from Asia and the US. Swedish EU affairs minister Jessika Roswall, whose country took over the presidency of the EU for six months as of January 1, has been widely quoted as telling a conference in Stockholm just days later that “a subsidy race is not the answer” in tackling US competition.

US policy ‘game-changer’ Tensions between the EU and US are a far cry from the harmonious tones of less than two years ago, when in June

2021 Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and US president Joe Biden established the US-EU Trade and Technology Council with a commitment to renew and reinvigorate the transatlantic partnership and deepen cooperation.

Biden said during a visit to the White House last December by his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, he was confident “we can work out some of the differences that exist” over the IRA.

At the end of that month, in an attempt to reduce tensions, the US Treasury Department indicated in a white paper that some imported cars would qualify for EV tax credits under the IRA. However, the move has not cooled EU tempers.

A senior official in one of the European industry bodies that is closely involved in Brussels talks aimed at coordinating Europe’s response, said on condition of anonymity that it was “beyond doubt” that the IRA had been a “game-changer” in terms of its potential to draw more investments and battery manufacturing projects away from Europe to the US.

The problem for Europe is that there is still no clear plan of action by way of response, he said.

The official warned that there was a real risk, however small, that if part of

Margrethe Verstagen consulting EU member states amid calls to challenge US tax credits for batteries sector.

Photo: Roberto Schmidt / EC-audiovisual service

The Inflation Reduction Act has been a game-changer in its potential to draw investments for battery manufacturing projects away from Europe to the US

Brussels’ response is to refer the issue of US incentives and subsidies to the WTO, this could trigger a trade war that could further undermine recent EU-US efforts to forge closer economic ties.

Such a move would also undoubtedly see the US question its pledge to cooperate with the EU in shoring up energy supplies disrupted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Some may argue that IRA-like tax incentives run the risk of creating boom and bust cycles for technology adoption, much as we have seen in the renewable industry in Europe over the last decade,” the official said.

‘No silver bullet’ However, he warned that if Europe were to launch a copycat economic strike to expand incentives and subsidies, especially for the energy storage sector, that in itself would not be a “silver bullet that is going to make the European Union the leader in this field”.

“If incentives are deployed, they must be coupled with other ambitious initiatives,” he said. Indeed, incentives can only work if energy storage “already has a market-based path toward technology adoption” — but Europe still appears to be floundering.

He cited the example of US states such as California, where clear investment strategies have been put in place to actively encourage development of battery energy storage projects.

Industry initiatives in the state include the development of pilot programmes announced last May by utility Pacific Gas and Electric, working with auto giants such as General Motors and Ford, to test how bidirectional EVs and chargers can provide power to the grid.

Europe needs a “better energy market design, so that battery energy storage potential can be deployed in multiple sectors, such as microgrids for residential areas and supporting utilities at grid level”, the official said.

A spokesperson for the European Association for Storage of Energy (EASE) told Energy Storage Journal much still needed to be done beyond EV applications.

“While the Batteries Regulation focused extensively on EV batteries, which is to be expected as the market is huge, it is important to avoid focusing on that type of application alone.

“Energy storage uptake is extremely relevant and it’s a market where the

EU can lead — we are talking about 200GW of storage needs in 2030 in Europe alone.”

In its review of energy policy developments for 2022, EASE said the Batteries Regulation draft approved by the European Parliament failed to reflect “the diversity of the battery ecosystem and could add regulatory complexity in an already extremely regulated segment, such as battery safety, recycling and reuse”.

The stark warnings of failings in EU policies to date have overshadowed the unveiling of what was supposed to be one of the jewels in its green energy

policy crown, when it was announced on December 9 that a provisional deal had been agreed that would pave the way to introducing the long-awaited battery laws.

Now even that seems to be a hollow achievement. It immediately became clear that the new regulations still require secondary legislation to be passed between 2024 and 2028 before they can become fully operational — further highlighting, if it were needed, the glacial pace of decision-making in the EU at a time when the battery industry is crying out for urgent attention.

China has kicked off 2023 by extending government subsidies for purchases of EVs for the rest of the year — with a warning that it suspects that US tax credits could be in breach of WTO trade rules.

Tax exemptions on EV purchases had been set to expire at the end of 2022, but new energy vehicles bought up to December 31 of 2023 are now also exempt from vehicle purchase tax, the finance ministry and other government bodies confirmed.

Despite Beijing’s own attempt to boost EV sales, the government said it was reviewing US polices aimed at favouring domestic EV battery investment.

Chinese commerce ministry spokesperson Shu Jueting claimed on September 22 that granting tax

credits for EVs in the US on the condition of final assembly in North America discriminated against other similar imported products and could violate WTO rules.

Meanwhile, data from the China Automotive Battery Innovation Alliance, published by state news agency Xinhua on January 14, said the country’s battery manufacturing capacity for new energy vehicle batteries totalled 294.6GWh in 2022, which the organization claimed was a year-on-year increase of 91%.

The installed capacity of batteries in December 2022 alone increased 38% year-on-year to hit 36.1GWh.

The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said China sold nearly seven million new energy vehicles in 2022 — a year-on-year increase of 93%.

CHINA WARNS US OVER TAX CREDITS AS BEIJING EXTENDS EV SUBSIDIES

Production of the fifth generation of high-voltage batteries at the BMW Brilliance Automotive joint venture factory in China

Global giga investments tip scale in favour of US

Since the US Inflation Reduction Act was unveiled on August 16, 2022, billions of battery investment dollars in the country have been announced.

On August 29, LG Energy Solution and Honda Motor said they had agreed to establish a joint venture company to produce lithium ion batteries in the US exclusively for Honda plants in North America to power battery electric vehicles (BEVs) sold in North America.

Fast forward to January 13 and the partners revealed their 40GWh plant would be in Ohio, with their overall investment related to the joint venture projected to reach $4.4 billion.

LG has a majority 51% stake in the tentatively-named L-H Battery Company joint venture. Construction of the plant is to start this year with completion scheduled by the end of 2024 and the start of mass production by the end of 2025.

Meanwhile, Toyota is pushing ahead with an expansion of its Toyota Battery Manufacturing North Carolina site following the announcement last August 29 of $2.5 billion in additional investment for the project.

Toyota said battery production is to start in 2025 for hybrid electric vehicles and BEVs.

Jane Nakano, a senior fellow in the energy security and climate change program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said that under the Inflation Reduction Act, tax credits that came into effect in January are available at different levels to both new and used EVs, and also for non-passenger vehicles.

Specifically, half of the EV tax credit is available if EV battery components are manufactured or assembled in North America. The other half of the credit is available if battery minerals are extracted, processed, or recycled in the US or come from a country that has a free trade agreement with the US.

“The number of eligible models will likely decrease as the mineral content threshold rises to 80% by 2027, and the battery component manufacturing and assembly threshold will rise to 100% by 2029,” Nakono said.

“If companies wish to access the credits, they will need to change their production plans and build new supply chains, potentially slowing EV deployment.”

However, she said the share of EVs in the total light-duty vehicle sales was still expected to hit 57% by the end of the decade as a result of the Inflation Reduction Act.

Nakono said the US vision for secure EV supply chains has “an undeniable dose of geopolitical assertiveness”, because the law prohibits the application of EV tax credits where any components or critical minerals are sourced from a foreign entity of concern, such as China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea.

But how the US addresses trade concerns from close partners such as the EU, South Korea or Japan is an issue. Some of them are also “important investors in the emerging US EV battery supply chains and this warrants close attention,” said Nakono.

European fears of battery investments draining away to other parts of the world were heightened by the publication of analysis indicating that 13 gigafactories being built in seven emerging markets are set to lead a surge in batteries capacity to around 104GWh by the end of the decade.

Benchmark Source’s ‘Gigafactory Assessment’, released on December 13, said the new plants being built across seven countries including Malaysia, Indonesia and India would be enough for nearly two million EVs.

Further analysis by Benchmark indicates that the US is outpacing Europe in the battery gigafactories investment race, following tax incentives unveiled by the federal government in the Inflation Reduction Act.

A total of 242GWh of battery ca-

pacity was added to the US pipeline in the second half of 2022, an increase of 34.3% since July, according to Benchmark’s separate ‘Lithium ion Battery Gigafactory Assessment’, released on November 23.

In comparison, Europe’s battery capacity pipeline increased by 16.7% or 170 GWh over the same period, with Chinese companies responsible for all new gigafactories.

Benchmark analyst Evan Hartley said: “The effect of the Inflation Reduction Act can be clearly seen within the announced North American pipeline, and while the European pipeline has increased, that growth is more stable, continuing the trend seen throughout the year.”

In its December 13 Gigafactory Assessment, Benchmark said the list of developing economies where 13 gigafactories are being built includes Turkey, where South Korea’s SK Innovation plans to build a battery plant with Ford and local player Koç Holding.

The plant in Ankara is to start production of high-nickel NCM batteries in 2025.

Benchmark says the developing economies’ gigafactories should come online by as early as 2026 and add about 78GWh capacity initially, which would be scaled to 104GWh by the end of 2030, led by Malaysia. According to the analysis, the gigafactories would contribute about 37.6% of Asian (excluding China) capacity of 205GWh by the end of 2026 and about 40.5% by the end of 2030.

Benchmark says the investment in gigafactories in emerging markets comes as EV sales start to accelerate in Southeast Asia and India, highlighting the growth potential beyond the major developed markets.

A total of 242GWh of battery capacity was added to the US pipeline in the second half of 2022, an increase of 34.3% since July, according to Benchmark’s separate ‘Lithium ion Battery Gigafactory Assessment’

Investment needed to secure critical materials to power EU’s electric future

As EU leaders are under pressure to do more to support investments in gigafactories, European institutions are also calling for urgent action to plan for a reliable and sustainable battery materials supply chain — including new mining and recycling projects.

The European Commission says it will publish legislative proposals for raw materials critical to the battery industry in the first quarter of 2023.

On issues of materials supply the Commission is under pressure from industry representatives too including Europe’s metals association, Eurometaux, which is warning that the US Inflation Reduction Act also risks draining much-needed investment in the supply chain away from Europe.

Eurometaux sustainability director Kamila Slupek said on December 12 new rules set to be introduced as part of the EU’s Batteries Regulation must be accompanied by “an even stronger industrial plan to grow Europe’s battery materials supply chain in the face of US subsidies and China state support.

“In the next two years we need much more European investment into mining, refining, and recycling operations for battery materials,” Slupek said.

Recycling will be Europe’s best longterm opportunity to establish strategic autonomy for battery metals, she said, but the batteries market will expand rapidly this decade and no one knows now how much battery scrap will be available by 2030.

Eurometaux said in a study published last spring that Europe needs to combine long-term recycling growth with new primary metals supply and make “strategic choices on how it will supply its accelerating metals demand”.

According to the study, the EU will require significant new supplies of nickel, lithium, and cobalt for its domestic battery cathode manufacturing plans. Of these metals, Europe only has a significant existing market for nickel, which is mainly used in stainless steel.

By 2050, batteries will be Europe’s major use for lithium, nickel, and cobalt under all the study’s scenarios,

with new demand reaching up to 3500% of Europe’s lithium consumption today, 350% of cobalt, and 110% of nickel.

The battery market will need to be the subject of regular attention because uncertain technology developments after 2030 will likely impact these long-term projections, and so regular attention will be required to the battery market.

For the next 14 years, Europe’s energy transition will predominantly require new primary metals supply from mining and refining, Eurometaux said.

However, plans for most new mines expected to be started up in Europe face an uncertain future due to lack of local acceptance, technical uncertainties or permitting challenges.

Secondary supply from recycled sources will take a more prominent role as current clean energy technologies begin reaching their end of life.

After 2040, recycling could be Europe’s major supply source for most transition metals, alongside the continued need for primary metal, but Eurometaux said this would need major efforts to build new recycling capacity and overcome bottlenecks.

Research by Energy Storage Journal shows little has changed since the European Commission’s lofty ambitions for lithium ion battery recycling were unveiled several years ago.

A report by Germany’s independent non-profit environmental research body the Oko-Institut, published in March 2018, told the Commission that the best thing it could do was to follow the example of the lead acid industry in recycling batteries to create a “sustainable” process for conserving raw materials and repurposing EV batteries for energy storage.

That report — ‘Ensuring a Sustainable Supply of Raw Materials for

Electric Vehicles’— showed that China was already “well ahead” in having a transparent structure that efficiently regulated the use of materials in the electro-mobility sector.

Fast forward to the present day and the needle on the Commission’s sustainability dial has barely moved into more positive territory.

In its most recent study, ‘Mobility sector: roadmap for responsible sourcing of raw materials until 2050’, published in August, the institute notes that lithium is still not being recycled in the EU.

And the study warns that while there is a transition in cell chemistries away from “expensive resources like cobaltand nickel-containing lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide towards cheaper materials like lithium iron phosphate… there is as yet no recycling concept specified for LFP, as the focus of material recovery has been on cobalt, nickel and copper”.

The study also highlights a growing trend where used batteries are, in the institute’s words, donated to countries outside the EU for use in projects such as solar power systems in Africa.

The institute says it is hard to justify the shipping of old batteries to lowand middle-income countries while using new batteries to cover the need for electricity storage in the EU.

“In many countries around the world, recycling structures for LIBs are still lacking. Exporting the batteries back to Europe for recycling, as often announced, is also nearly impossible, as shipping companies are reluctant to take on board LIBs at their end of life due to the risk of fire and the resulting insurance costs.”

Now the institute is calling for restrictions on exports of cars and used batteries from the EU and a program of “mandatory recycling”.

After 2040, recycling could be Europe’s major supply source for most transition metals, alongside the continued need for primary metal

The faltering march of the gigafactories

Rising energy costs, disruptions in the supply of equipment components, hikes in the cost of raw materials and potential shortages have delayed giga-projects across Europe in 2022.

Some major projects seem to have stalled almost completely.

In December, for example, Volkswagen postponed a decision on where to build a battery gigafactory in eastern Europe. And in January Britishvolt’s gigafactory at Blyth in England went into administration after a long tangle with raising enough finance.

Rescue packages from the UK government were being discussed as Energy Storage Journal went to press.

In Europe — see other parts of the cover story — two defining situations have hampered the continent’s giga dreams: the introduction of the Inflation Reduction Act in the US with its tax breaks and China’s extension of subsidies to its battery manufacturers.

But other factors are also in play.

One commentator points to the overall lack of expertise in creating, managing and operating these giga plants. “There is only a finite amount of talent to go round,” he says. “So in one sense it will make sense to consolidate this expertise in partnerships.”

There’s also the post-Covid recovery where the shortage of materials has hit price expectations. “In 2020, it was thought EVs would hit price parity with ICE vehicles around this year or next,” says one industry commentator. “But increasing battery prices have put paid to that.

“It could happen by 2026, or even 2025 though,” he says. “As massive

battery gigafactories start to come online and supply ramps up dramatically.”

Simon Michaux, associate professor of geometallurgy at the Geological Survey of Finland believes that gigafactories need to be part of larger thinking.

The supply of lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite will not be enough to manufacture enough renewable units to replace the existing fossil fuel based system, of which batteries make up a large proportion.

“The simple solution is to make batteries out of another material set such as fluoride, sodium, zinc or even silica,” he says. “These don’t have the same supply shortage problems.”

A UK perspective

Stephen Gifford, chief economist at the Faraday Institution in the UK, regards the energy and supply chain crises as short to medium-term issues: “Geopolitical risks and disruption to global supply chains after the pandemic have resulted in rising commodity prices,” he says.

“Average battery costs had fallen by around 80% since 2013 but increased for the first time in 2022, with a 7% increase in real terms”

Meanwhile, in the UK alone, there is a demand forecasted of 22,000 tonnes of cobalt, 135,000t lithium carbonate equivalent and 170,000t nickel under a projection of 196 GWh of UK EV battery production.

Gifford does not believe current market issues and supply bottlenecks will affect the gigafactory industry in the longer term given, for example, the transition to net zero by 2050 in

the UK and ending of new ICE vehicle sales by 2030.

“With global commodity prices increasing, the market for EV batteries has begun to move to lower cost chemistries to remain competitive, particularly lithium iron phosphate,” says Gifford.

Shortening the battery raw materials supply chain, or finding ways to minimize the use of certain minerals because of availability or expense, has become a priority

The current production of raw materials is far from sufficient.

Globally, in 2040 there is projected to be demand for around 520kt cobalt, 3,000kt lithium carbonate equivalent and 4,000kt nickel under a projection of 5.9TWh of global EV battery production.

One analyst predicts that: “there should be demand for 100GWh and five large gigafactories in the UK by 2030, with each producing 20GWh per year of batteries. By 2040, demand rises to nearly 200GWh and the equivalent of 10 gigafactories.”

However, says Gifford, “There are more than enough resources to supply the manufacture of EV batteries to 2050, giving time for the EV battery recycling industry to become widely established.”

When assessing planned cell capacity figures, not all that capacity will come online, with many gigafactories projects unable to produce the quantity and quality of cells right for the market, says Benchmark Minerals analyst, Evan Hartley.

Lithium is the key raw material causing significant supply disruption and driving up cathode and cell prices.

Some cathode manufacturers in China are reporting recent failures to receive deliveries of material from long term supply contracts, having to resort to the tight spot market.

Demand is outpacing supply, with new lithium mines taking longer

A net zero world will require a global network of battery gigafactories, but these have to be properly resourced, function independently and within a local energy and industrial landscape.

“There are more than enough resources to supply the manufacture of EV batteries to 2050, giving time for the EV battery recycling industry to become widely established”

to achieve viable production than downstream projects.

Gifford says that global production of lithium and cobalt will need to increase by six times and three times respectively up to 2040. However, nickel supply does not need to increase to the same degree.

Hartley says some companies are shifting their battery materials business towards localization, and vertical integration. “Cities such as Debrecen

in Hungary provide an example of these strategies; now host to a number of projects planning to produce pCAM, cathode material, cells, and EVs, increasing supply chain integrity,” he says.

“However, as energy-intensive operations, we are beginning to see gigafactory plans hit by energy price crises, with multiple cell producers in Europe for example, either delaying plans, or reconsidering the location of

Gifford says that global production of lithium and cobalt will need to increase by six times and three times respectively between to 2040. However, nickel supply not need to increase to the same degree

LIFE AFTER LITHIUM — ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGIES

planned gigafactories, with countries offering subsidies to counter rising energy costs now more likely to be favoured.”

Geopolitics is also key to gigafactory success with preferential treatment such as the US tax breaks from the Inflation Reduction Act moving markets. “Since the act was announced, North American pipeline capacity has grown significantly, with many of the companies scaling up their plans from Japan, and South Korea,” says Hartley, “while the large tier 1 Chinese producers have been excluded from the market.”

Recycling

Reducing reliance on battery raw materials is part of gigafactory strategy. Consequently, there are moves to overcome the difficulties in recycling EV batteries.

Unfortunately, says Gifford, current end-of-life battery processing techniques do not optimize or maximize the recovery of all of the materials contained in EV batteries.

Making better use of resources and minimizing the amount of raw materials being sourced to manufacture is an imperative for battery production. That includes an increase in recycling.

There are limits to the performance improvements that can be expected from Li-ion technology.

“Next generation battery technologies such as solid-state, sodium-ion and lithium-sulfur offer exciting opportunities for EVs but also for applications in marine, rail, aviation and heavy goods transportation,” says Stephen Gifford, chief economist at the Faraday Institution. “Solid-state batteries are expected to be the next successor to lithium-ion batteries, offering a step-change in energy density, range and safety advantages.

“Sodium-ion batteries have a much lower cost than lithium and solid-state batteries, making them an attractive next generation technology. Simpler manufacturing techniques are needed, with inexpensive and naturally abundant materials used.

“Sodium-ion batteries are well suited for future large-scale

stationary storage applications, particularly where large amounts of storage are required to help balance electricity grids with a high supply of renewables.

“They have potential usages in low-cost and low-performance vehicles, particularly micromobility vehicles such as e-bikes, e-scooters, two-wheelers and three-wheelers.

“Lithium-sulfur batteries offer greater gravimetric energy density than lithium-ion, and are cheaper to make. These should open up new markets and have a transformative effect on aerospace applications, such as drones, high altitude satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles.

“For the moment, lithium-sulphur cells suffer from short cycle lives and research to solve these challenges is underway.”

The Faraday Institution’s LISTAR project led by University College London is looking at how to fix this.

Key steps suggested by Gifford include: ensuring that EV batteries are designed in a way that enhances recycling; ensuring that EV batteries are designed with second-life applications in mind; use policy and regulation to help to manage environmental impacts; encourage investment in the infrastructure for recycling lithium-ion batteries from EVs; and to consider government support.

“What a gigafactory looks like in 20 years will depend on the type of batteries being manufactured, particularly whether there has been the successful development of alternatives such as solid-state and lithium-sulphur batteries,” says Gifford.

Multiple cathode and cell producers have versatile production lines capable of switching focus in line with demand — between different NCM cells, or between NCM and NCA, says Hartley:

“As battery technology evolves, we will continue to see versatile production lines brought online, or further investments into existing facilities to redesign the manufacturing process, as the development of existing infrastructure will be cheaper and more efficient than new gigafactories for new technology.”

UK giga-project runs out of road

As Energy Storage Journal went to press Britishvolt, the company behind one of the UK’s flagship gigafactory projects collapsed into administration.

On January 17, Dan Hurd, Jo Robinson and Alan Hudson of EY-Parthenon’s Turnaround and Restructuring Strategy team were appointed joint administrators of Power by Britishvolt Limited — incorporated in 2019 as the main UK company in the wider Britishvolt Group set up to build and operate the plant.

The move was due to insufficient equity investment for the research the company was undertaking and the development of its sites in the Midlands and the north east of England, according to the administrators.

Hurd said the priorities were to protect the interests of creditors, explore options for a sale of the business and assets and to support the impacted employees.

However, most of Power by Britishvolt Limited employees have been made redundant. No other entities in the Britishvolt Group, including a number of UK entities, are in administration.

The omens had not been good for some time and came to head on November 2, when Britishvolt confirmed it had received an undisclosed cash injection, after reports that the lithium batteries start-up was on the brink of collapse.

Company CEO and president of global operations, Graham Hoare, also revealed that top executives would be working “without pay for the next month or so, while an overwhelming number of employees had volunteered to take substantial pay cuts”.

The identity of the investor that had provided short-term bridging aid remains confidential.

Speculation about the firm’s future had mounted after the UK govern-

ment reportedly refused a request for an advance on promised state funding, said to be worth £100 million ($115 million).

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy declined to comment when contacted by Energy Storage Journal

CEO Hoare said the funding would be available to draw down in 2023.

The financial crisis came just months after Britishvolt lost its second CEO in the three years that the project had been underway. The departure of Orral Nadjari, a co-founder of the company, was announced on August 20 but no reason was given for his leaving.

Nadjari founded the company with former CEO Lars Carlstrom, who had stepped down in December 2020.

Carlstrom went on to launch a namesake but entirely separate gigafactory project in Italy, Italvolt, of which he is now CEO.

Ironically, the collapse of Britishvolt came after the UK government announced a new post-Brexit subsidy

control system, which came into force on January 4 and which scrapped the “restrictive aid scheme the UK was subject to as part of the EU”.

Previously, the EU would regularly block local authorities and others from delivering funds to businesses “that most needed it in their communities”, the government said.

Work began on building Britishvolt’s facility in northeast England in September 2021. The total investment cost was put at an estimated £3.8 billion ($4.3 billion).

Curiously, former Conservative opposition leader and now member of the House of Lords, William Hague, blamed Britishvolt’s failure on Brexit at this January’s World Economic Forum in Davos Hague said that such projects “need scale and access to a big market”. However, one industry commentator told Energy Storage Journal at the time: “If that were the case, why is the EU saying its giga projects could also be at risk?”

INTERNATIONAL

Britishvolt had agreed a number of deals and partnerships over the past year and the demise of the company will have an impact on other international firms.

Last February, Britishvolt said it had secured the further backing of an existing investor, mining giant Glencore, to launch a £200 million ($270 million) funding round.

The gigafactory developer announced on May 24 it had signed a sales purchase agreement

to acquire German battery cells producer EAS Batteries from the Monbat group, in a cash and shares deal worth €36 million.

And on June 7, Britishvolt said its plant would use large scale production lines from Swiss manufacturer Bühler for the production of electrode slurries for the first go-to-market phase of 4.8GWh, which would be expanded to 38GWh towards the end of the decade.

As the EU scrambles to keep its gigafactory ambitions on course, the demise of Britishvolt underlines the high stakes involved in securing investment to power an electric future

IMPACT OF BRITISHVOLT’S FAILURE

‘Insufficient equity investment for both ongoing research the company was undertaking and development of sites in England’

The empires of the future are the empires of the mind

This year’s round-up of the great and the good in the battery and energy storage community reflected yet again the persistent preoccupations of the industry. Key themes were the precariousness of the supply chain, the disruptive economic climate we live in and a huge anticipated boost in battery energy storage projects.

In part these worries are a continuation of the thinking at the start of 2022 when the world was starting to heave a collective sigh of relief that the worst of the Covid pandemic was over. The concerns then were about what the world would be like after the two plague years.

Strangely enough many of the predictions for 2022 — supply

chain disruptions to continue, the confusing regulatory landscape to persist and only slowly improve, while lead battery sales would hold steady while EV battery markets would be volatile — held true despite the Russian assault on Ukraine last February.

The unprovoked attack caught the energy markets by surprise. There was an immediate energy crisis in Europe, which was over-reliant on Russian gas while attempting to impose sanctions. A mad scramble into energy storage ensued. One commentator at the time said: “Europe has now rethought its pricing strategy for the future. Every kilowatt of storage is being priced

Tim Vargo, CEO, Stryten Energy

against the cost of every cubic metre of Russian natural gas imported.”

The interesting point to make says another commentator is that the Ukrainian crisis has put a rocket under BESS projects across the continent and created a potentially world class market out of nothing.

“If there is any compensation for the tragedy that is Ukraine, it’s the way Europe’s energy transition has been accelerated.”

But the invasion was not just Europecentric, the price of energy storage went up around the world. With little sign of the war ending this year, the importance of energy storage will continue to be at the forefront of national and regional strategies.

The demand for energy storage is going to be incredible

Investments in energy storage by public and private entities around the world have increased exponentially, with the US leading the way with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act signed into law in 2022.

Increased electrification and the transition to renewable energy sources will continue to drive the demand for energy storage with no end in sight.

With power consumption projected to triple by 2050 globally, capturing all available energy generated by traditional and renewable power sources is critical. This means ramping up production and installation of medium-to-long duration battery systems to ensure all energy generation is captured and available for use when it is needed.

Stryten Energy is uniquely positioned with three advanced battery technologies — advanced lead, lithium and vanadium — that will provide continuous access to reliable sources of power through microgrids and other backup power applications necessary for businesses, neighbourhoods, or even small towns to achieve energy security.

Stryten is focused on developing three of the most promising technologies to accelerate the availability of batteries designed and manufactured domestically to help the US achieve both energy security and energy independence.

Today’s energy infrastructure cannot support current needs, much less the ambitious goals of creating a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035 and a net-zero emissions economy by 2050.

As electrification grows, experienced battery manufacturing companies, like Stryten Energy, have an advantage in the energy storage market with established production footprints, distribution networks and engineering expertise to bring new battery technologies to market and increase capacity to meet market demand.

Energy Storage Journal asks leading figures in the battery and energy storage market for their take on the year gone by and the year ahead.

Tim Vargo

Stryten Energy Continued on page 31

The consolidation of security and strategy

In Europe, the REPowerEU targets to triple the installed wind and photovoltaic generating capacity by 2030 are an ambitious aspiration to decarbonise industry, but also to achieve greater energy security for Europe.

Reaching the REPowerEU targets will require an electricity system where roughly 70% on average of the generation comes from renewable energy sources. This bounty of European renewable energy will be lost without adequate energy storage.

The arguments for energy storage are getting stronger: fossil fuelled peaking generating plants can be put into long term standby, as they can be replaced by longer duration energy storage.

storage projects are likely to be quietly proposed, developed and brought into operation.

There will be several new project announcements this year — covering a range of applications — transport, commercial customers as well as energy companies.

Expect to see as much emphasis on distributed resources as on large scale projects, as distributed storage (and generation) can do so much to improve energy security.

We have been waiting a long time, but 2023 will be the year that consolidates national and international energy security strategy with an energy storage strategy.

There will be different strategies in many countries. The American Inflation Reduction Act, with its focus on US domestic energy production and the promoting of clean energy is giving a great stimulus to many clean energy technology types, and supporting the development and deployment of energy storage.

The ability to time-shift significant quantities of renewable energy can be achieved by moving energy storage plants from the current two to four hours duration to eight to 12 or more hours.

The case for building out these longer duration plants will become more persuasive when electricity markets value longer duration energy storage, and products such as long term capacity, standby capacity and upwards and downwards regulation are introduced.

The market will move quickly, smart investors will anticipate these changes and a small, but significant group of large scale, long duration energy

We will also see more emphasis on the supply chain for energy storage. We have grown used to disruptions for semiconductor chips, critical elements for battery manufacture, and delays in constructing new battery manufacturing infrastructure. 2023 is the year when we pay more attention to the energy storage supply chain and its own sustainability index.

Energy security needs energy storage, and we will need security of energy storage.

It’s little use exchanging reliance on imported energy with imported energy storage. Flow batteries are one of the leading technologies to be capable of delivering longer energy storage solutions, that have long cycle and calendar life, have low environmental impact in their manufacture, use and disposal, and manufacturing can be quickly built in local markets, strengthening the local content and the local economy.

Anthony Price

Flow Batteries Europe, and the International Flow Battery Forum

Anthony Price, secretary general Flow Batteries Europe, and the International Flow Battery Forum

Additionally, the lead battery industry provides an economically viable roadmap to create a sustainable, circular economy for lithium and vanadium battery manufacturing with an emphasis on recycling and reusing raw materials as much as possible.

At Stryten Energy, we are bullish on our opportunities to grow in 2023.

We continue to invest in our people, plants and R&D to not only meet the

growing need for stationary energy storage but also to manufacture advanced lead and lithium batteries for material handling and transportation applications.

Now and into the future, Stryten Energy is well-positioned to help our customers solve their energy challenges with the darn good batteries we manufacture every day.

Increased electrification and the transition to renewable energy sources will continue to drive the demand for energy storage with no end in sight

Tim Vargo, CEO, Stryten Energy — continued from page 30

Terry Murphy, CEO, Hammond Group International

Energy storage: the next big thing for lead battery industry

DOE is a tremendous opportunity for the lead battery industry and several emerging technologies, including flow batteries. Seeing this opportunity, we formed a new entity to demonstrate the lead battery’s suitability for the LDES market.

Our new group, Holy Grail Industries (HGI), will be working with a regional utility NIPSCO and the Pacific Northwest National Lab (PNNL) to better understand the grid requirements and duty cycles necessary for 10 hours of continuous operation.

tencies of solar and wind absolutely require energy storage to make them a practical energy source. Energy storage also allows the arbitrage of cheap, baseload power generated during off-peak hours to be shifted to satisfy peak demand. Energy storage plays a critical role in grid stability, resiliency, and transmission deferral required in rural communities.

The most important requirement for LDES is to develop systems that are operationally compliant and sustainable.

The energy storage market needs alternatives to the current misapplication of lithium-ion batteries in stationary energy storage systems, as these materials are in short supply due to the massive push in electrifying our transportation systems.

The US Department of Energy has recognized the requirement for Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) and has released a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) specifically requesting non-lithium solutions.

We believe this recognition by the

HGI is a consortium of battery manufacturers, energy systems developers, and other stakeholders working to build a first-of-its-kind, multi-chemistry energy storage system and technology center to demonstrate the ability of non-lithium battery technologies to provide LDES.

The energy storage market is massive, far larger than markets lead batteries serve today.

The energy generation intermit-

The HGI team will be working with the DOE to develop systems that would be in front-of-the-meter and have a minimum of 5MW for 10 to 24 hours and as well as behindthe-meter systems of 500kW for a minimum of 10 hours.

The HGI hybrid system approach will show that lead and flow batteries are a timely and relevant solution for these energy storage applications. DOE awards are expected this summer.

The HGI team will be working with the DOE to develop systems that would be in front-of-the-meter and have a minimum of 5MW for 10 to 24 hours and as well as behind-the-meter systems of 500kW for a minimum of 10 hours.

I see five key trends for the coming year.

First, the public charging network will continue to expand. Charging as a Service (CaaS) is therefore expected to grow in 2023.

Second, technology will improve customer experience. One bugbear that is emerging is when EV users don’t move their cars once charging has finished.

For consumers, this leads to frustration and unnecessary delays. For providers, a clear loss of revenue. In 2023, we’re likely to

see new and innovative solutions unveiled to tackle the challenge. From charging point sensors and a wealth of new apps, to charges/fines for malpractice.

Third domestic charging will become king. While the headlines often surround public charging, it’s important to remember that more than 85% of charging takes place at home. I’m confident that the domestic charging market will see the fastest growth in 2023.

Fourth, Eco-smart charging will become commonplace. Data from

the Microgeneration Certification Scheme suggests that more householders than ever are adopting renewables to offset their reliance on mains supply and reduce their carbon footprint.

Fifth, V2G technology will develop further.

In the same sentence as smart charging, you’ll often hear the terms V2H (vehicle to home), V2X (vehicle to everything), V2L (vehicle to load) and V2G (vehicle to grid). After all, EVs are basically just mobile batteries.

Jordan Brompton, co-founder and CMO, myenergi

Terry Murphy Hammond Group International

Scott Fink, president, Sorfin Yoshimura

Electrifying the world

believe we are adapting as an industry to successfully attack this. The lead acid battery industry is defined by its simplicity as it remains the safest and least expensive way to store energy, and that is not changing in the near term.

Although the emergence of advanced chemistries is upon us, lead acid batteries will certainly have a large piece of the pie along with devices like lithium ion, solid state, sodium ion, or hydrogen fuel cells.

Doug Bornas, president, MAC Engineering &

Equipment Company

Optimistic on supply chain and prices

2023 will be another year closer to electrifying the world and batteries are the undeniable key to consumers accessing this energy on demand. Decarbonization of the planet is part of a clean-up project unlike anything the world has ever seen.

When I joined the industry 20+ years ago and discussed with acquaintances socially about my vocation, they looked at me with a confused stare and waited for the conversation to end.

Today, when I am engaged in similar conversations, it immediately captivates stimulating chatter about their EV, or their love for smaller electric bills thanks to their solar panels, or the overall interest in the future of battery technology.

The universal need for batteries is growing, and it will continue to grow throughout this decade and probably into the next. We have an extraordinary opportunity to meet future demand for batteries and I

Sorfin Yoshimura is well positioned to continue to support the industry as it evolves. We have leveraged our more than 40 years of industry experience and continue to add resources around the world. Our infrastructure of eight offices will grow in 2023 as we add our newest location in Monterrey Mexico.

Mexico is a critical manufacturing and trading partner for the Western Hemisphere which made our decision to add technical and commercial personnel as well as warehousing capabilities there an easy one.

SY has been working on various projects in the areas of advanced chemistry both for laboratory and production. Our global procurement team can identify supply-side partners to help the battery-making community execute their plans. Alignment with the right supply partners is critical. SY has a critical supply chain service role supporting the battery industry, and we will continue to listen to the needs of our partners and adapt our services so we can be as valuable as possible.

Huge investment in renewables

Cheerful: High fuel and power prices continue to drive massive investments in Asian renewables. Estimated market capture prices of generation assets across Asia have doubled in the last two years to over $100/MWh, creating a huge space for relatively cheap renewables –we now expect over $2 trillion to be ploughed into wind and solar projects in the next decade.

But high prices are also driving investments in conventional power,

with orders of coal and gas power equipment up 50% this year in Asia.

Fearful: Never in history has this much renewable power capacity been added in such a short time, with an average of 150GW per year added across APAC between 20202022.

As capacity continues to rise, can grid and energy storage investments keep up?

2023 will be a pivotal year.

I can state unequivocally that the supply chain has made 2022 challenging in so many aspects. Delays and price increases has forced many companies to scramble to keep up with needs. When companies cannot get accurate information from vendors it affects the entire process and that is what has happened in 2022.

That said, I remain optimistic that 2023 will see the supply chain get under control and prices to stabilize.

One factor here in the US has been the inability for most companies to find employees. That has been a 2022 theme. Clearly if you can’t get employees you can’t meet deliveries. This is starting to change as we end the year and that bodes well for 2023.

I have talked to several companies that have seen applicants coming in the last two months of the year looking for work. If this continues it will help solve what has been a huge problem for many companies in this industry in 2022..

Doug Bornas MAC Engineering

Scott Fink

Sorfin Yoshimura

Alex Whitworth, head of APAC, Power & Renewables

Alan Greenshields, director EMEA, ESS

Global grid storage to feature prominently in 2023

Battery energy storage is to accelerate in 2023 due to market demand and government policies to enable renewables to provide baseload power. A good example is the Sacramento Municipal Utility District in Northern California where, through a partnership with ESS, the utility plans to deploy up to 200 MW/2GWh of storage alongside renewable energy sources to provide power to some 60,000 California homes.

In 2023 we will see microgrid deployment increase, long-predicted solar interconnects to become a reality, while the world starts looking at renewables as strategic reserves.

Utilities are increasingly focused on the resilience and reliability of solar and energy storage systems as much as cutting carbon emissions. With increased climate-driven natural disasters and increasing unreliability of grids reliant upon centralized generation in some parts of the world, microgrids will play an increasingly important role to deliver reliable, sustainable energy.

Adrian

Long distance HVDC transmission will forge new connections between regions with substantial renewable resources and areas of high demand. For example, the Xlinks project between Morocco and UK will provide 3.6GW of reliable energy for an average of 20+ hours a day by 2030, equivalent to 8% of the UK’s electricity needs.

Similarly, a 2027 project in Australia will see a combination of the world’s largest solar farm and battery system in the north of Australia connected to Singapore via 4,200 kilometres of HVDC submarine cables.

The interconnects from clean energy-rich regions to demand centres will provide new energy sources that will cut costs, improve energy security and cut carbon emissions.

The so-called “strategic reserve” will become an integral business strategy for IPPs, utilities and large C&I players seeking to deploy renewable energy projects.

Ongoing geopolitical issues, trade barriers and the pandemic have contributed to a disparity between

Dry electrode processing, a key trend for next generation manufacturing

Traditional electrode manufacturing relies on slurry mixing, slurry casting, solvent evaporation, and compressing. The wet coating process is costly, energy and timeintense and on the cathode side relies on hazardous organic solvents.

Even though this process is wellestablished and has a track record for safety and reliability, battery experts from all over the world are investigating various strategies to optimize electrode manufacturing.

In Bühler’s view, the most promising strategy is to completely skip the solvent in this process and implement a fully dry process, aka dry battery electrode (DBE): electrode raw materials (active material, conductive additives) are mixed with a polymeric binder.

The most widely used binder is PTFE for a very good reason: PTFE fibrillates under shear which in turn results in a network of micro- and nanoscale fibers — this network immobilizes the powder materials and generates a soft composite structure.

Bühler is a process solution provider to many different industries. Apart from a major footprint in the food industry, Bühler is an important partner for equipment and technologies in the automotive industry (aluminum die casting, vacuum deposition, wet grinding and mixing solutions).

For more than 10 years Bühler has actively shaped the LiB electrode manufacturing by introducing a fully continuous mixing process for

Alan Greenshields ESS

global energy demand and available supply. As the demand for renewable energy grows, the strains on global supply chains will become difficult to manage.

Renewable energy infrastructure producers are already sold out over the next few years with solar panel producers and inverters accepting new orders from 2026. Due to this, the competition for securing equipment for long-term supply agreements and manufacturing capacity is set to increase, as project developers look to mitigate resource scarcity.

The coming year will see “strategic reserves” established to ensure equipment access is possible to meet demand going forward.

electrode slurries. This process is based on twin-screw extruder technology. Opposed to traditional batch mixing processes, major advantages are the high productivity per line as well as consistent product quality.

Over the past years, the twin-screw extruder technology has proven to be the adequate tool for DBE. Raw materials are continuously dosed into the mixer, unit operations such as homogenization, dispersing and fibrillation of the polymer are combined in one machine.

The discharged composite material is of flaky and soft nature — it is subsequently calandered into an electrode film and laminated to the current collector.

As DBE is equally interesting for conventional LIB cells as well as future battery generations, such as all-solid-state batteries, DBE could very well be the next revolution in electrode manufacturing.

Spillmann, director market segment battery solutions, Bühler

Adam

Internationally challenging factors

emergency funding and a booming UK battery business has been hampered by Brexit and uncertainty over the UK automotive sector.

The invasion of Ukraine has completely shifted the global energy map, with coal power stations once thought consigned to history being turned to for back-up solutions with the energy crisis turning 63% of drivers off electric vehicles according to a September 2022 AA survey of 12,500 drivers.

In addition to this EV subsidies are being targeted as governments look to reconcile with a global financial crisis.

been fully made to EV technology. Questions over range anxiety and suitability for covering long distances are being met head on by investments such as Biden’s Bipartisan Investment Law which is putting $7.5 billion in 500,000 EV chargers across the US.

This level of investment will lead to further discoveries which will aid energy density, battery management, safety and cost that will lead to further adoption.

2023 is going to be a very interesting year for the global battery industry with many internationally challenging factors. Clearly the unravelling of Covid restrictions in China is going to cause a tumult internationally.

Energy Storage Journal recently wrote about the European Battery Alliance seeking €100 billion in

All of the above is clearly going to hit industry forecasting from 2019 and although there will be severe delays in automotive deliveries caused by issues across the supply chain there are still many reasons for the global battery industry, along with investors to seize a great deal of opportunity.

2022 has seen further commitment from some of the world’s biggest auto makers such as General Motors and VW fully committing to electrifying their portfolio. The commitment has

Tim Harris, CEO and managing director, Redflow

2023 will be another challenging year but this is an industry with a long vision for a proven technology that has as close to guaranteed growth as one can reasonably ask for.

Across various markets this year we will see winners from those companies fast enough to adapt quickly, or with the reserves enough to last a long cold winter.

With the industry finally able to return to in-person meetings in 2022 it will be incredibly interesting to see what comes out of exhibitions and conference across the world in 2023 with the best indications for short, medium and long term investment.

Market for long duration to grow

2022 has been a very busy year for Redflow and one where we have made significant progress against our strategy.

We now have over 280 active deployments spread across nearly 20 countries and we are finishing the year with a pipeline of really exciting opportunities.

2023 promises to be another exciting year for us. The market for long duration energy storage continues to grow as businesses recognize the critical importance of energy storage in meeting climate change targets.

Continuing supply chain pressures, extreme weather events and the Ukraine war will continue to create opportunities for other energy storage technologies.

In Australia the new federal government’s commitments to an

accelerated pathway to a renewable future presents an exciting pathway for a proudly Australian developed technology like Redflow. This is supported by various state initiatives, including the Queensland renewable energy target of 70% renewables by 2030.

The focus on domestic supply of renewable energy supply has also accelerated — including the supply of batteries which is a positive shift. In addition, the passing of the transformative Inflation Reduction Act in August in the US will make long duration energy storage projects more viable to the market and customers in the largest energy storage market in the world.

We have built a solid pipeline of well over 1GWh of project opportunities. A number of those projects are multi-MWh in size

which follows our strategy of focusing on larger scale systems as well as executing on smaller energy storage solutions for commercial and industrial customers.

Our focus for 2023 will be converting some of the key deals in our pipeline into orders and projects, ramping up our Thailand factory to 80MWh a year as demand increases, extending our set of strategic partners in our key target markets and generating more traction in the market for our proven world leading energy storage technology.

We also will look to build the capabilities — such as UL listing in the US — which will be core to our future success.

Material sourced from public statement by Redflow in December

Adam Moore Event Partners

Moore, CEO, Event Partners

In 2020 Inbatec and Kustan forged a partnership aimed at blending their special engineering skills in acid circulation and gel mixing in the battery formation process. John Shepherd reports on their progress to date.

Supply chains and the new world order

As the world emerged from the dark days of the pandemic lockdowns the lead batteries sector was not alone in being eager to return to business as usual.

However, ‘normal service’ has not resumed, particular in terms of supply chains, which is now a legacy issue of Covid.

“Everyone is struggling with supply chain issues,” says Inbatec MD Christian Papmahl. “Components needed to build equipment now need much longer lead times than before the pandemic hit.

“In the past, customers planned for projects with an equipment lead time of around six months, now they need to be planning ahead much earlier, a year or more.”

Global VP of sales and business development, Nick Hennen says the days of having warehouses filled with parts, ready to be shipped off the shelves at a moment’s notice, are long gone.

“Now people are manufacturing direct to order. To be honest — and we’ve been told this by firms such as the big players in electronics — they are now putting their end users first

before supporting machine builders.

“So if the end user places an order to keep their operations up and running and we need the same part, we’re just so far down the list between the volumes that we buy and the fact that we are a machine builder, which puts us kind of toward the end of the pecking order.”

Both Hennen and Papmahl believe the situation is the new world order as far as supply chains go and if things do change, they doubt the situation will ever revert to pre-covid delivery levels.

Nevertheless, they rely on longstanding relations with customers to try and speed up supplies of parts they need.

Another challenge the partners have had to overcome is securing supplies of oil, which is the lifeblood of manufacturing a key product — plastic.

In addition to getting hold of the raw material in a timely manner, there is the whole dynamic of price fluctuations to contend with against the backdrop of a global energy crisis.

Hennen says they been fortunate in that they have had a couple of “very good global partners”.

“They helped us put together a three-year plan under which we were able to buy some bulk supply at certain points, which helped us out when we did not know what our needs were going to be coming out of Covid. That also helped us to avoid some of the huge price increases.”

Hennen says Inbatec Kustan “lifetime customers” have been invaluable for the future planning of the business.

“These are people who know they are going to buy a certain amount of machines from us in one year or the next, which in turn helps our planning. Those kind of partnerships with our customers have given us some flexibility.”

Hennen says his first impression coming out of the pandemic was that it took about a year for investment to pick up again and to start painting a picture of where the battery formation market was heading.

He says the investment pipeline is opening up again, but the reasoning behind purchasing decisions have changed.

“One thing I’m hearing a lot more, not just in Europe and the US but other places too, is that people are

really looking closely at energy efficiency. Just how much energy is a plant consuming and — with formation being the highest user of electricity in a lead acid plant — are there better ways of doing things?”

The attention of industry leaders is also turning to the management of efficiency and costs across all lead battery plant operations, such as dealing with wastewater and looking far more closely at ways of reducing energy usage.

A key area of focus involves the age of the rectifiers.

“As rectifiers from the 1990s and early 2000s age, they just generate more heat and less actual energy to the battery.”

Another important consideration, where Hennen says Inbatec Kustan “really shines”, is with what would be considered charge acceptance — how much energy needs to go into the battery to create the final product.

“When you compare the charge factor to other methods, in any type of lead acid formation the acid circulation is always going to come out ahead and so that’s become a point for discussion.”

Supporting companies’ desire to increase the level of production while also improving the performance of batteries is in play to and for that, says Hennen, the lead sector could take a leaf out of the lithium production book.

One thing that the lead acid sector has not really taken advantage of in the past is a vertical formation process, Hennen says.

“Traditionally, everything is done on the ground, stretching from points A to B. We’ve been taking a very good look, working with customers around the world, on specific ideas to making battery formation go vertical.

“Anyone who has been into a formation room for lithium will have seen how they can form batteries 40 feet up in the air using trains that are moved around using robotics, which is something that’s not unusual but it is for the lead acid world.”

Hennen says taking advantage of the space that exists above existing formation floors for lead batteries could increase density of production while avoiding huge floorspace expansion costs.

“For lead, it’s just about thinking differently.”

So does Inbatec Kustan have a prototype in play and who else might

they be up against in thinking ‘vertically’?

Papmahl says the partners are not yet in a position to talk about their plans in detail. “It’s not something that’s secret, but the secret will be in doing this effectively, with technology that we can provide to our customers. That is what we want to achieve.”

Talk of ‘secrets’ and tantalizing hints about the commercial and technological wizardry at play behind the scenes is always a tantalizing prospect for any reporter…

Pressed further, Hennen says: “We are at a point now where we are getting close to wanting to prototype something we’ve been working on for around 18 months.

“One of the dynamic changes I wanted to bring to the Inbatec Kustan teams when I joined the company two years ago was to ensure we had greater customer involvement when it came to business and product development.”

Instead of Inbatec Kustan teams huddling in a room to develop, conclave-like, a product that they might emerge with in the hope that customers like it, Hennen says the approach has been to spend time listening to customers about their needs.

“Using that approach, we have come up with prototype 3D models of different ideas which we then share with our customers who know the practicalities of the production world in a lead acid environment.”

The goal is simple — increasing the production of batteries per square metre.

However, the Inbatec Kustan group as an organization (both sister firms within the Red Dot holding company), has been working to expand the range of services they are known for.

Today, only about 50% of the group’s business has anything to do with formation, Hennen says. Wastewater management projects are now a key element of the business portfolio.

“We have worked hard over the past couple of years in identifying ourselves as experts in the manage-

ment of any of the caustic or corrosive liquids in a plant,” says Hennen.

Papmahl says the group has been particularly active in supporting companies in Europe, helping them to conform to sulphate requirements for wastewater streams.

“Most of the authorities dealing with wastewater streams are increasingly limiting sulphate content and we have developed a process that enables our customers to meet the given limits.

“This is an area where we expect to see a lot of projects in the future, especially with an increasing focus on issues of sustainability.”

In terms of the future direction of the lead battery industry, St Louisbased Hennen says there are around six large producers remaining in North America and all are taking fast-charging seriously.

He cites work by the Consortium for Battery Innovation that is pushing fast-charging as a growth market specifically for the stationary storage industry.

“With my background being somewhat in grid development for EVs, I can tell you that it’s a terrific market for the lead acid industry. From the US side and with CBI’s involvement, people are really gearing up for going after that market space over the next few years.”

Hennen says his company is also a player in India’s lead acid market. “There appears to be a significant amount of investment and a big growth curve going on in India right now.”

Papmahl agrees that there are still opportunities for lead acid to shine, not least in the European market because of a need to combat energy and economic crises.

“There is a recognised need for all battery technologies to expand energy storage systems and lead acid has a role to play alongside other chemistries,” he said.

“I am very optimistic about the further development of the lead battery industry. Lead is still a serious challenger in the mix of technologies.”

“I am very optimistic about the further development of the lead battery industry. Lead is still a serious challenger in the mix of technologies”

Christian Papmahl, MD, Inbatec

EV Battery Technology Conference and Exhibition

February 13 – 14

Long Beach, CA. USA

Battery technology is the future. The world’s emerging appetite is for electric vehicles. The automakers and companies for batteries are investing copiously to construct lighter, denser and affordable batteries. The formation and assembling of the battery is a key factor in performance and cost. But for the future, wholly different chemistries and bigger breakthroughs are expected to emerge.

Electric power is the latest technology that is revolutionizing the auto industry. There are many kinds of batteries, but lithium-ion is emerging as the dominating battery technology. However, research and development is continuing into alternative cell chemistries as developers strive to provide cheaper, more energy efficient products.

This is the area of focus for the EV Battery Technology Conference and Exhibition 2023. We will provide you with an exclusive platform from which to explore these issues and more in depth. Come and hear at first hand from the influential voices and key players that are driving the EV industry forward.

Contact Meta Tech

E: info@metatechevents.com

www.evbatterytechconference.com

Intersolar North America

February 14 – 16, 2023

Long Beach, California, USA

Dedicated to accelerating the energy transition #isnaesna23 will bring installers, developers, utilities, technology providers, policy makers, and key

stakeholders from around the world together for three days of impactful learning, networking and business.

With a comprehensive conference programme, lively Solar Games competition, and immersive exhibit hall experience, #isnaesna23 will deliver energy professionals an unmatched opportunities to gain critical insights, make meaningful connections and source quality products.

Contact Diversified Communications www.intersolar.us

EV Charging Infrastructure Conference and Exhibition

February 20 – 21

Long Beach, CA. USA

As the world embraces the e-mobility sector at pace, the importance of having access to a robust electric vehicle charging infrastructure will be a key enabler to accelerate the take-up of EVs.

This event will explore key challenges and issues facing the mobility revolution as countries strive to ensure they have a charging infrastructure ‘backbone’ to support the transformation to an electrically-powered mobility revolution.

Major players from across the EV industry will be on hand to share their expertise and provide insight and analysis for investors, policymakers, manufacturers and infrastructure developers alike.

From electric scooters to e-bikes EVs and e-buses, all sectors we will have it covered. Join us in Long Beach for what promises to be an invaluable experience.

Contact Meta Tech

E: info@metatechevents.com www.evcharginginfrastructureconference.com

NAATBatt Annual Conference

February 20 – 23

Arizona, USA.

NAATBatt 2023 will among the leading networking and market intelligence events in the North American advanced battery industry in 2023. Top executives, scientists and investors use the NAATBatt annual meeting to renew acquaintances, network with new companies and hear about the latest technology developments in the industry.

Joining NAATBatt International is a great way to build relationships in an industry that is helping to shape the 21st century, as vehicle technology, renewable energy, light aviation, maritime propulsion systems, robotics, weapons systems, medical devices, consumer electronics and the internet of things will all depend on electricity supplied by advanced battery technology.

Contact NAATBatt International

E: info@naatbatt.org

www.nac.naatbatt.org

Energy Storage Summit

February 22 – 23

London, UK

As Europe grapples with an energy security crisis, net zero targets and increasing amounts of intermittent renewable generation, energy storage continues to play an essential role in the power sector.

The 8th edition of the summit in 2023 will guide the market on how to maximise storage revenues and reduce energy costs.

Contact Solar Media

E: energystorage@solarmedia.co.uk

www.storagesummit.solarenergyevents. com

RE+ Northeast

February 22 – 23

Boston, MA USA

RE+ Northeast’s primary mission is to deliver on the objectives of both the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) in a way that strengthens the solar energy industry domestically and globally, through networking and education, and by creating an energetic and engaging marketplace to connect buyers and suppliers.

Contact Smart Electric Power Alliance

E: customerservice@re-plus.com

www.events.solar/northeast/

Long Beach, USA

ACI Battery Recycling Europe

March 1 – 2

London, UK

The conference will bring together battery recycling industry experts, collection scheme operators and battery manufacturers to learn, share and discuss the current and emerging topics in the sector.

The two-day event offers an insight into the newest recycling technologies, latest updates in policy and regulations, and commercial benefits of recycling spent power batteries.

ACI’s Battery Recycling Europe will also showcase future opportunities in the battery recycling market and blend together inspirational keynotes, informative sessions and wonderful networking opportunities.

Contact Active Communications International E: luca@acieu.net www.wplgroup.com/aci/event/battery-recycling-europe/

The Distributed Energy Show

March 14 – 15, 2023

Telford, UK

The Distributed Energy Show is a freeto-attend exhibition and conference that will bring together the entire supply chain focused on distributed energy resources and provide a comprehensive overview of the array of technologies and systems that can enable them to generate, store, manage and distribute their own power and heat.

Contact Event Partners

Danny Scott, Exhibition Manager E: danny.scott@event-partners.org www.distributedenergyshow.com

Intersolar Middle East

March 14 – 16, 2023

Dubai, UAE

Middle East Energy (MEE), Intersolar, and ees, the leading energy exhibitions are joining hands to co-deliver an outstanding renewables and energy storage event at Middle East Energy. Renewables and energy storage at MEE is the largest gathering of solar and renewable energy industry professionals in the Middle East & Africa, offering the most effective trade focused platform to international manufacturers and distributors looking to meet regional buyers.

Intersolar and ees conferences provide solar and energy industries with platforms for sharing information and strategies. In collaboration with speak-

Seoul, Korea

ers, participants and partners, we shape the energy supply of the future.

Contact Solar Promotion www.intersolar.ae/en/home

Battery Japan

March 15 – 17, 2023

Tokyo, Japan

Battery technologies are the key to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 as they will largely contribute to the popularisation of renewable energy and EVs.

BATTERY JAPAN gathers a broad range of technologies, components, materials, and devices for rechargeable batteries development & production. The show attracts professionals from all over the world.

Contact

RX Japan

E: wsew.jp@rxglobal.com www.wsew.jp/hub/en-gb/about/bj.html

InterBattery

March 15 – 17, 2023

Seoul, Korea

First launched in 2013 in Seoul, Korea, InterBattery is Korea’s leading battery exhibition showcasing various new products and technologies of battery industry.

InterBattery 2023 attracts more than 400 exhibitors(domestic/ overseas) and 1,200 booths including global top corporates of battery manufacturers such as Samsung SDI, LG Energy solution, SK On, CATL.

CHARGE Your Business through InterBattery 2023!

Contact InterBattery Secretariat

E: interbattery@coex.co.kr

www.interbattery.or.kr/en/

International Battery Seminar and Exhibit

March 20 – 23, 2023

Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA

Founded in 1983, the International Battery Seminar & Exhibit has established itself as the premier event showcasing the state of the art of worldwide energy storage technology developments for consumer, automotive, military and industrial applications.

Key thought leaders will assemble to not only provide broad perspectives, but also informed insights into significant advances in materials, product development, manufacturing, and application for all battery systems and enabling technologies.

As the longest-running annual battery industry event in the world, this meeting has always been the preferred venue to announce significant developments, new products, and showcase the most advanced battery technology.

Contact Cambridge EnerTech

Tokyo, Japan

E: ce@cambridgeenertech.com www.internationalbatteryseminar.com

SAVE THE DATE

8TH International Secondary Lead and Battery Recycling Conference — Recycle100

September 4–5

Siem Reap, Cambodia

Fourteen years ago, the first Secondary Lead Conference was held in Macau, China, bringing together all aspects of the leadacid battery recycling and smelting industry. It has successfully brought the industry together to discuss, debate and learn.

Over that period, the battery recycling industry has continued to develop and now expanded into an exciting new phase, the recycling of lithium-ion batteries.

The conference will discuss the many technical and market aspects of the recycling industry of various battery chemistries. The conference’s overall themes will not change, as we will hear from some leading recycling, smelting and environmental speakers worldwide about the best methods for collecting, breaking, and recovering valuable elements.

Contact Conference Works — CW3 Events

E: events@conferenceworks.com.au www.recycle100.events

RENMAD Storage 2023

March 29–30

Toledo, Spain

The energy storage market in Spain is expected to grow strongly in the next years. With the goal of achieving a 100% renewable country by 2050, Spain expects renewable electricity generation to account for 74% of the total by 2030 and energy storage to achieve an additional 6GW of power.

Although there is still a lot of uncertainty around it, there are already companies betting on energy storage… And they will be present at the fourth edition of RENMAD Storage! The event that brings together the main players in the industry and discusses the key issues of energy storage.

With more than 400 attendees and 60 panels and two entire days discussing the latest trends in energy storage, the fourth edition of RENMAD Storage is coming to Spain on March 2930, 2023.

Contact ATA Insights

E: manuel.bernaudo@ata.email www.atainsights.com/renewablesandstorage/en/

RE+ Texas

April 5 – 6

San Antonio, Texas, USA

RE+ Texas attracts energy professionals from across the solar and storage markets each year. Featuring two days of exhibition, a robust education schedule and networking opportunities, attendees will hear from visionary leaders on what’s next for the Texas clean energy market to propel businesses to the next level.

Contact RE+ Events / Solar Energy Trade Shows

E: customerservice@re-plus.com www.re-plus.events/texas

RE-Battery 2023

April 19–20

Bologna, Italy

RE-BATTERY 2023 is Southern Europe’s largest international trade show for the collection, sorting, processing and reduction of batteries, electric vehicles, e-mobility and e-waste.

RE-BATTERY 2023 is the first-ever professional event to be held in Italy, showcasing hundreds of exhibitors in a free-to-attend show which includes expert speakers from around the world–all invitees to various conference sessions that already anticipate 1000 participants.

Key topics discussed range from recycling technologies to materials recovery solutions, green electronics, sustainable materials, non-toxic substitutes and end-of-life strategies, as well as regulatory and business models to help reduce the environmental impact of all forms of consumer and industrial E-Waste.

The event will focus upon lithiumion batteries for e-mobility transportation, electric vehicles and e-mobility products, but will also cover PV panels, wearables, IoT, 5G and much more.

Contact A151 Srl

E: sales@re-battery.show www.re-battery.show

Battery Tech Expo

April 20

Silverstone, UK.

The battery industry is going through a power revolution with big technology companies investing heavily in the next generation of battery development and energy storage.

Battery Tech Expo brings together professionals from across the advanced battery technology and energy storage sector to connect, innovate and do business. The event will provide an opportunity to showcase the latest products, technologies and services covering battery management systems, EV batteries, battery storage and developments including for commercial and mobile power devices.

Contact 10fourmedia

David Reeks

E: david.reeks@10fourmedia.co.uk www.batterytechexpo.co.uk

Toledo, Spain

Louisville, Kentucky, USA

SAVE THE DATE

20th Asian Battery Conference and Exhibition — 20ABC

September 5–8

Siem Reap, Cambodia

The Asian Battery Conference has a long and proud history of bringing together the world’s leading battery industry C-level executives, marketers, technical staff and sales teams biennially to remain updated on new and emerging technologies, understand future directions, meet new suppliers, conduct business and network with industry peers.

An integral feature of the Asian Battery Conference is the exhibition. A true international opportunity, the exhibition sees the world’s major battery companies come together to showcase their capabilities and leverage off the considerable business developments and direct sales opportunities the conference provides.

The Asian Battery Conference has seen tremendous growth since its inception in 1986, not only in terms of the size of the event but more importantly its ability to act as an educator and business development tool for all the worlds key battery industry executives.

The importance of the Asian Battery Conference to the global battery industry can be demonstrated by the success of the past four conferences.

Contact Conference Works — CW3 Events

E: events@conferenceworks.com.au www.asianbatteryconference.com

BCI Convention + Power Mart Expo

April 23 – 26

Louisville, KY, USA

BCI brings together the leading lead battery manufacturers and recyclers in North America and around the world, and establishes technical standards for battery manufacturing and actively promotes workable environmental, health and safety standards for the industry.

Each year, hundreds of lead battery industry executives gather at the industry’s premier event, the BCI Convention + Power Mart Expo, for three days of networking and exposure to valuable industry knowledge. Past convention presentations have included global regulatory and legislative updates, lead market analyses, the BCI Failure Mode Study, and industrial and transportation batteries outlooks.

The Power Mart Expo allows suppliers to display products, equipment and new innovations to an audience of senior executives from major battery manufacturers.

Contact Battery Council International

E: info@batterycouncil.org

www.convention.batterycouncil.org

Energy Tech Summit

April 26–27

Warsaw, Poland

Over the past three years, Energy Tech Summit has become one of the main events in the clean energy industry.

Taking place in Warsaw, the event will convene the entire energy tech community developing relationships that truly move the needle. This year, we will put the emphasis on rethinking decarbonization pathways.

Join us for an unforgettable event

and be part of a movement pushing boundaries in the energy industry.

Contact Future events, UAB

E: info@energytechsummit.com

www.energytechsummit.com

International Advanced Battery Conference

April 26 – 28

Aachen, Germany

Now preparing for its 15th edition, the conference supported by partners Haus der Technik, Essen, the ISEA Institute, RWTH Aachen University and the MEET Battery Research Centre Münster, will bring together engineers and scientists from the entire field of battery technology at the Eurogress in Aachen in 2023. This event is always guaranteed to attract strong participation of young scientists and innovative companies among its global audience.

Contact Haus Der Technik — HDT

E: hdt@hdt.de

www.battery-power.eu/en/

Solar + Storage Mexico

April 26 – 28

Mexico

Solar + Storage Mexico turns the spotlight on developments in the energy and solar technology sector, as renewable energy is expected to attract investments worth more than $100 billion by 2031.

The exhibition is operated by Deutsche Messe, one of the leading trade show organizers worldwide, SNEC PV Power Expo, the world’s leading solar technology event based in Shanghai, China and Solar Power International, the organizers of North America’s leading events and conferences.

Contact Hannover Fairs Mexico

E: info@hmexico.mx

www.hfmexico.mx/solarpowermexico

India Energy Storage Week

— IESW

May 1–5

New Delhi, India

India Energy Storage Week (IESW) is a flagship international conference and exhibition by India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA).

It is India’s premier B2B networking and business event focused on renewable energy, advanced batteries, alternate energy storage solutions, electric vehicles, charging infrastructure and micro grids ecosystem.

The forthcoming edition of IESW is expected to attract global participation with an intent to facilitate bi-lateral trade, which will invite 20+ countries, 100+ regulators and policy makers, 300+ industry leaders, 100+ partners and exhibitors and 1000+ delegates. Contact India Energy Storage Alliance — IESA www.energystorageweek.in

Battcon

May 9–12

Orlando, Florida, USA

Battcon is an educational program where users, engineers and manufacturers stay up-to-date by learning the latest industry trends and how to apply best practices to the manufacturing, safety, selection, installation, and use of stationary batteries.

The core conference provides an intense learning experience unavailable from any other industry source.

Presentations include cutting edge topics delivered by leading authorities. Open discussion panels and breakout workshops geared to the utility, datacentre and telecom segments are also included in the conference.

Data-centre, telecom or utility industry professionals who are working

in mission critical facilities or are involved in the development of stationary batteries and related equipment will find the Battcon experience is second to none.

Every year, more end users are discovering Battcon, the conference geared for industry novices and seasoned battery professionals alike. More than 600 stationary battery users meet at Battcon for three days of professional development and networking with industry experts and peers.

Contact www.battcon.com

All Energy and Decarbonize Summit

May 10–11

Glasgow, Scotland. UK

All-Energy takes pride in being the UK’s largest low carbon energy and full supply chain renewables event for private and public sector energy end users.

Each year, we connect suppliers of renewable and low carbon energy solutions and policy makers to developers, investors and buyers from around the world to discuss new technologies, and blow us in the right direction to tackle the biggest challenges of our time.

Contact Reed Exhibitions www.all-energy.co.uk

World Energy Storage Exhibition and Forum

May 10–11, Rotterdam, Netherlands

The Sustainable Energy Council is pleased to announce the World Energy Storage Exhibition and Forum will take place at the Rotterdam Ahoy, colocated with World Hydrogen 2023.

As we work towards a decarbonized world, energy supply will be primarily sourced from renewable power sources such as wind, solar, hydro, thermal, creating an unprecedented need for huge energy storage capacity, innovation and technology enabling the world to shift to a new energy reality.

The energy crisis and the war in Ukraine have highlighting the urgent need for countries to be less dependent on the spot trade of energy and increase their resilience through energy storage capacity.

The World Energy Storage Exhibition and Forum brings together the world’s energy and battery technology pioneers paving the way for crucial energy storage advancements to solve many of the current energy issues.

Contact

The Sustainable Energy Council

www.world-energy-storage.com

Future Energy Asia

May 17–19, Bangkok, Thailand

Future Energy Asia is the region’s leading energy transition event, providing a business platform that brings together Asia’s natural gas, LNG, renewable and power generation industries to identify solutions and strategies to foster a secure, affordable and low-carbon energy mix for the continent.

Contact DMG events

E info@futureenergyasia.com

www.futureenergyasia.com

The Battery Show Europe

May 23–25

Stuttgart, Germany

The Battery Show Europe Expo provides attendees the chance to find solutions to their application needs, get a look at the latest technologies, and connect with their peers.

Meet manufacturers, suppliers, engineers, thought leaders and decisionmakers for a conference and trade fair focused on the latest developments in the advanced battery and automotive industries.

Contact Informa Markets

E: thebatteryshowcs@informa.com

www.thebatteryshow.eu

New Delhi, India

Glasgow, Scotland

EUROBAT General Assembly/ Forum

June 6–7

Madrid, Spain

EUROBAT is the association for the European manufacturers of automotive, industrial and energy storage batteries.

EUROBAT has 52 members from across the continent comprising more than 90% of the automotive and industrial battery industry in Europe. The members and staff work with all stakeholders, such as battery users, governmental organizations and media, to develop new battery solutions in areas of hybrid and electro-mobility as well as grid flexibility and renewable energy storage.

Contact

E: eurobat@eurobat.org www.eurobat.org

ees Europe

June 13–16

Munich, Germany

Discover future-ready solutions for renewable energy storage and advanced battery technology at ees Europe! Europe’s largest, most international and most visited exhibition for batteries and energy storage systems is the industry hotspot for suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and users of stationary electrical energy storage solutions as well as battery systems.

In 2023, more than 450 suppliers of products for energy storage technology and systems will be present at ees Europe and the parallel exhibitions of The smarter E Europe taking place in Munich.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a two-day energy storage conference where leading experts delve into current questions of this industry.

Contact Solar Promotion GmbH

E: merz@solarpromotion.com www.ees-europe.com

Advanced Automotive Battery Conference Europe — AABC Europe

June 19–22, Mainz, Germany

Take part in this game-changing event where battery technologists from leading automotive OEMs and their key suppliers explore development trends and breakthrough technologies shaping the future of vehicle electrification.

As more European nations and international automotive OEMs invest in their commitment to vehicle electrification and eMobility, the 2023 AABC Europe event propels that momentum forward, presenting unparalleled coverage of the research and development that helps drive outcomes and supports the next generation of electric vehicle batteries.

Contact Cambridge Enertech www.advancedautobat.com/europe

Pb2023 — International Lead Conference

June 21–23, Athens, Greece

Pb2023 is the premier event for analysis, networking and discussions on all matters relating to lead, including mining, production, batteries, recycling and the environmental management of the metal and its compounds organized by the International Lead Association.

This year the Pb2023 programme includes the latest market trends and forecasts from world-renowned industry experts, a workplace lead exposure management workshop, together with all the latest updates on regulation, sustainability and advanced lead battery research from the Consortium for Battery Innovation.

Registration will open mid-February 2023.

Contact International Lead Association

Tel: +44 (0)20 7833 8090

E: enq@ila-lead.org

Battery Cells and Systems Expo

June 28–29

Birmingham, UK

Battery Cells and Systems Expo will bring together automotive manufacturers, electric utilities, battery system integrators, cell manufacturers and the entire manufacturing supply chain.

A truly unique showcase, companies from around the world will use the show to launch products and demonstrate their technology to an audience of over 4,000 professionals.

Contact

Event Partners

Lana Fowler, event director +44 (0)1273 286362 | lana.fowler@event-partners.org www.batterysystemsexpo.com

Battery India

July 5–7

Bengaluru, India

Battery India will bring together from all of the world leading battery manufacturers interested in technology and business cooperation, battery equipment and component manufacturers, experts in waste management and in environmentally sound technologies for the recycling of batteries.

Contact Battery and Recycling Foundation International — BFI

www.bfi.org.in/index.htm

Plugvolt Battery Seminar

July 18–20

Plymouth, Michigan, USA

Plugvolt’s battery seminar is a conference fostering joint development efforts to advance energy storage solutions.

Event attendees will get an exclusive opportunity to tour INTERTEK’s 200,000+ square-foot Battery Testing Center of Excellence to learn about the latest testing methods for batteries of all sizes from coin-cell through electric vehicles.

INTERTEK performs a variety of tests out of this facility, to industry and global standards, including lifecycling, vibration, environmental, abuse and safety certifications. See this facility first-hand and ask questions to resident experts, and enjoy some light appetizers and beverages while networking with industry peers.

Contact Plugvolt

E: juratesoman@plugvolt.com

www.batteryseminars.com

Birmingham, UK

The last word

Death of the Newshound? The News-puss cometh

For too many years journalism has been dogged by the idea of a newshound relentlessly following up leads, sniffing out stories and collaring the baddies.

But it’s just too canine for newsgatherers at Energy Storage Journal who have just launched their own News-puss.

This week’s News-puss is our proprietor’s Ragdoll cat. “They’re gentle, calm and sociable but also active, intelligent, and vocal — far better than all my staff put together,” he says.

“Watch out for our next bulletin’s News-Puss where we’ll be featuring the British Shorthair … ‘pairing sweetness with strength’.”

Fine dining à la BCI

BCI delegates always reckon the opening reception will give them a fair taste of local cuisine — think gumbo (New Orleans), tuna sliders (San Diego), 10,000 things you can do with beans and steak (all points Texas) but it’ll be interesting to see what’s served up this April in Louisville.

Reminds one of the joke. What’s the difference between a Kentucky zoo and a New York one? A Kentucky zoo has a description of the animal on the cage … along with a recipe.

The magic formula?

It’s a question that’s always perplexed. What was the secret behind our industry’s 2019 Nobel prize winners’ success for the invention of the lithium battery.

Although this magazine has interviewed all three Laureates — John Goodenough, Stanley Whittingham and Akiro Yoshino — none would reveal their enigmatic potion. But now a partial explanation has appeared courtesy of a paper published by Franz Messerli, MD, 10 years ago …

Nobel Awards per country plotted against chocolate consumption

“The slope of the regression line allows us to estimate that it would take about 0.4 kg of chocolate per capita per year to increase the number of Nobel laureates in a given country by 1. For the US, that would amount to 125 million kg per year” — Franz Messerli

Saving the environment, the US way

“Powered by coal: the great EV transition finally reaches the US!”