ESJ, Issue 36 — Summer

POWERING THE SMART GRID

Issue 36: Summer 2022

The new Top 20 of lead batteries Huge advances in technology detailed Profile: Hoppecke

Ambitious plans come to fruition with leadlithium manufacturer

The Ukraine tragedy Unexpected spin-offs for energy storage as Russian war continues

Conquest Europe!

China's perspective of the battery potential in this huge market www.energystoragejournal.com

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Contents

NEWS

Energy Storage Journal | Issue 36 | Summer 2022

PROFILE OF A EUROPEAN GIANT

CONQUEST EUROPE!

22

39

42

THE NEW LEADERBOARD

INSIDE HOPPECKE

THE CHINA PERSPECTIVE

Huge improvements in lead battery performance can, in certain applications, challenge the ascendancy of lithium — without the problems of cost, safety and recyclability

Marc Zoellner, chief executive of one of Europe’s oldest independent battery manufacturers, talks about his latest operations in Poland and the firm’s aggressive moves into expanding its lithium capabilities

Chinese firms such as CATL are rapidly moving into the European market. They have the experience and scale to succeed. ESJ interviews Wang Weidong, China’s commercial counsellor in Berlin

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10

12

The march of the giga factories continues unabated despite the price hikes in needed metals

Lithium battery fires from EVs in the cargo hold of the Felicity Ace are likely to have caused her loss

General Motors has launched a huge study of V2G and V2H possibilities. The future awaits

IN THIS ISSUE: 2 EDITORIAL: The law of unintended consequences is throwing up exciting possibilities from the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine NEWS: 6 PEOPLE | 9 PROJECTS & INSTALLATIONS | 11 TECHNOLOGY ADVANCES | 16 GIGAFACTORIES

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

It’s hard to believe that good can come out of evil but the Russian invasion might surprise us

16

FEATURES

COVER STORY: THE LEAD TOP 20

20 GENERAL NEWS | 22 COVER STORY: The new Top 20 of lead batteries: Huge and rapid advances in technology mean that advanced lead batteries can compete, in some applications, with their lithium counterparts — and without the complications of recycling, price or safety | 39 INSIDE HOPPECKE: The German battery giant is expanding its operations across Europe 42 SPOTLIGHT: Chinese lithium battery makers are moving into Europe in style | 46 FORTHCOMING EVENTS: ESJ sorts through the re-scheduled programme following major disruptions caused by lockdowns.

Editor: Michael Halls | email: mike@energystoragejournal.com | tel: +44 7977 016 918 Advertising manager: Jade Beevor | email: jade@energystoragejournal.com | tel: +44 1 243 792 467 Deputy editor: John Shepherd | email: john@batteriesinternational | tel: +44 7470 046 601

Publisher: Karen Hampton karen@energystoragejournal.com +44 7792 852 337 Editor-in-chief: Michael Halls mike@energystoragejournal.com +44 7977 016 918

Let cool heads prevail

Finance: Juanita Anderson | email: juanita@batteriesinternational.com | tel: +44 7775 710 290 Subscriptions and admin: admin@energystoragejournal.com | tel: +44 1 243 782 275 Design: Antony Parselle | email: aparselledesign@me.com Reception: tel: +44 1 243 782 275 The contents of this publication are protected by copyright. No unauthorized translation or reproduction is permitted.

Every effort has been made to ensure that all the information in this publication is correct, the publisher will accept no responsibility for any errors, or opinion expressed, or omissions, for any loss or damage, cosequential or otherwise, suffered as a result of any material published.

Any warranty to the correctness and actuality of this publication cannot be assumed. © 2022 HHA Limited. UK company no: 09123491

The lead-lithium storage debate steps up a notch The new titan of lead The CEO interview

Next gen integrators

on, head-to-head

the ideal middle man

Coming soon to a Ecoult’s UltraBattery, Anil Srivastava and www.energystoragejournal.com smart grid near you, ready to take lithium Leclanché’s bid for market dominance

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022 • 1

ABOUT US

Reporter: Hillary Christie | email: hillary@batteriesinternational.com Energy Storage Journal — business and market strategies for energy storage and smart grid technologies

EDITORIAL Mike Halls • editor@energystoragejournal.com

What the Ukraine invasion means for the battery business In just a few months Europe’s energy strategy has been turned completely on its head.

The main reason, of course, being the Russian invasion of the Ukraine and the attendant energy crisis.

After Russia attacked on February 24, the reaction from the West was rapid: unprecedented sanctions, a blocking of interbank and international transfers and a huge host of trade embargoes.

The economic punishment being meted out was complicated by the fact that Europe was dependent on Russian natural gas.

Gazprom, Russia’s majority state owned energy firm, controls the flow of gas to the region. Last year Europe imported around 155 billion cubic metres of natural gas last year — that’s just under half of Europe’s supply.

And let’s not forget that the region imports about 2-1/2 million barrels a day of Russian oil.

It’s a straightforward dilemma. The problem for Europe is this: how can it inflict economic pain on Russia without hurting itself?

The short-term answer is it can’t.

But longer term it’s a different picture, if the right actions are taken.

“Forget COP26, forget climate change, forget the circular economy and forget the old plans for the orderly energy transition the EU has been talking about,” one commentator told this magazine.

“The new economic instrument of war is going to be found in renewables — and in their corollary energy storage.

“Every megawatt of energy storage added to Europe’s reserves is now being priced against every cubic metre of Russian gas sold to the region. One unexpected consequence of the tragedy in the Ukraine is the massive boost to renewables and storage.”

The new economic instrument of war is going to be found in renewables — and in their corollary energy storage.”

2 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022

This new way of thinking has affected the whole of the European renewable and storage industry. Pressure to create change is coming from the top of the EU, governmental levels and among businesses rushing to do business.

One immediate spin-off is that energy projects are being priced — and subsidized — at levels that would have not been contemplated before the Russian invasion.

An orderly, if somewhat all-mouth and littleaction commitment to the energy transition is being turned into something more determined.

Indeed, the European Commission, the unelected civil servants that set the rules for the EU, has now recommended that battery storage and renewables projects should be fast-tracked and planning red tape slashed, all in the name of combating a looming energy crisis.

At the heart of EU policy changes will be Germany.

It has already reduced its consumption of Russian gas to 35% of imports from 55% before the war in Ukraine, but says it needs to keep buying from Moscow at least until next year to avoid a deep recession.

But there is, perversely, good that is to come out of the needlessness of this conflict. In its most obvious way it will be the growing independence Europe’s energy security.

But there are two other benefits to come for Europe — and the world — arising from this war.

The joys of science The first are the scientific advancements we can expect soon.

The two world wars of the last century injected a technological fire into the march of scientific progress. Legacies of WW2 include radar, the jet airplane, penicillin and much more. (It also includes nuclear power, microwave cooking and …duct tape!)

The interesting thing to note is that many of these legacies had been discovered well before the conflict and had largely been side-lined — Frank Whittle filed his first patent for the jet engine in 1930, Fleming had discovered www.energystoragejournal.com

EDITORIAL penicillin in 1928, a primitive form of radar had been installed on Britain’s coasts in the 1930s. Even a primitive electronic computer was being tested well before the code breaking that went on in Bletchley Park.

It is almost certain that promising areas of research — think lithium sulfur batteries for example or US Argonne investigations into lead batteries — will move further into the main stream with fast tracked and accelerated budgets.

Hydrogen too Looking away from electrochemical energy storage, the future is also looking brighter for the development of hydrogen. The EU is now setting ambitious targets for the production of green hydrogen — created by using electricity from renewable power to split water into hydrogen and oxygen molecules..

The whole process, at present, is a wasteful one.

The round trip efficiency is low to start with — some say the efficiency is as low as 20%.

The electrolytic process is complicated by water impurities and the splitting of water into the two gases involves energy loss in the process as well as loss in the recombination.

Then the costs spiral upwards when the gas is liquefied for distribution and transported to where their combustion is needed.

Green hydrogen may be the ideal in terms of environmental impact but other types of hydrogen may be accepted in the race for energy independence. Grey hydrogen — derived from fossil fuels — is five times cheaper than green hydrogen but releases 50% more CO2 than the green material. (And to decarbonize the process you get blue hydrogen, which triples the cost.)

Despite its environmentally-friendly image and potential, the global production of hydrogen emits almost three times as much CO2 as a whole country, France, for instance.

It’s likely that the EU will have a difficult choice to make here.

The political wing of the EU, the elected body by voters that is the European Parliament, will almost certainly vote for energy independence at a cost of meeting climate change criteria.

But insiders say that the European Commission will almost certainly ignore that.

They will plump for the ideologically pure, if costly, green hydrogen. www.energystoragejournal.com

“Every megawatt of energy storage added to Europe’s reserves is now being priced against every cubic metre of Russian gas sold to the region.”

And why not? The Commission itself is above the world of business and 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 — and will likely stay green and righteous. (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!)

Oddly enough, in the longer term a Commission decision for green hydrogen might prove to be the correct decision and kick-start new industry.

Once again US academic Robert Merton’s Law of Unintended Consequences has shown that what can go wrong, will go wrong and — simultaneously what has gone wrong [the Ukraine conflict] can make things go right.

The question now is can Europe harness the wind of change that has blown in from the East and fashion a new energy order out of the chaos caused for the greater future good?

Mike Halls, Editor Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022 • 3

PEOPLE NEWS

Randolph takes over as CEO of Ecobat

Pictured (from left): Randolph, Berend and Paredes

Marcus Randolph has been appointed president and CEO of international lead battery recycler Ecobat, the company announced on March 17.

Randolph, who will continue as chairman of Ecobat’s board, succeeded Jimmy Herring — who Ecobat said was no longer with the company effective March 16.

Randolph said: “I want to thank Jimmy for his years of service and dedication to

Ecobat. He led a significant transformation of the company, including the 2019 restructuring of Ecobat, rebranding of the company and creation of a new leadership team.”

Before Ecobat, Randolph was executive chairman of Boart Longyear, a Salt Lake City company and the world’s largest supplier of drilling services and drilling equipment to the minerals industries.

Randolph has also held several leadership posts with BHP Billiton in Australia.

Separately, Ecobat announced on April 11 that Scott Paredes had been appointed as vice president of treasury.

Paredes previously spent four years as vice president and treasurer at Southwire, the world’s second largest privately owned wire and cable manufacturer in the world.

Meanwhile, Chelsey Berend has been promoted to Ecobat’s director of global marketing and communications, the company said on April 13.

Berend joined Ecobat in January 2022 as chief of staff, working with the company’s executive committee.

Tesvolt appoints Koecke as CFO German battery storage systems specialist Tesvolt has appointed Philipp Koecke as chief financial officer, the company announced on April 4.

Koecke will join the firm at the start of May. Koecke spent a number of years as an investment manager at a technologyoriented investment company before heading the finance department at Solarworld for 15 years. In addition Koecke was also on the boards of the company’s US subsidiaries.

Tesvolt co-founder and MD Daniel Hannemann said Koecke “has already closely supported growth in other companies… at the same time, Philipp knows the market of our key business areas very well".

Tesvolt specializes in lithium battery storage systems for commerce and industry. The company

Philipp Koecke

4 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022

uses high-performance battery cells from Samsung SDI at its gigafactory in Wittenberg, Germany.

New global role for Fantoni at Digatron Auto industry veteran Marcello Fantoni has been appointed head of global sales and marketing for battery testing and formation group Digatron, the company announced on February 18.

Fantoni, who holds the combined role within the group of general manager of Italy-based Digatron Systems, has more than 20 years of experience in the global automotive industry with Fiat Chrysler — and has worked in several senior positions.

He entered the energy storage industry in 2015, leading the international sales and marketing operation of a primary industrial group active in engineering lead battery assembly equipment and lithium ion cell assembly machinery solutions, in addition to selling power electronics formation solutions.

Digatron founder and chairman Rolf Beckers said: “Marcello is an outstanding appointment and demonstrates Digatron’s commitment for future growth with a strategy to expand the business from the traditional battery laboratory to the plethora of opportunities arising from the EV electrification process for lithium cell manufacturing and testing — and now for our latest technology venture into manufacturing DC fast-charging infrastructure.”

Rolf Beckers (above, right) with Marcello Fantoni

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PEOPLE NEWS

Saft appoints Cedric Duclos as new CEO French batteries company Saft said on April 21 that Cedric Duclos had been appointed CEO effective April 11.

Duclos succeeded Ghislain Lescuyer, who Saft said had decided to retire

after 10 years as a member of the company’s supervisory board and seven years as CEO — during which he oversaw the sale of Saft to French oil giant Total (now TotalEnergies) in 2016.

Duclos, a French and

Cedric Duclos

American dual citizen, joins Saft from another TotalEnergies subsidiary — Hutchinson — where he spent nearly 25 years. His most recent position was based in Michigan, where he was president and CEO of Hutchinson’s Fluid Management Systems business.

Saft said Duclos has a track record of achievements in highly technical markets, mostly in the automotive sector and in aerospace, defence and energy — and specializing in thermal and battery management, smart plant automation and electric and autonomous vehicle technologies.

Last December, TotalEnergies announced the launch of the largest battery-based energy storage facility in France. Saft designed and assembled the battery containers for the 61MW/61MWh site at the Flandres Center in Dunkirk.

Grant to kickstart EU batteries academy The European Union formally launched the European Battery Alliance Academy on February 24, with a €10 million ($11 million) grant to train up thousands of workers for Europe’s expanding battery sector.

The funding will be provided through the European Institute of Innovation and Technology to help bridge what the institute said was a “growing skills gap” across the battery value chain.

Academy training programmes will benefit from

the grant. Training includes online seminars and in-person workshops designed to “reskill and upskill” workers — who will go on to be part Europe’s future battery-cells manufacturing industry.

The academy initiative was launched after EU leaders were warned of a “growing skills shortage” facing Europe’s battery manufacturing industry during a ministerial-level summit of the EBA in 2021.

EU innovation and research commissioner Mariya Gabriel said: “Trans-

6 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022

formative innovation must be met with skills and education for a new era.

“The EBA Academy will equip thousands of workers and learners with the skills needed by innovative companies and start-ups to grow and scaleup to become global tech champions. In addition, it will invest in the innovation ecosystem underpinning the European battery supply chain, with training platforms, centers, and curricula ready to meet the demands for a more competitive Europe.”

ESS Tech appoints Gast to board

Claudia Gast

Claudia Gast has joined the board of US-based iron flow battery storage firm ESS Tech, the company announced on February 17.

Gast is the chief financial officer and board member of Global Technology Acquisition Corp and cofounder of investment firm Greentrail Capital.

She replaces Shirley Speakman of Cycle Capital, who joined the board in 2017 and is leaving to return to early-stage company investing.

ESS chief executive officer Eric Dresselhuys said Gast’s background in finance and operations management across multiple industries would “add depth and expertise to the company’s governance structure as we accelerate production and deployment on a global scale”.

In January, ESS said it would be deploying its technology in the US state of Oregon under an agreement to test and demonstrate frequency response, contingency reserve, voltage and VAR (voltamp reactance) support, demand response and resource optimization.

The company will supply its 3MWh Energy Center system — it expects it to come online later this year — under a deal with the state’s energy company, Portland General Electric.

www.energystoragejournal.com

PEOPLE NEWS

Sunlight Group appoints new board members, discusses global leadership plans

Sunlight’s Xanthi facility and new board members, from left: Gordon Riske, Michel Govaert and Peter Lamp

Lead and lithium battery firm the Sunlight Group said on March 14 it was bolstering the international experience of its board with new appointments, as the Greece-based company aims to become “a true global leader” in the energy storage sector.

Gordon Riske has been named as chairman and independent non-executive director.

Also joining the board as independent non-executive directors are Michel Govaert, who will also head the company’s audit committee, and Peter Lamp, who will head the new technology and innovation committee.

Riske is a former CEO of the Kion Group, a German multinational manufacturer of materials handling equipment and the incumbent CEO of GRBR Services.

Sunlight said Riske had in-depth knowledge of original equipment manufacturers and a wealth of expertise in sectors including high-performance energy systems.

Govaert, who is a nonexecutive director and former group CFO at AOC & ChemicaInvest, started his career at Philips Electronics and has worked as partner at professional services firm Alvarez & Marsal.

Sunlight said Govaert’s

German testing lab EBL joins CBI Germany-based lead battery testing company EBL became the latest member of the Consortium for Battery Innovation on January 27, the company announced.

EBL, which was founded in June 2021 by joint managing directors Benjamin Gebhardt and Martin Müller, started construction of its independent lab testing facility at Holungen, in the

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central German federal state of Thuringia, in March.

The company said it expects to start operations at the facility in the middle of 2022.

Gebhardt and Müller said EBL will offer electrical and mechanical testing of lead acid batteries, supported by follow-up evaluation and expert assessment of test results.

experience would be invaluable in Sunlight’s corporate transformation to a global tech company.

Lamp, who is head of

BMW Group Battery Cell Technology and the associated worldwide R&D network, was set to join Sunlight’s board in May. He has more than 30 years’ experience in cuttingedge R&D work in the energy sector, Sunlight said.

Sunlight Group CEO Lampros Bisalas said the new board members all have a strong track record of driving growth and operational excellence.

In 2021, Sunlight announced the initial rollout of a €560 million ($615 million) five-year investment plan to expand the capacity of lead acid and lithium ion energy storage products.

Investments include upgrades to the company’s facilities in the US, Italy, and Greece. Sunlight said its main manufacturing unit in Xanthi, Greece, would become the world’s largest facility for industrial, motive, lead batteries.

NMR spectroscopy pioneer receives CBE

Clare Grey

Leading UK battery scientist Clare Grey was awarded with the title of Commander of the British Empire in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours in recognition of her services to science.

Professor Grey, from the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry and Pembroke College, pioneered the optimization of lithium batteries with the help of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

Grey has to a large extent

created, by her own contributions, a flourishing new field of NMR with a great potential for future beneficial discoveries and applications.

NMR spectroscopy, which proved to be a vital tool in the advancement and commercialization of lithium batteries in its early development for EV years, has recently been at the cutting edge of lead battery research in various collaborations with the US Argonne National Laboratory.

Grey said: “I am delighted that my contributions to the general field of energy materials have been honoured in this way.

“I hope that this recognition highlights how important fundamental science is to performing the underpinning work that will help the world transition to a more sustainable society.”

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022 • 7

PEOPLE NEWS

Gridtential appoints Tim Ellis to advisory board Lead-acid battery expert Tim Ellis has joined Silicon Joule battery maker Gridtential’s technical advisory board in what the firm said on January 18 was ‘a real coup’.

He will advise the firm on the roll-out of the company’s Silicon Joule battery technology, which is approaching commercial production with manufacturing partners, Gridtential said.

Ellis is the former presi-

dent of RSR Technologies, the R&D unit of Ecobat.

Before that he was director of materials research at Kulicke & Soffa, the semiconductor packaging and electronic assembly firm.

He has written dozens of scientific papers across metallurgy, semiconductor packaging technology, leadacid battery materials, energy storage and recycling, and holds more than 20 US patents.

“If we’re to decarbonize,

Redwood’s 'JB' Straubel receives Shep Wolsky Battery Innovator Award

we need a way to efficiently produce millions of longlasting, high-power batteries,” said Ellis.

“Lead batteries offer the scale — they are low cost, highly recyclable and can be produced in today’s battery factories. Now, with Silicon Joule technology, they are lighter and more powerful. It can unlock new applications for lead batteries and accelerate the shift to renewable energy.”

“It’s a real coup to have him join our team,” said CEO John Barton. “His combination of experience in semiconductor and lead battery materials is the perfect match for Gridtential as we partner battery manufacturers to bring Silicon Joule to market.”

Gridtential is one of the

Tim Ellis

more than 100 members of the Consortium for Battery Innovation.

In February 2021, the CBI supported a project between Gridtential and the battery research and testing firm Electric Applications Incorporated, which sought to develop ‘plug and play’ solar-powered energy storage systems specifically for behind-the-meter storage applications.

EUROBAT joins Global Battery Alliance The co-founder and CEO of Nevada-based Redwood Materials, Jeffrey Brian Straubel — best known as ‘JB’ — was presented with the Shep Wolsky Battery Innovator Award during the International Battery Seminar in Florida on March 29.

Straubel joined the Orlando conference remotely for the announcement of the award, which he received in acknowledgement of his lifetime achievements to date.

Before founding Redwood, Straubel spent 15 years at Tesla as cofounder and CTO, where he led cell design, supply chain and led the company’s first gigafactory concept.

He also had a direct role in both R&D, team

building and operational expansion from prototype cars through to mass production and gigawatthour-scale.

The battery innovator award is presented annually in memory of Wolsky, who died in November 2017 at the age of 91. He showed exception brilliance from a young age and notwithstanding the intervention of the Second World War, obtained his PhD aged just 21.

He was known as a grandee of all chemistries within the battery industry making the award ceremony all the more significant.

Wolsky founded the seminar on his retirement and ran the event for 32 years, before selling it to Cambridge Enertech.

EUROBAT, the association of European automotive and industrial battery manufacturers, said on March 16 it had joined the Global Battery Alliance.

GBA is a public-private collaboration platform, founded in 2017 at the World Economic Forum, to help establish a sustainable battery value chain by 2030.

EUROBAT executive director, Rene Schroeder, said

both organizations “shared goals of circularity, environmental protection and sustainable development.

“With the new Batteries Regulation, the future EU policy framework for batteries, it becomes even more important to have the voice of the EU battery industry heard at this important and global platform, while actively contributing towards the higher goal,” Schroeder said.

Schroeder: “shared goals of circularity”

8 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022

www.energystoragejournal.com

NEWS

‘Multiple chemistry’ ESS push for Stryten Energy in new divisions Stryten Energy has formed two new divisions focused on developing and producing multiple battery technologies, including lead, for the energy storage market, the company said on March 9.

The formation of the Motive Power and Essential Power units followed the company’s announcement on January 19 that it was adding vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) technology to its lead and lithium battery storage portfolio, after its acquisition of Storion Energy.

As part of the new moves, Stryten is rebranding its GNB Industrial Power division to Stryten Energy by the end of 2022 — “to unify go-to-market efforts under the Stryten Energy brand” directly and through its dealer network and service partners.

Stryten CEO Tim Vargo said the new divisions

would enable the company to “focus on developing and manufacturing the high-performing, top-quality energy storage solutions across multiple chemistries that are required to meet the growing demand for clean power and the decarbonization goals in the US. “Whether it is switching from internal combustion to battery-powered electric forklifts in their distribution centres or providing environmentally friendly energy storage for on-demand power needs, Stryten Energy and its vendor partners stand ready to support our customers’ sustainability goals now and into the future.”

The Motive Power division includes advanced lead and lithium batteries, intelligent chargers and energy performance management software solutions for material handling, mining and railway applications. Its

team includes stored energy experts whose work includes power studies, training and inspections.

Essential Power includes advanced lead, lithium and vanadium battery technologies and services, including chargers and racking systems used for backup power for the military and government, telecommunications, UPS systems, railway, utility, microgrids and long-duration energy storage for renewable power sources.

Stryten said the Essential Power research and development team will identify, develop and commercialize innovative technologies such as lithium and flow batteries that will support the emerging sustainable power and distribution markets.

Stryten Energy previously announced in January it was adding vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) technology to its lead and

lithium battery storage portfolio with the acquisition of Storion Energy’s assets.

Vargo said the thinking behind the company’s third acquisition in as many months also revealed the company’s determination to be a key player in the long duration energy storage market.

Since last November, USbased Stryten has also acquired Galvion and Tulip Richardson Manufacturing.

Vargo said: “We’ve been targeting acquisitions where we feel it’s best to leverage our manufacturing experience in energy storage.

“We’ve been making lead energy storage for a long time, we know how to make large quantities using lead, and the same skill set can be applied to other things, such as lithium and vanadium.”

Exide Industries announces plans to invest $800m in lithium manufacturing Indian lead battery maker Exide Industries revealed on April 4 it may be about to invest in the region of Rs6,000 crore — Rs60,000,000,000 ($793 million) — in building a multi-gigawatt battery cell manufacturing plant in India’s Karnataka state.

Exide said on March 10 it had agreed a long-term technical collaboration partnership with China’s SVOLT Energy Technology for lithium ion cell manufacturing on a greenfield site — but the location and financial details were not disclosed.

However, in its April 4 regulatory filing to the National Stock Exchange of India, Exide said it expected to invest around Rs6,000 crore

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“over a period of time” in the project to supply India’s burgeoning energy storage and automotive sectors, although the investment had yet to be formally signed off by the company.

Exide said it had yet to receive formal notification from Karnataka state confirming details of the site designated to develop the battery cells plant.

But Exide said India’s Ministry of Corporate Affairs issued a certificate of incorporation on March 24 for the company’s whollyowned Exide Energy Solutions subsidiary — which will coordinate development of the Karnataka plant and run future operations at the site.

Under the terms of the SVOLT agreement, announced in a regulatory filing, Exide said it would be licensed to “use, exploit and commercialize” the firm’s technology to launch multigigawatt battery cell manufacturing in India for the energy storage and automotive sectors.

SVOLT, which has its headquarters in China’s Jiangsu province, will also support the setting up of a state-of-the art green field manufacturing plant on a turnkey basis.

Exide said it is forming a special purpose vehicle, through a wholly-owned subsidiary, to run the manufacturing business — and is in fairly advanced stage of

discussions for finalizing a construction site.

Exide managing director and CEO Subir Chakraborty said the partnership was “a major step forward in Exide’s aspiration of becoming a leading player in the rapidly emerging new-age electric mobility and stationary application businesses in India”.

Chakraborty said the new manufacturing facility would focus on two popular cell chemistries and three cell formats.

Last August, SVOLT closed a series ‘B’ financing of Rmb10.28 billion (about $1.6 billion), following a series ‘A’ financing of Rmb3.5 billion at the end of February 2021.

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022 • 9

NEWS

Shake up of maritime transportation rules discussed after sinking of the Felicity Ace The fire on the Felicity Ace, a CEU 6,400 car carrier that ultimately sank in the Atlantic on March 1 has been attributed to thermal runaway of EV batteries inside the vehicles. Although it is too early to determine the reason for the loss of the vessel it is almost certain to affect recent discussions on maritime transport safety.

The blaze on the Felicity Ace broke out on February 16. Portuguese news agency Lusa quoted a port official on the Azorean island of Faial, João Mendes Cabeças, as saying lithium ion batteries in EVs on board the Felicity Ace were believed at that time to be “keeping the fire alive” — but said it was not yet clear whether the batteries sparked the blaze.

A spokesperson for the vessel’s owner told Energy Storage Journal it was too soon to comment on reports that EV batteries had been involved.

A spokesperson for Volkswagen confirmed to Energy Storage Journal that some of its vehicles were on board the vessel, but declined to give details, other than to say all crew members had been safely rescued by the Portuguese navy.

The Felicity Ace was owned by Car Carriers, a wholly-owned subsidiary of MOL Shipmanagement Singapore.

The fire broke out on the Panamaflagged car carrier on February 16, as the vessel was some 90 nautical miles southwest of the Azores, travelling from Germany to the US. After the ship sank on March 1, a Bloomberg report said that a risk-modelling analyst had estimated the value of the goods aboard the ship at $438 million, of which $401 million were cars, and estimated Volkswagen’s losses at $155 million.

At the same time as the Felicity Ace was on fire, China re-iterated a call to the International Maritime Organization to consider a shake-up of maritime safety rules for EVs being shipped by sea.

China has submitted proposals aimed at improving fire safety technical requirements under International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) regulations following “frequent” accidents involving EV battery fires, the IMO told Energy Storage Journal.

10 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022

Felicity Ace in happier days in Rotterdam

China’s proposals include “enhanced protection” from onboard automated fire-extinguishing systems, more video monitoring of cargo, new rules governing ro-ro spaces separating vehicles on vessels and a review of protective clothing requirements for firefighters.

The proposals were discussed by the IMO’s Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) this April.

According to a paper submitted by China to the MSC: “The ever-increasing demand for ships carrying large quantities of various types of new energy vehicles including lithium ion battery vehicles — and reports of several major fire accidents occurring on ships carrying lithium ion battery vehicles — serve as a reminder that the international maritime community needs to pay attention to the special safety risks of ships carrying new energy vehicles.”

The paper urges the safety committee to comprehensively review existing regulations — claiming that existing fire extinguisher systems are not sufficient to cope with shipments of mixed vehicles, such as EVs being carried alongside alternative fuel vehicles.

China said it had conducted its own tests into the efficacy of gas fire-extinguishing systems in enclosed spaces involving various EV models using lithium ion batteries.

“During repeated tests, the flame on the battery surface was quickly extinguished after the CO2 fire-extinguishing medium was released, but reignition occurred afterwards, accompanied by a gas explosion.

“This is because it is difficult to stop the thermal runaway propagation between battery cells or modules and the CO2 cooling effect is not enough to inhibit the thermal runaway reaction inside the lithium ion battery.

“At the same time, combustible gas released by the thermal runaway accumulates… creating an explosive gas environment. Due to the loss of air tightness in the space, the entry of fresh air from outside is also one of the reasons for the re-ignition.”

Experience showed it can take longer to put out fires involving new energy vehicles than fuel vehicles, the paper said. Without “effective measures to isolate new energy vehicles… fire could spread more quickly to other decks”.

Water spray systems are effective in suppressing individual EV fires, but have limited impact in putting out fires that spread to other vehicles stowed in close proximity, which then “can only be left to burn” or tackled by “manual firefighting”, the paper said.

The paper said work is needed to “identify the gaps” in existing SOLAS fire safety requirements and that costs involved in increasing fire prevention were “a price that the maritime industry should bear”.

However, the paper proposes a staged approach — focusing initially on developing fire safety improvements for ships carrying lithium ion battery vehicles followed by alternative fuel vehicles, “mainly hydrogen fuel cell vehicles”.

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NEWS Ford, Volvo back Redwood Materials’ California collection and recycling push Nevada-based Redwood Materials announced on February 17 it had launched an EV batteries collection and recycling project in California backed by Ford and Volvo.

Redwood said the car firms are the first to directly support the program — but all lithium ion and nickel metal hydride batteries in the state will be welcomed into the scheme and other car makers are invited to support the scheme.

A spokesperson told Energy Storage Journal the program was “focused solely on lithium ion and nickel metal hydride batteries, working directly with auto dismantlers and dealers to find them”.

“The pathways for lead acid are quite mature with 99%+ already being recycled.”

Redwood announced last September it was expanding its operations to produce battery materials for the US market.

The company said it would “safely package, transport, and recycle” these batteries at its facilities in neighbouring Northern Nevada — returning “high quality, recycled materials back into domestic cell production”.

Annually, 6GWh of lithium ion batteries or the equivalent of 60,000 EVs, pass through Redwood.

The company said this represents “most of the recycled lithium ion batteries in North America today”.

Ford invested $50 million in Redwood in 2021 for a partnership to create a circular materials supply chain for production of EV batteries in the US.

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Li-Cycle signs recycling, investment deals with LG Chem and LG Energy Solution Li-Cycle has completed various commercial arrangements to become the preferred lithium ion battery recycling partner in North America for LG Chem and LG Energy Solution (LES), the companies announced on April 21.

The signing of an agreement with LES for the supply of manufacturing scrap for recycling and deals with both LES and LG for the sale of nickel sulphate from Li-Cycle’s recycling Rochester hub, in the state of New York, paves the way for the Korean group’s companies to finalize a $50

million investment in LiCycle.

All three companies said the agreements would support increasing demand for lithium ion batteries and their critical materials for the energy storage and electric vehicle batteries markets — and the partners would continue to explore additional opportunities globally.

Li-Cycle co-founder and CEO Ajay Kochhar said: “We’re thrilled to advance our collaboration… Together, we are driving sustainable global electrification through the creation of

this milestone closed-loop ecosystem in the lithium ion battery supply chain.”

The recycling company announced in September that Koch Strategic Platforms (KSP), a subsidiary of Koch Investments Group, was making a $100 million investment in LiCycle through the purchase of a convertible note.

Li-Cycle said then that the incremental capital being raised from KSP would be directed towards the accelerated expansion of the battery recycling footprint, both in North America and internationally.

EU batteries supply chain facing looming crisis, recycling needed Europe faces major shortages of the key materials needed to make the batteries to power the bloc’s clean energy transition, according to a study published on April 25.

Eurometaux, which represents non-ferrous metals producers and recyclers in Europe, said the independent study by Belgium’s KU Leuven research university showed the bloc could face problems around 2030 from global supply shortages for five metals — especially lithium, cobalt, nickel, rare earths, and copper.

Meanwhile, the study said coal-powered Chinese and Indonesian metal production will dominate global refining capacity growth for battery metals and rare earths — while Europe continues to rely on Russia for its supply of aluminium, nickel and copper.

The study says Europe faces “critical shortfalls” in the next 15 years without more mined and refined

metals to supply batteries needed for electric vehicles, energy storage systems and renewable power infrastructure.

Study lead author Liesbet Gregoir said: “Europe needs to decide urgently how it will bridge its looming supply gap for primary metals.

Without a decisive strategy, it risks new dependencies on unsustainable suppliers.”

The study recommends that Europe link up with “proven responsible suppliers” to manage environmental and social risks and asks why the bloc has not yet followed other global powers, such as China, in investing in mines to ensure environmental, social and governance standards.

Recycling metals in Europe could produce three quarters of Europe-made battery cathodes by 2050 if it “invests heavily now and fixes bottlenecks”, according to the study.

However, recycling “will not provide a major EU supply source to Europe’s electric vehicle batteries and renewable energy technologies until after 2040”, the study says.

Meeting the European Union’s so-called green deal goal of climate neutrality by 2050 will require 35 times more lithium and seven to 26 times the amount of increasingly scarce rare earth metals, “compared to Europe’s limited use today”, the study says.

“Europe needs to decide urgently how it will bridge its looming supply gap for primary metals. Without a decisive strategy, it risks new dependencies on unsustainable suppliers” Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022 • 11

NEWS

GM launches V2G, V2H power study for PG&E in California General Motors is to pilot the use of its electric vehicles as on-demand power sources for homes served by the Pacific Gas & Electric utility in California, GM announced on March 8.

The pilot’s first vehicleto-home capable EV and charger will be tested by this summer — including the use of bidirectional hardware coupled with software to enable power to flow from a charged EV into a home — “automati-

cally coordinating between the EV, home and PG&E’s electric supply”, GM said.

After lab testing, PG&E and GM plan to test vehicleto-home interconnection by allowing a small number of customers’ homes to receive power from the EV when power stops flowing from the grid. The goal is to extend to larger customer tries by the end of the year.

GM CEO Mary Barra said the pilot program, using multiple GM EVs,

further expands its electrification strategy, “demonstrating our EVs are reliable mobile sources of power.

Our teams are working to rapidly scale this pilot and bring bidirectional charging technology to our customers.”

By the end of 2025, GM says it plans to have more than one million units of EV capacity in North America to respond to growing demand, using the company’s Ultium battery

VPP tech firm GridBeyond makes moves into Australian market Energy tech company GridBeyond said on April 21 it is to start providing virtual power plant services in Australia.

The company, whose investors include Saft battery maker owner TotalEnergies, will work with businesses through Australia’s National Elec-

tricity Market, also using GridBeyond’s artificial intelligence and data science technology for commercial and industrial customers to take part in grid balancing, trading energy generation and storage through wholesale markets.

GridBeyond said it started commercially trad-

ing in Ireland in 2010 with €800,000 (about $858,000) in backing from the AIB Seed Capital Fund, which is managed by the Dublin Business Innovation Centre. In 2011, the company developed an integrated energy management system for demandside response services.

Canada Pension Plan invests in Hydrostor for A-CAES projects Energy storage firm Hydrostor said on April 19 it had secured a $25 million investment boost or its Advanced Compressed Air Energy Storage (A-CAES) projects from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

The CPP’s backing follows a $250 million investment pledge for Hydrostor made in January by investment bank Goldman Sachs.

CPP said its financing would support Torontobased Hydrostor’s strategy of developing, constructing, and operating A-CAES facilities globally.

Hydrostor says its ACAES technology works by compressing air using

electricity — preferably from renewable sources — then extracting heat from the air and storing it inside a purpose-built cavern, where hydrostatic compensation is used to maintain the system at a constant pressure during operation.

The compressed air is converted to electricity on demand and can provide long-duration storage in a similar way to pumped hydro, the firm says.

Hydrostor has projects underway in Toronto, Ontario, California and New South Wales, and is looking at South America for future installations.

CPP’s managing director and head of sustainable

12 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022

energies Bruce Hogg said: “Long-duration energy storage is a critical component in the decarbonization of electrical grids.

Hydrostor’s solutions provide a unique investment opportunity aligned with our focus on the energy evolution.”

On February 22, Hydrostor said a consortium it had formed with French energy group EDF and Io Consulting was awarded £1 million ($1.3 million) from the UK government’s Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy to assess Hydrostor’s technology using mothballed gas cavities in the UK.

technology developed with joint venture partner LG Energy Solution.

According to the sustainable development scenario of the International Energy Agency’s Global EV Outlook 2020, released in June that year, the cumulative total of 16,000GWh of energy expected to be stored in EV batteries globally in 2030 “could actively provide energy to the grid at suitable times via V2G solutions”.

The firm continued to attract fresh funding and expanded its operations to Great Britain in 2012.

GridBeyond entered the US market with an office in Texas in 2020 and opened an HQ in Japan last year.

As of 2021, the company said it had a global portfolio of more than 1GW of load.

GridBeyond CEO Michael Phelan said the frequency response market in Australia was similar to ones the company manages in Ireland to handle flexible energy resources and “co-optimise them with wholesale trading”.

“Our microgrid controls that integrate electric vehicles are also a good fit for Australia’s energy market need,” Phelan said.

“Operating in the VPP & DERMS (distributed energy resource management systems) market that is planned to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 20% by 2026, GridBeyond is strongly positioned to continue the significant growth we have seen and to continue to support businesses, asset owners and grid operators throughout the transition to a net zero future and beyond.”

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NEWS

Energy Dome, Ansaldo sign ‘CO2 Battery’ storage deal Italian energy tech start-up Energy Dome said on April 4 it had signed a deal to expand use of its ‘CO2 Battery’ technology in long-duration storage systems across Europe in partnership with Italy’s Ansaldo Energia.

Ansaldo will provide equipment, engineering, and construction for the “grid-scale energy storage projects” across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the companies said.

Energy Dome’s first commercial CO2 Battery storage

facility, which the company said uses a non-flammable, non-toxic carbon dioxidebased energy storage solution to store and dispatch power, is nearing completion in Sardinia, Italy.

The company said its technology “does not involve scarce and environmentally challenging raw materials like lithium”. Instead, it uses carbon dioxide and “offthe-shelf components to charge and discharge power from four to 24 hours, enabling renewables to serve as

fully-dispatchable daily energy resources”.

According to Energy Dome, its technology uses CO2 in a closed-loop charge/ discharge cycle as a storage agent. Before charging, gaseous CO2 is kept in a large dome structure.

During charging, electricity from the grid is used to compress the CO2 into liquid form, creating stored heat in the process. During discharge, the liquid CO2 is evaporated using the stored heat, expanded back into its

gaseous form, and used to drive a turbine to generate electricity.

CO2 Batteries “can be deployed anywhere at less than half the cost of similar-sized lithium-ion battery storage facilities and have superior round-trip efficiency, with no performance degradation over a 25-year lifecycle”, Energy Dome said.

As many as 30 such facilities are anticipated to be built under the partnership with Ansaldo over the next five years.

Gravitricity receives £920k for feasibility study Scotland-based Gravitricity said on February 23 it had secured UK government backing towards a £1.5 million ($1.9 million) feasibility study to develop a multi-weight energy storage system to be built on a brownfield site in northern England.

The Department of Business Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is contributing a grant of just over £912,000 for the project, in which Gravitricity will work with partners companies to deliver the front-end engi-

neering design (FEED) for a 4MWh, multi-weight system using a custom-built shaft.

The project aims to pave the way for work on a fullscale commercial prototype multi-weight gravity energy store at a grid-connected site in the north of Meanwhile Gravitricity said it is also moving ahead with plans to build a “fullscale single-weight project in a disused mine shaft in mainland Europe”, starting this year, although it did not disclose details.

Funding for the FEED

study was allocated from a BEIS competitive funding scheme to accelerate the commercialization of innovative energy storage projects that can contribute to ‘net zero’.

Gravitricity said analysts at Imperial College predict the Gravitricity’s patented multi-weight concept will offer long duration energy storage at a lower levellized cost than alternative technologies, including lithium ion batteries, the company said.

The feasibility project follows a 250kW demonstra-

tion program conducted in Leith, Edinburgh in 2021.

Managing director Charlie Blair said: “Our multi weight concept has been proven by our Leith demonstrator, where two 25 tonne weights were configured to run independently, delivering smooth continuous output when lowered one after the other.

“We were able to demonstrate a round-trip efficiency of more than 80% and the ability to ramp up to full import or export power in less than a second.”

Eos hails revenue boost, announces expansion

e-Zinc raises $25m for zinc-air ESS pilot scheme

Zinc-based battery storage developer Eos Energy Enterprises Revenue posted a major jump in full-year revenue of $4.6 million for 2021 on February 25, although reported an operating loss of $135 million.

Revenue increased from $0.2 million in the year-ago period while losses included $30 million to terminate an agreement involving the company’s Hi-Power subsidiary.

But CEO Joe Mastrangelo said in its first full year as a public company, Eos had made “the successful transition” to become an

Toronto-based e-Zinc has secured $25 million in a series ‘A’ financing to start pilot production of its first commercial zinc-air energy storage systems. According to e-Zinc, the company recently validated that its zincair battery “can discharge energy for several days at rated power, compared to only a few hours for most other battery types”.

CEO James Larsen said: “We now have the opportunity to execute high-value commercial pilot projects that provide in-field validation for our batteries.”

He said the company had

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industrial manufacturer — buoyed by booked orders of $137.4 million resulting in a backlog of $148.7 million as of December 31, 2021.

Mastrangelo said the backlog represented an eight-fold increase from the $18.2 million as of December 31, 2020 and the current backlog included $34 million of future recurring services revenue.

And Mastrangelo highlighted Eos’ unveiling of plans just two days earlier to more than triple output at its manufacturing site in Pennsylvania to 800MWh.

refined its technology since raising seed funding in 2020.

“We have achieved many critical technical milestones, such as demonstrating how our system pairs to solar and grid generation, developing the balance of system and implementing a software and controls layer.

The latest financing round was led by Anzu Partners, with additional funding from BDC Capital, Toyota Ventures, and Eni Next. Existing investors, including Seed Round lead investor Energy Foundry, also participated.

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022 • 13

NEWS

Invinity agrees vanadium storage deal with Hyosung Corporation Invinity Energy Systems said on April 8 it had agreed to forge a partnership with Hyosung Heavy Industries — the power and industrial systems group of the Hyosung Corporation, one of Korea’s largest conglomerates.

The companies signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding for

the partnership, including an exclusive relationship in South Korea, after concluding what Invinity said was a successful test and validation program with HHI. HHI said it had comprehensively tested a 200kWh energy storage system from Invinity, a company created through the 2020 merger of flow battery providers redT

energy and Avalon Battery.

The ESS has been in operation since HHI bought it in 2020 and “has now been validated as suitable for addition to Hyosung’s growing portfolio of projects across the world”, HHI said.

HHI is a supplier of heavy electrical equipment and one of the Korean region’s largest energy storage and

Redflow hails milestone US project, posts further losses but revenues rise Australian flow battery maker Redflow said on February 28 it had completed a 2MWh zinc-bromine energy storage system in California — its biggest single deployment to date.

The announcement came as Redflow posted revenue of A$1.2 million ($863,000) in first-half results for fiscal 2022, a year-on-year increase of 172%. However, the company recorded a loss after income tax of A$6.5 million, compared to a loss of A$2.9 million in the yearago period.

Redflow said the loss was the result of increased costs for raw material and consumables and higher fixed costs, as the company po-

sitions the business for a “scale up” from the 2023 financial year.

But the company said it had raised a total of A$10.8 million in capital to underpin its push into international markets, “with the aim of converting opportunities into sales and revenue”.

Redflow CEO Tim Harris said the California project — for Anaergia’s Rialto Bioenergy Facility — was “a very significant milestone, providing a high visibility 2MWh reference installation for our growth into the US and other global markets”.

The Anaergia system comprises 192 zinc-bromine flow batteries, validating the

technology and providing a live reference for customers, Redflow said.

Meanwhile, Mark Higgins, who has been supporting the company’s US growth plans as a strategic adviser, has been appointed as Americas president and chief commercial officer.

Higgins is a former chair of the US Department of Commerce’s renewable energy and energy efficiency advisory committee.

In Australia, Redflow completed its delivery of flow batteries for the Optus bushfire resiliency program — supporting the federal government’s ‘strengthening telecommunications against natural disasters’ initiative.

ESS expands European storage business Iron-based flow battery storage company ESS said on March 16 it is expanding its European operations — to meet expected demand for long-duration storage as the continent attempts to scale back its dependency on Russian gas.

ESS said the RussiaUkraine conflict is set to accelerate Europe’s ramping up of renewable power and give new impetus for investments in long-duration energy storage as countries seek to reduce use of gas-powered gen-

eration of electricity.

The company intends to expand deployment of its LDES systems in Europe during the second half of 2022 — and has appointed Alan Greenshields as Europe director. He brings more than 25 years of executive experience to the company.

ESS has already announced orders from ENEL in Spain for 17 ESS Energy Warehouse iron flow battery systems, providing a combined capacity of 8.5MWh, which will be

14 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022

used to support an EUbacked solar farm and provide resilience for the local power grid.

According to ESS, the European region is to require up to 20TWh of long-duration energy storage capacity if it is to meet UN climate change goals of ‘grid net zero’ by 2040.

ESS chief executive Eric Dresselhuys said: “Based on our success in the US, it makes sense to bring our technology to the European market where demand is so strong.”

renewable energy project developers, with around 2GWh of operational projects worldwide.

HHI will become the exclusive representative for Invinity’s VS3 products in Korea, with further nonexclusive rights to sell Invinity’s products in Hyosung’s other global markets.

Under the terms of the companies’ agreement, Hyosung could also manufacture “elements of Invinity’s VS3 products”.

Redflow said it delivered a total of 241 batteries to customers across the US, South Africa and Australia during the first half, while the start of commercial production for its next iteration ‘Generation 3’ batteries was “on track” for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022.

Key improvements to the batteries include major advancements to stack technology, tank architecture, improved cooling and a new electronics control system, which Redflow said will enable it to achieve a 30% reduction in costs.

Separately, Underwriters Laboratories (UL) said on February 24 it was using batteries from Australia’s Redflow to conduct research to characterize the operating and safety profile of redox flow batteries under nominal and off-nominal conditions.

Redflow’s zinc-bromine batteries are the focus of the test program conducted by UL’s Electrochemical Safety Research Institute, in collaboration with Stress Engineering Services (SES), to understand key technical attributes of redox flow batteries, study their cycle life and aging properties.

The program also aims to establish how the batteries behave under over-discharge and external shortcircuit conditions.

UL bought six Redflow batteries in 2021, which arrived at SES’ Texas facility in December.

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NEWS

Reliance Industries’ unit to acquire Lithium Werks India’s Reliance Industries said on March 14 a subsidiary unit had agreed to acquire battery maker Lithium Werks in a $61 million deal to expand energy storage and EV battery development for the Indian market.

Reliance New Energy Limited said it had signed definitive agreements to “acquire substantially all of the assets”, including the entire patent portfolio of the Netherlands-based lithium iron phosphate (LFP) group, its manufacturing facilities in China, “key

business contracts and hiring of existing employees as a going concern”.

Reliance Industries chairman, Mukesh Ambani, said the deal “will enable us to accelerate our vision of establishing India at the core of developments in global battery chemistries — and help us provide a secure, safe and high-performance supply chain to the large and growing Indian EV and energy storage markets”.

“LFP is fast gaining as one of the leading cell chemistries due to its cobalt and nickel free batteries, low

cost and longer life compared to NMC and other chemistries,” Ambani said.

Other commentators say that the advantages of safety and price with LFP batteries ignore the fact that there is no commercial gains to be had by recycling them. Their lack of valuable elements such as cobalt, manganese and nickel, makes them an end-of-life drawback and expense.

Reliance said that, combined with agreements announced last December to acquire UK sodium-ion battery tech developer Fara-

dion, it plans to set up an “end-to-end battery ecosystem”, including the manufacturing of battery cells, cathodes, anodes and electrolyte.

Lithium Werks was founded in 2017 through acquisition of various assets of Valence Technology and A123 Systems and has nearly 200MWh annual production capacity including coating, cell and custom module manufacturing capabilities.

The acquisition should be complete by June, subject to various regulatory and other conditions.

NREL looks for ‘sweet spot’ in behind-the-meter ESS Research underway at the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory aims to find the best way to maximize battery technology in behind-the-meter stationary storage (BTMS) systems, the lab said on March 24.

NREL researchers, as part of the US Department of Energy’s BTMS Consortium, are developing new lithium ion battery designs specific to stationary storage requirements.

Project leader and NREL research Yeyoung Ha said: “We already know a lot about lithium ion batteries,

but batteries for different applications have different requirements.

“Our research looks at how to leverage the developments from electric vehicle battery research for new applications in stationary storage.

“Our goal is to identify a ‘sweet spot’ to leverage the advantages of electrode loading and increased temperatures to maximize the performance of LTO/LMO battery cells. Our research refined material designs for BTMS specifically, converting this well-known power

Zenobe unveils plans for Scottish BESS first UK headquartered Zenobe announced on April 28 it had started construction of what will be the largest battery built in Scotland to date — and the country’s first transmission-connected battery storage project.

The 50MW/100MWh facility in North Lanarkshire will help ease grid constraints, stabilize the system and enable 640GWh more renewable generation to travel from north to south of the country over the next 15 years, Zenobe said.

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Fluence’s Gridstack lithium-based energy storage system technology will be deployed for the project, which should start operations by the end of 2022.

James Basden, co-founder and director of Zenobe, said the battery is the first of a series of “major battery flexibility projects” by the company and part of around £500 million ($630 million) worth of investments it intends to invest in Scotland in the next five years.

chemistry to energy cells.”

NREL said the research had already evaluated the temperature-dependent performance of LTO/LMO cells with various electrode loadings. Researchers determined that using thicker electrodes in battery designs can increase the cell capacity and energy density, while decreasing overall cell costs.

The NREL team’s work showed that by allowing batteries to have intermittent rest during discharge, instead of being fully dis-

charged as for electric vehicles, the electrode utilization was “significantly improved”.

Researchers found this type of pulsed discharge is well suited for BTMS stationary applications, where the batteries are used only when there is intermittent demand and then transitioned back to a resting stage.

Details of the research have been published in the Journal of the Electrochemical Society.

Duke Energy in solar-battery storage first for US utility Duke Energy announced a “first of its kind” project for the US utility on March 10, as part of three new battery storage projects.

The company said completion of the near-18 MW lithium ion battery facility, at its 45MW Lake Placid solar power plant, in Highlands County, was the first time it had added battery storage to a utility-scale solar facility — allowing solar energy to be dispatchable by the company’s grid operators to improve overall plant efficiency.

The other projects com-

pleted included the 11 MW Trenton lithium battery facility, 30 miles west of Gainesville in Gilchrist County and the 5.5MW Cape San Blas lithium facility — about 40 miles southeast of Panama City in Gulf County.

Duke said the latter project was an “economical alternative” to replacing distribution equipment necessary to support increasing local demand.

This year Duke Energy says it will have six battery sites in operation in Florida totalling 50MW of energy storage.

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022 • 15

NEWS

Eurocell shortlists sites for first European gigafactory Anglo-Korean battery company Eurocell has shortlisted six potential locations for its first European gigafactory to target the region’s energy storage market, the company said on February 25.

A Eurocell spokesperson told Energy Storage Journal that the company was in “deep discussions” concerning the possible sites, which are spread across the UK, the Netherlands and Spain, for its two-phase $800 million investment.

Eurocell said its technology is ‘battery ready’, “perfectly suited to energy storage” and ready for scaling up to “full capacity” as early as 2025.

The company said its ability to “capture any input charge under any condition at a 10C rate makes it the ideal storage solution

in combination with renewable energy”.

But Eurocell declined to give details about the proposed gigafactory’s manufacturing capacity.

Partner company Korean Eurocell has produced batteries at a plant it has in South Korea – from where its processes and technology would be sourced to launch production in Europe.

The company said it would not discuss its battery chemistry, but CEO Recardo Bruins said the batteries’ performance, safety and longevity “make them ideal for ‘smart’ homes and offices, where you can store renewable energy, or energy from the grid at the cheapest tariff and then deploy it when you want to”.

Bruins said: “Quite rightly, a lot of the debate so far has been about the electrifi-

Italvolt moves ahead with Italian gigafactory project Italian gigafactory developer Italvolt said on April 21 it had signed an agreement that paves the way to start production of lithium ion batteries in the second half of 2024.

Italvolt said its memorandum of understanding with regional and Turin city authorities would “ensure efficient administrative action” for construction of the 45GWh gigafactory, on a 1,000,000m2 site that was previously home to Olivetti in Scarmagno, northeast of Turin.

The final design for the facility — which is set to become a key producer of batteries for energy storage systems and electric vehicles — is to be finalized by June, followed by the receipt of construction permits by early 2023.

Italvolt founder and CEO Lars Carlstrom said:

“After the presentation of the preliminary project and the subsequent authorization obtained at the beginning of 2022, the signing of the memorandum of understanding confirms the progress of a project that is proceeding rapidly thanks to constant collaboration with all the local authorities.”

Carlstrom was the cofounder and CEO of UK gigafactory project, Britishvolt, until he announced in December 2020 that he was stepping aside from that project.

On October 12, 2021, Italvolt announced a partnership agreement with Swiss technology group ABB that included consultancy on robotics and autonomous operations for transportation and handling of material in the process units of the gigafactory.

16 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022

cation of vehicles but we think it’s time to discuss the wider electrification of society. That’s not just about how we electrify our cars,

but how we will charge them while providing renewable off grid solutions and powering our industry and homes.”

Envision AESC plans US gigafactory in move to supply Mercedes-Benz China’s Envision AESC unveiled plans on March 16 for a new US gigafactory to supply battery cell modules for Mercedes-Benz electric vehicles produced in the country.

A spokesperson for the battery tech group told Energy Storage Journal details of the project are to be announced next month.

The planned facility aims to start operations in 2025 and will supply a MercedesBenz lithium-ion battery factory in Bibb County, Alabama — which the auto giant confirmed on March 15 had been opened a few months ahead of the start of production of all-electric Mercedes-EQ vehicles in the US. Envision AESC executive chairman Lei Zhang said: “Our planned investment in a new gigafactory will form

part of an ecosystem in the region, aimed at growing the local supply chain and developing the whole life cycle opportunities of batteries.

“This marks a significant step forward in our company’s mission to be a leading technology partner to support the global transition to carbon neutral transportation.

Mercedes-Benz Group’s chairman of the board of management, Ola Källenius, said: “The opening of our new battery plant in Alabama is a major milestone on our way to going allelectric.

“With our comprehensive approach including a local cell sourcing and recycling strategy, we underline the importance of the US, where Mercedes-Benz has been successful for decades.”

KORE finalizes gigafactory site deal US-based battery cell tech company KORE Power has finalized the purchase of a site in Arizona to produce around 12GWh of lithium ion batteries annually for energy storage and electric vehicles, the company said on April 6.

The company said it will build its two million square foot KOREPlex manufacturing facility on the site in Buckeye.

Construction begins this summer and the company said it expects the facility to be fully operational in 2024. KOREPlex will be powered by on-site solar

and storage, “making it a net-zero facility”, KORE said.

Founder and CEO Lindsay Gorrill said: “With the land secured, we can now move forward with our schedule to begin construction later this year and keep us on track to provide USmade lithium ion cells to EV and storage solution providers.”

On March 23, KORE announced the launch of KORE Solutions — a new energy storage division in the US — following its acquisition of ESS company Northern Reliability.

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NEWS

Northvolt picks Germany for third gigafactory Swedish batteries developer Northvolt said on March 15 it had selected a site in northern Germany to build the company’s third gigafactory.

The ‘Northvolt Drei’ plant in Heide, Schleswig-Holstein, will have an annual potential production capacity of 60GWh — increasing the company’s pipeline of battery manufacturing capacity under development to more than 170GWh. Investment costs for the new plant were not disclosed, but Northvolt claimed the facility would start producing high-performance, lithium ion batteries for the electric vehicles market in 2025, “with the lowest environmental footprint in continental Europe”.

Northvolt said SchleswigHolstein had been chosen because the region “hosts the cleanest energy grid in Germany… with a surplus of electricity generated

by onshore and offshore wind power and reinforced by clean energy provided through grid interconnections to Denmark and Norway”.

The new plant is also set to have an on-site battery recycling facility.

Peter Carlsson, co-founder and CEO of Northvolt, said: “It matters how we produce a battery cell. If you use coal in your production, you embed a fair amount of CO2 into your battery, but if we use clean energy, we can build a very sustainable product.”

Northvolt’s latest project follows its announcement on February 24 that it would convert a closed paper mill in Sweden to produce up to 100GWh of cathode material to support cell assembly at Northvolt’s facilities.

Northvolt has signed a letter of intent to buy the Kvarnsveden Mill and sur-

rounding industrial area in Borlänge, central Sweden, from Stora Enso — a Swedish manufacturer of products from wood and biomass. Financial details were not disclosed.

Initial operations at Kvarnsveden, which will have an eventual potential annual production capacity of more than 100GWh of cathode material, should start in late 2024.

Production at Kvarnsveden will support the assembly of battery cells at a number of Northvolt’s plants, including the Northvolt Ett gigafactory in Skellefteå, where the company announced last December it had produced its first lithium-ion cell.

The mill, which was founded in 1900, produced pulp and paper for more than 120 years until Stora Enso announced its closure in April 2021, with the loss of more than 400 jobs.

Northvolt said it planned to keep key managers from the Kvarnsveden site working to support a swift transfer of operations to the new activities.

Co-founder and CEO of Northvolt, Peter Carlsson said: “Since Northvolt’s founding, we have focused on circular battery production, but this is the first time we will reuse an entire production site.”

“With its access to energy, industrial water and the broad production knowhow in the region, Kvarnsveden is an optimal site for a gigafactory.”

“There is a massive global demand for sustainable, high-quality lithium-ion battery cells and systems,” Carlsson said. “With the blueprint developed at Northvolt Labs and Northvolt Ett, we will now put in another gear to scale up production even faster and larger than before.”

ABC bipolar batteries for EV charging Advanced Battery Concepts — which this year won the Battery Council International innovation award — has announced two major sales achievements for its GreenSeal battery brand.

In the first, announced on January 24, the batteries will power thousands of solar EV charging plazas across the US installed by the EV charging station developer GreenCore, ABC announced on January 24.

By the end of the decade this could amount to around 10,000 plazas, GreenCore said.

The batteries will be charged by solar panels at each plaza, which have been designed to supplement grid energy with solar energy, ABC’s CEO Ed Shaffer says.

“The batteries are used

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to charge EVs to avoid high time-of-use charges and minimize interconnect charges,” he says. “The grid is available to ensure batteries are fully charged and power is available to charge EVs.” He said that the plazas would in general be convenience charging sites for ‘customers on the go’, and that each site would typically have between 150kWh and 350kWh storage systems.

In a later announcement ABC said on March 23 it is to initially supply up to 20,000 of its GreenSeal batteries to support Kilows’ roll-out of ultrafast electric vehicle charging stations in the US. The companies have signed a memorandum of understanding under which ABC will produce the ini-

tial energy storage systems at their Michigan plant — while ABC works with Kilows to potentially license its technology to produce more batteries for Kilows’ EV charging sites.

Kilows aims to expand its charging stations, linked to its ‘KiloPad’ app, to more than 5,000 locations across the US within the next five years.

John Strisower, the chief executive, said ABC was “an ideal partner to help us deliver greener, ultrafast EV charging, while providing an excellent customer experience at a fraction of the cost of other battery solutions”.

The Kilows agreement comes just weeks after ABC announced a deal to power thousands of solar EV charging plazas across

the US installed by the EV charging station developer GreenCore.

ABC chief executive Ed Shaffer said on January 24 that the batteries would be charged by solar panels at each plaza, which have been designed to supplement grid energy with solar energy.

In November ABC launched its home emergency energy storage system (HEES), which supports grid-connected residential electricity users by providing around two days of power for vital applications such as refrigeration and heating.

The system was developed by ABC to address what it sees as a growing need for safe and reliable emergency power in homes and small businesses.

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022 • 17

NEWS

Gridtential in 12V development agreement with Camel Energy to optimize efficiencies Silicon Joule battery tech innovator Gridtential Energy, Camel Energy and a leading US automaker supplied by Camel, announced a product development agreement on April 4 that will focus on bipolar technology.

Under the deal, engineering teams from US-based Gridtential and the Michigan subsidiary of China’s Camel Group will work to “optimize the thin-plate cell design and manufacturing of advanced bipolar batteries”, the firms said.

Gridtential and Camel will also verify metrics of cycle life, energy density, battery efficiency and charge acceptance.

The companies did not name the automaker involved, but said it was one of the top three of such companies in the US that is supplied by Camel.

Camel said it has been approached by several large automotive companies to deliver Silicon Joule bipolar batteries for their vehicles — and deal with Gridtential aims to deliver start/ stop batteries for internal combustion engine vehicles.

The same technology architecture can also be used for low-voltage batteries in electric vehicles and extended to support 48V batteries most often used in mild-hybrid vehicles, the companies said.

By replacing traditional lead plates with speciallyformulated silicon hybrid bipoles, Gridtential said silicon hybrid batteries increase standard power density by three-fold, reduce weight by 30% or more, and have improved charge acceptance — “at least a 3x

increase in dynamic charge acceptance”.

Silicon hybrid batteries, it said, can also operate at higher temperatures and tolerate vibration better than traditional lead-based batteries — which the companies said were key metrics for the automotive industry.

Camel said its silicon hybrid batteries will have at least twice the lifespan of a traditional 12V lead battery.

Zubo Zhang, president of Camel Energy, said: “Gridtential’s technology readily scales, allowing us to offer a suite of bipolar batteries for the transportation and other markets where Camel is dominant. This all works well with Camel’s interest to expand our localization in North America with major automotive customers.”

EUROBAT calls for reconsideration of elements in Batteries Regulation EUROBAT in January published concerns about the EU’s Batteries Directive, which could have one of the biggest impacts on the industry for decades.

In a paper jointly produced by a number of organizations in the battery industry, five key concerns were laid out for the European Parliament to consider.

One of the Battery Directive proposals is to require all EV, industrial and automotive batteries above 2kWh to use ‘minimum levels of secondary materials’ from 2030.

But as EUROBAT points out, there is no way of knowing now how many secondary raw materials will be available by 2030.

At the moment very little lithium battery recycling is done, so unless that improves, the necessity to source secondary materials such as lithium ‘might cause production stops in the EU or force European manufacturers to source secondary raw materials producers from non-European producers’, EUROBAT says.

“It would disproportionally benefit the import of batteries from non-EU countries where higher volumes of waste from batteries and other products for the production of secondary raw material are available,” it says.

“Recycled content targets incentivise the premature end-of-life of batteries

18 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022

and are in direct opposition to long lifetimes and second life. Conversely, measures promoting reuse, remanufacturing and repurposing would extend the lifetime of the battery and delay their recycling, reducing the total amount of batteries available for recycling and hence decreasing the availability of secondary raw materials.”

The second concern raised is on design requirements, which EUROBAT says are too prescriptive and do not allow for evolving technological progress, including chemistry improvements – so while targets might be set, how they are achieved should be left to the market.

Metair to sell off batteries business, claims shareholder ahead of results South Africa-based Metair is preparing to sell off its lead and lithium battery businesses including Rombat and Mutlu Akü, one of the company’s newest shareholders, Truffle Asset Management, claimed on February 21.

Truffle acquired a 5.28% stake in Metair for an undisclosed sum, according to a Johannesburg Stock Exchange announcement on January 24.

Now Truffle has told Energy Storage Journal one of the reasons for investing was because “we believe Metair could soon announce its intention to dispose of its energy storage division — the batteries business”.

Metair’s energy storage division mostly comprises its battery businesses in countries including Turkey (Mutlu Akü), Romania (Rombat) and South Africa (First National Battery) a Truffle spokesperson said.

“We believe a fair valuation could be around five-tosix times an Ebitda [earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization] multiple which, if executed on, should unlock significant value for shareholders,” said the spokesperson.”

Other “significant growth” to come from Metair includes contributions from a “significant automotive components contract” Truffle said Metair signed with Ford South Africa in 2021 — “from which they will generate an additional ZAR3.5 billion ($232.5 million) revenue per annum for the next 10 years”.

Truffle said: “This contract will contribute meaningfully from January 2023 and should add around ZAR1.00 per share in the company’s headline earnings per share from fiscal year 2023 onwards.”

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NEWS

EU chemicals authorization likely to trigger battery investment freeze, says industry body European proposals that would require lead to be listed on a chemicals authorization register could trigger a batteries “investment freeze” and derail EU carbon reduction plans, industry leaders have warned.

The European Chemicals Agency is proposing that lead metal be added to its REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) list — indicating that the substance will eventually be substituted and can only be used in the meantime with specific permission from the European Commission.

But the Lead REACH Consortium has called for the proposals to be dropped or risk threatening a wide range of EU industries, from battery manufacturers to metal recyclers.

The consortium — which represents more than 90 companies involved in the mining, smelting, refining and recycling of lead, as well as manufacturers of lead compounds and producers of lead-based automotive and industrial batteries — said existing “highly effective risk management measures” already limit risks presented by lead exposure.

Consortium chair and sustainability director at non-ferrous metals provider Aurubis Beerse, Inge Maes, said the proposed authorization process was “a blunt and bureaucratic tool”.

The move would hit a “broad range of essential industries that are delivering services and products that are supporting EU ‘Green Deal’ objectives, such as reducing climate change and enhancing circularity”, Maes said.

“Lead is an essential raw material that is safely recycled and used in advanced manufacturing facilities across Europe, which com-

The International Flow Battery Forum

ply with or aim to exceed EU legislation designed to manage any risks.”

The proposal would hit the EU’s advanced battery manufacturing sector, where about 90% of lead is used — with 80% coming from waste batteries collected and safely recycled at end-of-life, the consortium said.

In addition to batteries, lead is a “vital raw material” for industries producing cables linking wind farms to grids, solar panel systems and enabling recycling of other metals and transition technology elements, the consortium said.

In association with TM

IFBF 2022 Tues 28 & Wed 29 June ®

Brussels, Belgium

With tickets selling fast and our exhibition space now full, it’s an ideal opportunity to network and discuss the latest flow battery research and industry developments. Attendees can also join our pre-conference workshop, dinner and postconference site visit.

For those who can’t attend in person, the conference will be streamed live and recorded. Please register now:

www.flowbatteryforum.com www.energystoragejournal.com

info@flowbatteryforum.com Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022 • 19

NEWS KORE Power launches new division after acquisition US-based battery cell tech company KORE Power said on March 23 it had acquired energy storage company Northern Reliability for an undisclosed sum — and had launched a new division called KORE Solutions.

KORE chief executive Lindsay Gorrill said the new unit would combine NR’s decades of storage engineering and product development expertise with KORE Power’s battery cell capabilities.

“KORE Solutions was formed to tackle global challenges, and with NR’s engineering and problem-solving capacity, we’ll develop better products and services across the energy storage sector,” Gorrill said.

Gorrill also highlighted NR’s experience in deploying more than 1,000 energy storage projects to some of the most inhospitable locations on the planet, from remote islands to Antarctica. $20Africa fund boost to aid energy storage An Africa-focused fund to promote private investment in battery storage and energy-efficient technologies has received a $20 million equity boost, the African Development Bank confirmed on March 10.

The AfDB said it had made the combined equity investment in the AfricaGoGreen Fund with the bank’s Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa.

The investment boost follows a $11.5 million equity contribution to AGG approved by the Nordic Development Fund in December 2021.

AGG was launched in December 2020 by Germany’s state-owned investment and development bank, KfW, which anticipates it to grow to around €150 million ($164 million) later this year. The fund is managed

by LHGP Asset Management, part of the Lion’s Head Global Partners investment bank group.

KfW’s director of global equity and funds, Jan Martin Witte, said: “These new investments are also expected to trigger additional investments by commercial investors and financiers either directly or through co-funding of projects.”

Last October, the AfDB approved a $57.7 million loan, co-financed with the World Bank and New Development Bank, to South African national utility Eskom Holdings for a total of 800MWh of energy storage capacity across seven sites in the country.

20 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022

EU urged to adopt climate laws to expand storage Industry members of the European Battery Alliance said on March 23 that EU leaders must move quickly to adopt new climate laws, to encourage increased investment in stationary battery storage projects.

The EBA said the European Commission’s ‘fit for 55’ plan — a package of proposed laws aimed at achieving a 55% net cut in emissions by 2030 — should be enacted swiftly, to promote an expansion of stationary storage at grid level and roll-out widespread development of integrated vehicle-to-grid systems.

Energy storage and batteries have the potential to deliver a 100% renewable energy system, representatives of the EBA’s more than 750 battery industry member organizations said in a joint statement.

“Both the Covid pandemic and war in Ukraine have highlighted the fundamental need for resilient industrial value chains, including batteries, for the EU’s economic growth and decarbonization as well as for its strategic autonomy,” the statement said.

Nala Renewables boosts US BESS expansion with Long Island projects UK-headquartered Nala Renewables said on March 29 it is to develop four new battery energy storage projects in New York State.

The renewable energy investor and developer is working with New Yorkbased power and infrastructure firm, Rhynland Energy, to start building the facilities by mid-2024. The units will have a combined expected storage capacity of 280MW. Nala said the Long Island area sites have been procured and interconnection and entitlement work has started.

Rhynland Energy managing director Gus Hadidi said the projects “will help provide much needed dispatchable capacity on Long Island and will support the development of renewable resources in New York State”.

Nala, which is jointly owned by IFM Investors and Trafigura, has a presence in six countries and sees the US as a growth market in its expansion plans.

The company recently started construction of a 25MW BESS in Belgium.

UK-based Gore Street ramps up overseas ESS expansion London-listed Gore Street Energy Fund said on March 10 it was extending its push into international markets with the acquisition of its first battery storage projects in the US. Gore Street is taking ownership of a portfolio of eight individual 9.9MW storage projects in Texas for an undisclosed sum from Perfect Power Solutions Texas, part of SER Capital Partners.

The US acquisition followed Gore Street’s announcement on March 4 that it had completed its first acquisition in continental Europe — purchasing a 90% stake in a 28MWh operational energy storage facility based on LG Chem lithium ion tech in Cremzow, Germany.

The Cremzow site was developed

by Leclanché, Enel Green Power and Enertrag and Gore Street’s stake was purchased from Italy’s Enel Group subsidiary Enel X Germany.

Gore Street’s combined energy storage portfolio after the Texas purchase will be 708MW, including the German acquisition.

Fluence secures second order for BESS in Taiwan Fluence is to supply a 60MW/96MWh battery energy storage system to Taiwan — its second in the country — under contract to the Taiwan Power Company (Taipower), it was announced on April 22.

US-based Fluence will work with engineering services firm the TECO Group to supply the system for Taipower’s Taoyuan Longtan ultrahigh voltage substation, which is one of 29 such facilities and an important node of the 345KV power grid, Fluence said.

The Taoyuan Longtan BESS will be the biggest built with an investment of more than NT$2.6 billion ($89 million) and will account for 37.5% of Taipower’s total electricity storage capacity on completion.

Fluence announced on December 20, 2021, that it had been chosen by Ina Energy, to deliver a 6MW/6MWh Gridstack BESS battery-based energy storage system (BESS) in Taoyuan, Taiwan.

Energy Storage Journal reported on February 3 that Fluence was forming a 50-50 joint venture with Indian renewable energy company, ReNew Power, to target India’s fastdeveloping energy storage market.

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NEWS Queensland go-ahead for Chinchilla battery storage Australia’s Queensland state government is backing construction of a 100MW/200MWH Tesla Megapacks energy storage plant, CS Energy announced on March 30.

CS Energy, the state-owned power company, will build the grid-scale plant near Chinchilla.

Queensland treasurer and trade and investment minister, Cameron Dick, said the A$150 million ($113 million) plant should be in operation by the end of 2023.

CS Energy CEO Andrew Bills said the plant would be built next to the company’s coal-fired Kogan Creek Power Station, providing its employees with exposure to new assets, training and skills as Australia’s energy sector transforms.

“Large-scale batteries are an important next step in creating a more flexible and diversified energy portfolio for CS Energy and our owners, the people of Queensland,” he said.

According to CS Energy, the project “will have a relatively small footprint” (100 meters x 150 meters) and be connected to the grid via a substation.

PG&E starts up California Megapack to boost grid stability Pacific Gas and Electric Company said on April 18 it had commissioned its 182.5MW Elkhorn Battery — a Tesla Megapack battery energy storage system — at the US utility’s Moss Landing electric substation in California.

The BESS was fully energized and certified for market participation by the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) after final testing on April 7.

Elkhorn was designed, built and is maintained by PG&E and Tesla and is owned and operated by PG&E. PG&E said the system includes 256 lithium ion battery units, with the capacity to store and dispatch up to 730MWh of energy to the electrical grid at a maximum rate of 182.5MW for up to four hours during periods of high demand.

Eaton starts work on critical power HQ Power management group Eaton said on April 12 it had started construction of a UPS and energy storage manufacturing plant in

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Finland. Eaton said the 16,500 m² site in Vantaa will serve as the group’s critical power solutions headquarters and a “center of excellence for data centers” when it is completed by the end of 2023.

The decision to expand was prompted by growing demand for grid-interactive UPS and energy storage systems produced at Eaton’s existing factory in Espoo, Finland, the group said.

Karina Rigby, president of Eaton’s critical systems and electrical sector for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said: “It’s exciting to see how UPS technology has evolved over time. It not only ensures business continuity for critical applications but also plays a role in the switch to renewables, by acting as a source of flexibility that supports grid stability.”

Eaton announced last September that it was working with Microsoft to identify ways for data centers to “monetize existing assets and integrate more renewable energy sources to help create a more sustainable and stable grid”.

Ameresco $262 million increase is boost for California BESS US-based renewables developer Ameresco announced on March 7 it had secured a $262 million credit increase to support work on new projects, including a ramp up of battery energy storage systems in California.

Ameresco confirmed last October that it had been awarded a designbuild contract by Southern California Edison (SCE) to install a combined total 535MW of new battery storage across three of the utility’s substations.

The company said the increase, which takes its total facility to $495 million, will be used to fund “various near and long-term growth objectives” — including its project for SCE. Ameresco said the new battery storage units in California should start commercial operation in August.

Honeywell to supply New Mexico BESS for solar farm Honeywell is to supply a 200MW energy storage system for a solar park in northern New Mexico, the company announced on February 28.

The ESS will be supplied to Chicago-based Hecate Energy for a 50MW solar farm that should be

completed in the middle of this year.

Hecate said the solar farm will be capable of supplying enough electricity to power up to 16,000 average New Mexican homes for a year.

The project is a part of an initiative by the Public Service Company of New Mexico and will help meet the state's decarbonization goals.

Honeywell’s system will include its Experion energy control system that integrates asset monitoring, distributed energy resource management, supervisory control and analytics functionality.

Ujjwal Kumar, president and CEO of Honeywell Process Solutions, said: “Hecate Energy, much like Honeywell, is focused on innovation and the latest technologies to lead the change in energy transition, making them an ideal collaborator in bringing renewable energy options to the table.”

Fluence’s Gridstack chosen for Irish wind farm storage project Europe-focused renewable power investor, Greencoat Renewables, has chosen Fluence’s Gridstack system for its first investment in energy storage technologies, Fluence announced on February 21.

The 10.8MW Gridstack lithium iron phosphate utility-scale system has been supplied to Greencoat for its Killala Community Wind Farm in County Mayo, Ireland.

Fluence said that, once fully operational, the battery would help increase system stability in the Irish electricity grid as Greencoat — which is managed by Greencoat Capital — uses the system “to participate in energy flexibility markets”.

The project is Fluence’s third involving battery-based energy storage co-located with wind farms in Ireland, and its 10th publicly announced venture in the Irish single electricity market.

The Gridstack system is built on Fluence’s proprietary, sixthgeneration utility-scale technology, which the company said is designed “for the most demanding grid applications”, including frequency regulation, flexible peaking capacity and enhanced transmission and distribution services.

Fluence’s MD for the UK, Ireland and Israel, Marek Kubik, said the Irish government had increased its target percentage of renewables in the national generation mix in 2030 from 70% to 80%.

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022 • 21

COVER STORY: THE TOP 20 OF LEAD INNOVATION • INTRODUCTION

A new generation of improved lead batteries is emerging — many of which are capable of taking on their lithium counterparts, reports Michael Halls.

New battery formulations for a future, hungry for energy storage

L

ead versus lithium. That was the hot topic that went on at the start of the 2010s and lasted most of the decade. It was mostly a debate fuelled on ignorance.

From the lithium side, lead was hopelessly outdated — a relic of 19th century technology, and tainted with a poisonous past. For the lead industry, lithium was a dangerous and explosive upstart, costly and unproven.

Looking back with hindsight those with cooler heads can see that both parties were right and wrong at the same time.

Yes, the chemical reaction at the heart of a lead battery was the same one as described by Gaston Plante in 1858 — electrochemistry doesn’t evolve with time — but it was also an extraordinarily effective one. Batteries were inexpensive to make and capable of a huge range of functionality. Literally as useful in the UPS for computer room or as standby power in a nuclear power station as in the smallest golf cart.

The issue of its toxicity was also a questionable one. In the west almost all lead batteries are recycled — the humble car battery is the most recycled object on the planet — and strict controls over its manufacture and deployment are in place.

There were similar misunderstand-

22 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022

ings by the lead community. Yes, lithium could be highly explosive and inflammable (as could petrol in a car) but it could also be contained and made safe, relatively easily as well. Within a decade, a more or less unproven technology had been tested and not found wanting.

The price too of lithium batteries — a subject that the lead industry also ridiculed in 2010 — was high but rapid leaps in technology and manufacturing brought the price down to manageable levels in a matter of a few years.

As with the introduction of all technologies the conflict between the old and the new has been controversial and dispelling some of the misunderstanding of both chemistries is needed.

Put simply in the world of grid management, there is a place for both technologies in the energy storage firmament. Lithium can compete on power, weight and cycle life but, there are advantages for lead in price, recyclability, availability and safety.

The result should be a nuanced judgement by utilities and the energy storage community at large of which technology it should choose.

“The fact is that overall very few nuanced judgements are being made,” one commentator told Energy Storage Journal, “the utility mindset is still that lithium is the future and lead the past. Only 2% of all new large scale project financings are choosing lead.

“What they don’t understand is that if just a fraction of the wall of money that was thrown at lithium battery R&D had been diverted to developing lead batteries then that industry would have been in a very different place.”

Certainly, the US government has opened up some of its facilities in recent years to lead research. The same cyclotron equipment used to analyse the internal mechanisms of lithium batteries a decade ago is now being used to pioneer advances in lead technology.

The Consortium for Battery Innovation, working with stated aims of the US’ DOE JCESR program has set these targets.

Performance category

Current maximum

Target

Cycle life (80% DOD)

4000

5000

Round trip efficiency (%)

82

88

Acquisition cost ($/kWh)

135

35

Operating cost ($/kWh/cycle)

0.09

0.025¢

The following pages look at some of the huge strides that lead batteries and the industry have made in the past decade.

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COVER STORY: THE TOP 20 OF LEAD INNOVATION • CUTTING EDGE PIONEER: ArcActive

Achieving high DCA with low water loss A

rcActive has re-engineered the negative electrode of the lead battery to remove the lead grid and replace it with a non-woven carbon fibre fabric into which traditional lead active material is inserted.

The benefit of this innovation is that it solves the number one technical challenge facing the industry; achieving high and sustained dynamic charge acceptance while having very low water consumption.

ArcActive was founded in 2011 on the intellectual property developed by associate professor John Abrahamson at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.

The IP relates to a novel carbon fibre material, and early applications that were investigated included low energy light bulbs, ultracapacitors and solar cells before deciding on a novel, carbon fibre-based negative electrode for the lead battery.

Partnerships ArcActive batteries are unique in being able to achieve the very high DCA targets promoted by the CBI of 2A/ Ah, which maximizes the CO2 benefits of micro hybrid vehicles, while still achieving very low water consumption results of less than 3g/ Ah. ArcActive batteries perform as well as normal EFB and AGM batteries on other automotive tests; that is, there is no compromise in performance in moving to ArcActive’s technology.

There is a modest on-cost in moving to this material, but there is a strong value proposition for car makers to adopt (a low-cost option for CO2 reduction).

Just as important as the performance levels of the innovation is the ability to manufacture the electrodes at speeds and volumes required to be commercially relevant in the lead battery industry.

Developing the core processes has been a focus at ArcActive since its founding in 2011, and the company says that while work continues on this front, it has relevant, high volume

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throughput processes that enable the electrodes to be made at the very fine tolerances demanded by automotive applications.

This combination of superior technical performance and highvolume manufacturing processes has allowed ArcActive to secure partnerships with some of the leading battery companies in the lead battery industry, who are working towards taking this technology to market.

While ArcActive’s focus has been on achieving high DCA for micro hybrid car batteries, the technology is also probably very well suited to other partial state of charge applications.

To this end, the company says it has early but promising results for use of the battery in PSoC applications to support renewable energy generation, which again show that ArcActive’s negative electrodes do not appear to degrade in PSoC use.

Given the trend towards lead batteries needing to perform well in

PSoC applications (automotive, battery energy storage systems, forklifts etc), ArcActive’s technology is ideally suited to allow lead battery technology to thrive and prosper even with the threats posed from lithium ion and evolving market requirements.

The benefit of this innovation is that it solves the number one technical challenge facing the industry; achieving high and sustained dynamic charge acceptance while having very low water consumption.

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022 • 23

COVER STORY: THE TOP 20 OF LEAD INNOVATION • CUTTING EDGE PIONEER: RSR Technologies

Using lead alloys to double cycle life of lead batteries R

SR Technologies has developed a ground-breaking lead alloy that potentially doubles the cycle life of lead batteries.

The new product, branded and patented — unfortunately all in capital letters — SUPERSOFT-HYCYCLE, contains an engineered suite of microalloying additions, which enhance the cycling and charge acceptance of the active material in a lead acid battery.

Known as 009, it is a grid alloy engineered for higher use temperatures, developed by RSR Technologies, a subsidiary of the engineering unit of Eco-Bat Group, following a long history of development.

SUPERSOFT-HYCYCLE was initially launched in the South African market, where it went into commercial production at the South African lead battery firm Auto-X, the maker of the Willard brand of batteries.

Tests showed it doubled the cycle life of lead batteries and greatly reduced water loss, Tim Ellis, president of R&D at RSR Technologies until moving into semiretirement in 2022, said the improvement in performance that this product delivers has the potential to help lead acid batteries level the playing field with its main competitor, lithium-ion batteries.

“The fact is that lead acid batteries now have a real competitor in the form of lithium and this can help it compete on performance,” Ellis said.

“For such a dominant and widely used technology, lead acid batteries were pretty poorly understood. What we have done is apply science to better understand how they work and, as a result, move their performance closer to what it should be.

“Lead batteries have many other ad-

Above: DOD 17.5% testing of Willard Batteries with and without SUPERSOFT-HYCYCLE show the improvement offered by crystal modifying leady oxide.

Below: Performance summary of SUPERSOFT-HYCYCLE performance in 2V test cells.

vantanges over lithium, especially the success with which they are recycled, and the availability of the raw material compared with lithium.

“Lithium has always had great cycling and great energy but higher cost and nowhere near the recyclability of lead,” said Ellis. “Lead is less expensive and more recyclable but didn’t have the energy or the cycling. Now it can maintain its low cost and improve its cycling and energy as well.

“If we can improve the performance of lead, without having to reinvent the product, this represents a boost to the entire industry. We are very excited about the potential of what we have achieved here.”

The foundations of the work that resulted in the development of SUPERSOFT-HYCYCLE began with David Prengaman, the president of RSR Technologies until eight years ago, when he retired and Ellis took over.

In his earlier years with RSR, Prengaman completed extensive work to remove and analyze impurities in lead.

This gradually moved to focus on the effect of adding selected alloys or ‘dopants’ to lead, and assessing the effect on the performance of the batteries in which they are used. Over the years, Ellis estimates that the company tested more than 100 combinations of different alloys in this way.

The tests would focus on the capacity of batteries, their dynamic charge acceptance and their cycle life.

“We tested these things extensively to see what would improve the performance of batteries and we realized

Product

One hour capacity (mA-Hrs/mg)

MHT cycle life (cycles)

Dynamic charge acceptance (A/A*hr)

DoD 17.5% cycles

DoD 50% cycles

DoD 100% cycles

Control

74

8,000

0.21

3,000

810

765

SUPERSOFT-HYCYCLE Patent 20170317351

84

42,000

0.49

4170

1140

990

Test method

BCI

EN 50342:2015

EN 50342:2015

BCI

BCI

BCI

Improvement

13.5%

x5

x2

39.0%

40.7%

40.1%

24 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022

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COVER STORY: THE TOP 20 OF LEAD INNOVATION • CUTTING EDGE that certain combinations would make a big difference to the electrical performance,” Ellis said.

The level of the dopants being added is tiny. But he said that in some instances cycle life was improved by some 40%, dynamic charge acceptance by a factor of two and capacity by 10%.

The big breakthrough, however, came when the company secured access to an Advanced Photon Source synchrotron, which is housed at the Argonne National Laboratory and is used in a huge range of scientific disciplines. This allowed it to accurately assess the effect of the proportions of the micro-alloying additions on the micro-structure of the active material. Although the technology had previously been applied to lithium, RSR was the first to apply it to lead.

In essence, it allowed them to watch the performance and evolution of the active material micro-structure in the batteries as they cycled in real time by using the APS synchrotron, allowing far more accurate analysis of the dynamics of crystallization phenomena occurring in the battery during charge/ discharge cycling.

“How and why crystals do, or do not, dissolve is key to improving performance in applications,” Ellis said.

“Prior to using this, we knew there was an improvement in performance, but we did not know why. This allowed us to see exactly what was going on and the effect it was having on the battery.

“We were able to do this x-ray analysis of the battery plate as it went through the charge and discharge cycle, so we could understand exactly what was going on in the lead. That allowed us to understand how to better engineer the metals to make them more efficient.”

Ellis said the ANL welcomed the idea of looking at lead. In the laboratory experiments that followed, when the SUPERSOFT-HYCYCLE alloy was placed against a control lead element typical of standard lead batteries, the careful selection of micro-alloying additions and removal of specific contaminants were found to directly aid in changing the PbSO4 to a more easily dissoluble crystal form — thus prolonging battery life.

The cyclability test was based on a specification of a 17.5% depth-of-discharge; normally the cycle rate would be between 800 and 900, Ellis said.

Using the RSR alloy it did up to 1,600 cycles.

“This is real; it is not a promise or something that may or may not work. It is real now,” Ellis said.

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PIONEER: HighWater Innovations

Tripling power performance through better design

H

ighWater Innovations has desigmed a low-aspect ratio, spiral wound battery, which is designed for maximum power and life.

It is specifically intended for use in hybrid electric vehicles at a fraction of the cost of current battery technologies such as nickel and lithium chemistries.

GO Battery — it stands for Geometrically Optimized — had achieved some 1,000W/kg in power performance by then with a clear development path to more than 1,400W/kg. A conventional lead acid battery delivers some 350W/kg; lithium-ion is now around 1,400W/ kg (but more expensive); the GO Battery is already at 1,000W/kg and improving.

“We are close to achieving three times the power of conventional VRLA batteries,” HighWater says.

“We are now approaching what is delivered by lithium-ion batteries but at a fraction of the cost. At around $100 per kilowatt hour, we are in a similar price range to any lead acid battery — and that is a tenth of the cost of a lithium-ion product.”

The GO cell features a low aspect ratio spiral-wound construction with a stackable pack design. This single cell building block can be used to assemble high voltage batteries of any voltage and offers a wide range of form and fitment to the vehicle designer.

The cells are also designed to stack and interlock to form a compact, air-cooled battery pack.

The end cells in the pack will be thermally insulated so that all cells will be thermally matched and will therefore operate at the same temperature.

The HighWater founders say the battery will produce more power and have an extended operating life compared with other VRLA batteries. Their low aspect ratio grids will increase the overall power capabilities in the HEV application.

Meanwhile, its open central core is designed for improved thermal management.

The GO battery is a series of cylindrical two-volt cells with four instead of two current take-off tabs, and a hole in the centre of the cell, through which air can pass. These two-volt cells can be stacked to form strings of any voltage.

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022 • 25

COVER STORY: THE TOP 20 OF LEAD INNOVATION • BIPOLAR BATTERIES PIONEER: Advanced Battery Concepts

Adapting grid-scale lead batteries for home use A

dvanced Battery Concepts has pioneered the development of a bipolar battery — commercialization of which had not been achieved since the bipolar battery was invented in the 1930s. Now, complete with a new filling technology, the firm has found a good use for its storage system for emergency back up in the home.

The ABC Home Emergency Energy Storage (HEES) relies on a foundation of critical technology built into the GreenSeal bipolar battery bank, which holds the 18kWh of energy available to be delivered at up to 6.8kW continuous power for home energy supply in the absence of stable continuous grid

Edward Shaffer II Edward Shaffer II is CEO and Founder of Advanced Battery Concepts. He has spent the past 14 years focused on developing technologies to accelerate adoption of much needed alternative energy systems. In 2009, he established ABC to commercialize ground-breaking, large-format, rechargeable battery technology termed “GreenSeal”. Throughout his career, he has worked across a variety of advanced dielectrics for electronics, optical materials for displays, materials for energy storage and photovoltaics.

He has held a variety of roles including new business development, global R&D manager and research scientist.

He received his PhD in Materials Science from MIT.

26 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022

power. It has a DC discharge roundtrip efficiency of around 88%.

ABC won Battery Council International’s 2022 innovation award for HEES, when the US lead battery industry trade organization held its annual convention in Florida in May. “Patent pending technology provides for easy integration of additional storage enclosures yielding up to 36kWh of total energy available. Licensees of GreenSeal technology now have access to a commercialized set of technologies that are demonstrating their reliability and performance in the high value emergency power market,” says the firm — founded by CEO Ed Shaffer in 2009.

Formation “Of note, is the newest ABC proprietary technology known as “RapidFill” and “RapidForm”. This is the first VRLA battery filling and formation process executed with acid flowing continuously through all cells in the battery from the start of formation to the end of it,” says the firm.

RapidFill results in a complete fill and saturation of all cells in the bipolar stack, regardless of the operating voltage of the monoblock, simultaneously and in under 60 seconds. Multiple 48V batteries are filled and ready for formation in less than one minute.

From there, formation can start immediately on the entire group of batteries at the same time, as acid begins flowing throughout each of the battery cells for the entire duration of formation.

Flowing acid allows for constant specific gravity acid during the entirety of the formation process as well as maintaining constant precise temperature of the battery during the formation execution regardless of the ambient temperature.

All this is done without the use of water baths or other forms of active

cooling of the battery.

“This is a true innovation for the lead battery industry moving continually away from flooded batteries requiring maintenance and toward maintenancefree VRLA batteries with the highest performance and lowest cost,” says the firm.

“This innovation is facilitated by the unique GreenSeal bipolar lead battery architecture invented and perfected by ABC. “Integrating such unique and proprietary battery advances into a commercial product for home energy delivery is a true giant step forward for the industry.

Functional “The GreenSeal bipolar battery continues to represent best in class technology, lowest cost structure, best lifetime value and best battery performance within the lead battery industry.

The HEES system is attractive and functional in addition to providing seamless power transition in the event of a grid power disruption. Taking up minimal floorspace and fitting in almost any available area in the home, the HEES system can be placed in the garage, attic, basement, utility room or even in a living space.

Expanding on the HEES initial product capability, a daily cycling system is staged for commercialization in later 2022. This daily cycling system is built on a scientific and engineering platform of first principles resulting in GreenSeal bipolar battery design rules created and validated by ABC. Those design rules govern the performance of the GreenSeal system under controlled cycling regimes predicting cycling lifetimes with astonishing accuracy.

ABC has internally developed HEES from the ground up to integrate itself with the strength of the GreenSeal battery.

Licensees of GreenSeal technology now have access to a commercialized set of technologies that are demonstrating their reliability and performance www.energystoragejournal.com

COVER STORY: THE TOP 20 OF LEAD INNOVATION • BIPOLAR BATTERIES PIONEER: Gridtential Energy

Silicon Joule technology offers giga-scale potential I

n 2014 Gridtential Energy astonished the battery industry with its Silicon Joule technology. This combines the traditional benefits of lead acid batteries, such as low cost, recyclability and safety, with a novel bipolar battery architecture.

This stacked-cell architecture dramatically reduces the weight of the battery and provides it with the power density associated with lithium technology.

John Barton, chief executive of Gridtential Energy, said that by integrating high-volume and low-cost solar manufacturing into the existing lead battery infrastructure, the company has devised an approach that is scalable and should be commercialized, whereas other technologies require novel processing techniques and custom manufacturing equipment.

The commercialization process has proved trickier to execute than previously thought, the problem has been one of mechanical automation.

Gridtential says it is ready to launch a series of AGM reference batteries produced on East Penn Manufacturing’s prototype line.

Improved performance The first commercial product is a single-block 24V lead battery optimized for deep-cycle applications. A 12V power version will follow late spring, with 48V versions of each appearing in the second half of the year.

“Silicon Joule technology can also improve the performance of existing SLI and auxiliary batteries by delivering more cranking power over a wider operating range,” Barton said.

“The improved power performance is also extremely important in backup applications, such as telecom and UPS, where the batteries are called upon to deliver large currents in subsecond time frames.

“Overall, as demand in high-power applications increases across industries, the Silicon Joule technology’s flexible voltage scalability, thermal management system, recyclability, manufacturability and simplistic design deliver the high dynamic charge

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acceptance required to meet these evolving performance needs.”

Founded in 2011, Gridtential’s material discovery — the use of treated silicon wafers inside the battery — led to the development of Silicon Joule technology. Gridtential has subsequently attracted the world’s largest battery suppliers, and is eyeing new storage markets across the globe as demand for 48V batteries increases for electric-hybrid vehicles.

Barton said this innovation is important for the lead battery industry, which faces a unique set of challenges brought on by competition from lithium ion and the reputation of lead commodities.

“Silicon Joule battery technology leverages existing lead recycling infrastructures. But also the amount of lead used in the battery is reduced by up to 40%, significantly decreasing the overall weight of the battery.

“Compared to traditional monoblocs, the Silicon Joule battery is lighter and has higher power densities. Gridtential’s approach to battery architecture is built upon a capitallight licensing model that partners with, rather than competes with, battery manufacturers. This allows them to compete against new and emerging technology threats without giga-scale capital investments.

“Lithium alone cannot satisfy the global demand for storage,” he said.

“As the global EV market heats up

and major car manufacturers scramble to secure supply, lithium sourcing challenges loom on the horizon. The same applies to cobalt, which is often used in lithium ion batteries.”

Cloud computing Additionally, as the multi-billion dollar market for 48V battery systems swells to keep pace with newly increased voltage standards in hybridelectric vehicles, Gridtential’s Silicon Joule technology will provide its global battery manufacturing partners with an economic, scalable and reliable platform.

Gridtential’s immediate focus is on 12V-48V mild hybrid automotive systems. However, it aims to offer power to a diverse range of technologies across an array of sectors, including material handling equipment, grid storage systems, mobile telephony, back-up power devices for cloud computing, and more.

Barton encourages lead acid battery manufacturers to embrace this opportunity — and go big.

“While Tesla was aiming for five gigafactories by 2020, existing lead acid battery manufacturers could license Gridtential’s Silicon Joule technology and convert their existing lines to compete with the evolving needs of the battery industry.

“That way, there could be roughly 70 lead acid gigafactories worldwide, with over 500GWh,” he said.

PIONEER: Voltific

Universal battery sizing becomes a software reality

V

OLTiFiC Technology applied for the innovation award in 2019, having developed a universal battery sizing software that allows for the faster, more efficient and more accurate sizing of batteries. It can also be accessed through the internet.

The VOLTiFiC cloud platform is designed to allow anyone to size or service industrial batteries regardless of technology, manufacturer, chemistry or application.

A typical battery sizing software from a manufacturer can produce between five and 20 battery system designs within 20% of the requirements,” says the firm.

“Compare that to hundreds of solutions that VOLTiFiC can generate within 5% of the requirements. The software adheres to international battery standards and allows for deep analysis of battery performance.”

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022 • 27

COVER STORY: THE TOP 20 OF LEAD INNOVATION • GRID MANAGEMENT PIONEER: GS Yuasa and Partners

A lead-lithium hybrid for yet better grid functionality N

ew, cutting-edge, battery technology that combines the virtues of both lead-acid and lithium-ion battery chemistries could support the rapid acceleration of energy storage requirements globally and represent a fillip to a lead-acid battery sector.

That is the thinking behind the creation of a state-of the-art multi-technology energy centre in Wales that will consist of a 2MW solar farm, wind turbine, hydrogen-ready combined heat and power unit and a dual chemistry energy storage system.

The ESS is designed to meet the energy storage requirements of the grid — from immediate demands such as frequency response to longer term needs such as are found with UPS systems.

The lead/lithium battery hybrid, set within a containerized energy storage system, will be controlled by a bespoke battery management system developed by battery firm GS Yuasa, the University of Sheffield, and Infinite, a renewable energy developer set up in 2010.

The centre at The Royal Mint is one of up to seven being planned by Infinite as part of a Generation Storage Consumption Supply (GSCS) project grant funded by the European Regional Development Fund and Albion Community Power.

It is the introduction of lead-acid chemistry into the solution that has captured the imagination of the energy storage community, says Peter Stevenson, senior technical coordinator at GS Yuasa Battery Europe. He says there is a growing acceptance that the industry is obliged to leverage all available resources and chemistries to find the solutions the world will require.

The rapid proliferation of megawatt scale energy storage in recent years has mainly employed lithium-ion technology. “But the need for energy storage is set to expand massively in the coming decades to support the electrification of a wide range of industries. It will be necessary to apply all available resources in the most appropriate ways possible.

28 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022

While low energy density precludes the use of lead acid in most portable or vehicle applications, it has a longestablished pedigree for megawatt scale back-up power solutions.

By combining the operational flexibility of lithium ion with the sustainability of lead acid, especially for longer term storage, it will enable lead acid to play a greatly expanded role in the decarbonization of electricity grids and renewable micro-grids worldwide.

The GSCS project at The Royal Mint enables the deployment of a dual chemistry ESS at scale and provides the opportunity to quantify the additional benefits created by combining the chemistries.”

Joint strengths GS Yuasa pioneered the original dual chemistry technology. Its aim was to combine the strengths of lithium-ion batteries such as cycle life, high discharge rate, high charging rate, partial SOC operation, high efficiency and high energy density with the positives of lead-acid batteries: their lower price, simple control mechanisms, resilience to abuse, abundant raw materials and low embodied energy.

To develop the dual chemistry ESS, it partnered with Infinite Renewables, the University of Sheffield, and Innovate UK to develop the hybrid platform. ADEPT (ADvanced multiEnergy management and oPTimization time shifting platform) was constructed and is fully operational at the Yuasa battery manufacturing facility on the Rassau Industrial Estate in Ebbw Vale, Wales.

The ADEPT platform used at Infinite’s Energy Centre at the Royal Mint features two GS Yuasa battery systems: a 75kWh lithium-ion battery system of 36 GS Yuasa LIM50 modules alongside a Yuasa-branded SLR1000 250kWh Valve Regulated Lead Acid battery system containing the latest technology to achieve greater than 5,000 cycles.

The two systems are connected to a 100kW bi-direction power conversion unit as well as full monitoring

and battery management systems.

The cells are connected in series to produce high voltage 350kWh battery units. The GS Yuasa LIM50Ah lithium-ion cells are connected in parallel with the VRLA cells, on the DC bus of a single bi-directional Power Conversion System.

The dual chemistry battery system stores the renewable generation, which is then released, under the control of the ADEPT micro-grid manager, to provide optimum commercial benefit from demand management services. This balances the unstable, varied nature of renewable production and provides optimum energy security.

Combining the fast response of lithium-ion with the endurance of lead acid can work in a complementary way to provide economical and sustainable solutions for numerous storage services from the same system — a perfect combination for a local energy centre.”

Lead-acid batteries have benefits for long-term sustainability based on their ease of recycling, simple safety management and low capital cost for medium to long term storage solutions.

By using them in combination with lithium-ion cells, the overall charging rates and efficiencies can be increased compared with using the same sets of cells independently.

High power pulses “The lithium-ion component can provide high power pulses at any state of charge and short term duty cycles automatically focus on these cells.

The ageing rates of both cell types are reduced when they are used together, providing an extended service life and increased return on investment.”

Combining the two chemistries was never an obvious thing to do due to the different way in which each chemistry operates. “Individual cells of lead acid and lithium ion have completely different operating voltage ranges so it is not immediately obvious that they could be connected in parallel,” he admits.

Some of the earliest work in this

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COVER STORY: THE TOP 20 OF LEAD INNOVATION • GRID MANAGEMENT area, developing the idea that the differences between lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries could also be complementary when used in large scale hybrid ESS, was conducted some 10 years ago by US-based battery manufacturer Eagle Picher.

The company developed what it called the PowerPyramid, a storage system that co-locates lead and lithium batteries with separate power conversion and control equipment.

GS Yuasa then took the concept further. “Because GS Yuasa has years of experience designing, manufacturing and operating both chemistries, we could identify the possibility to eliminate the duplication of power conversion and energy management costs by directly connecting the two chemistries in parallel,” says Stevenson.

Laboratory studies by GS Yuasa in Europe and Japan, at the 48V level, confirmed the practicality of this approach.

The technology was developed to the point it went to market. A 48V dual chemistry system has been marketed since 2016 for off-grid telecom base stations. Then, in 2018, GS Yuasa Europe, working with Infinite Renewables, received UK government funding to produce the first high voltage dual chemistry system.

This was created at the GS Yuasa manufacturing facility in Ebbw Vale, Wales and continues to provide 100kW a day for peak shaving of the factory power demand. Other systems have been installed at Portsmouth International Port and in south Wales for micro-grid integration projects.

The Royal Mint ESS, however, represents a step up to near megawatt power levels in the next stage of largescale storage applications — and by playing an integral part in wider energy centre leveraging multiple technologies, it will also demonstrate its real-world value. What is more, the high profile of The Royal Mint, which will draw some 72% of the 25GWh of energy it uses annually from the scheme, will also help raise the profile of this technology.

Crossman at Infinite says that the benefits to The Royal Mint will be twofold: in addition to dramatically reducing its carbon footprint by 30%40%, it will also save it money in the context of skyrocketing energy prices.

He says that the GSCS system will embed the on-site renewable energy, low carbon generation and heat supply directly into the heat and power networks of The Royal Mint.

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PIONEER: Narada

Lead carbon mix for frequency regulation

N

arada has partnered energy storage operator Upside Group in an innovative frequency regulation project, which represents the first large-scale application of lead carbon batteries in grid-level frequency regulation energy storage systems.

The frequency regulation project was for the German power grid and the installation, at Langenreichenbach, has a planned construction capacity of 75MW. The installed capacity of the first phase of the project is 16.4MW, and the peak energy storage capacity can reach 25MWh. This project consists of 18 containers, and the battery consists of 10,584 units of 1200Ah lead carbon valve regulated cells. It is powered by nine inverters, each of which can provide 1.8 MVA. Narada was one of the pioneers in terms of developing lead carbon battery energy storage systems in energy storage.

It says it elected to do this project in Germany because the utilization

of renewable energy in the country is one of the most advanced in the world. Its power grid frequency regulation market is thus a mature power market auxiliary service trading market. The company says its entry to the German energy storage market marks the beginning of Narada’s entry to the global market.

The project was driven by the Narada Project Development Team, which was responsible for the finance and development of the entire project.

It says it believes that the application of lead carbon batteries in energy storage systems is ground-breaking.

“This project is the first large-scale application of lead carbon batteries in grid-level frequency regulation energy storage systems, and is of exemplary significance worldwide,” the company said. “In mitigating the power consumption of the local power grid, it adjusts grid balance, saves energy and reduces carbon dioxide emissions. And it provides electricity for local residents.”

PIONEER: Power Sonic

The joys of smart grid management

P

ower Sonic’s DRM (demand response module) is an innovative energy storage system suitable for the smart management of medium and high voltage electrical grids.

The DRM can used deep cycle lead batteries or alternatively lithium one, The firm said: “Our DRM system enables fast response times to variations in demand and supply, helping maintain grid stability and ensuring reliable, high-quality energy supply response through a range of applications.

“Based on current demand side response markets the DRM would pay for itself after four years. This is down to the speed in which it can respond to demand signals from the grid. With different financial models available including leasing and the ability to generate revenue

from day one tied into long-term contracts with the grid, the DRM doesn’t just offer an innovative solution for energy storage but also a great investment as a stand-alone asset.

Applications supported include emergency backup; a localized independent grid; integration with renewable power sources; and reserve capacity.

Other challenges it can address include peak shaving, frequency regulation, load levelling, renewables capacity firming and power quality, resulting in less energy consumption, more grid resilience, better power quality, monetary savings and income generation.

The company says it can stabilize the grid to manage the consumption and production of renewable energy.

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022 • 29

COVER STORY: THE TOP 20 OF LEAD INNOVATION • SEPARATORS PIONEER: Daramic

How next gen separators can double cycle life D

aramic has a long history as a pioneer in the advancement of battery separators. So in one respect it’s perhaps fitting that the inventor of the polyethylene battery separator should unveil the next way forward in battery separator design and capabilities.

The product known HD Plus is a step change in the development of deep cycle batteries and is an advancement of an early product, simply called Daramic HD. One of the technological problems

associated with the lead-acid battery is the self-discharge of the negative plate as a result of the deposition of antimony on to the sponge lead electrode, a process known as antimony poisoning. This results in gassing and water loss and eventually a shorter battery life. Antimony, however, is a useful additive for lead batteries in that it can increase conductivity of the grid enabling deeper and better cycling.

Daramic points to five features that

Daramic HD Plus at least doubles cycle life

HD Plus gives longer life and more capacity than PE Hybrid separators

30 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022

the new HD Plus separator provides.

These are: • Improved polyethylene formulation suppresses the effects of antimony poisoning, yielding longer life • New formulation provides lower internal resistance, improving charge acceptance and increasing capacity • Sealable for both envelope or sleeve automation provides protection from short circuits and higher manufacturing yields • High oxidation resistance • Optional glass mat for active material retention The key benefits of HD Plus, according to Dawn Heng, vice president and managing director for global marketing and Northeast Asia, is that firstly, it exceeds battery life requirements by counteracting the negative effects of antimony poisoning including superior oxidation resistance and reduced water loss. And secondly, on average, HD Plus increases capacity by 9%13% versus standard separators, resulting in increased back-up time for users.

Daramic has always been a regular leader in battery innovation awards.

In 2019, Daramic and Huff Technologies developed a way of better simulating how batteries perform in the real world by simulating how they move around during everyday use.

For this it received a distinguished mention.

The product was the Daramic Shuttle Table which was designed to mimic real world scenarios during testing.

It was developed because the companies acknowledged that in all types of environments, vehicles and the lead acid batteries they use are constantly moving.

The system allows for a direct comparison between batteries based on different working patterns and battery environments. It will enable the testing and validation of a variety of passive acid mixing devices, the company said, as well as many standard industry tests performed while the batteries are in motion. This includes the testing of tall motive power and

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COVER STORY: THE TOP 20 OF LEAD INNOVATION • SEPARATORS deep cycle batteries, while providing a safer battery testing environment.

In 2018 the firm showcased its latest product using Carbon Coated Separator Technology. Developed to support operations in partial state of charge, utilizing the separator as a carbon carrier, dynamic charge acceptance is improved.

It does this by reducing sulfation crystal growth, delivering a more active surface area on the plates for improved conductance of the electrode.

In 2017, using advanced computational fluid dynamics, Daramic developed two new separator solutions — Daramic EFS and Daramic RipTide.

Daramic EFS is specifically designed to support start-stop vehicle batteries by reducing the battery’s internal resistance and improving voltage drop and CCA. Daramic RipTide combines the latest innovations of Daramic with novel separator profile designs using advanced computational fluid dynamics computer modelling to enhance EFB durability by reducing acid stratification in a partial state of charge environment, which is more typical in start-stop applications.

Before this Daramic launched DuraLife, this helps protect and maintain the quality and performance in battery designs that use less lead content — a technique that many battery producers have adopted as a way of reducing the overall cost of their products.

PIONEER: Microporous

Booster mat for increased DCA

S

eparator product developer Microporous has developed a dynamic charge acceptance booster for lead batteries that works without changing the negative active material. The DCA Booster Mat can be bundled with its SLI or industrial separators and is suitable for the growing enhanced flooded battery market. It allows charge acceptance optimization and is suited to High Rate Partial State of Charge requirements for start-stop applications.

The firm says this separator component offers excellent charge acceptance in industrial markets such as motive power, where opportunity charging is required.

The Booster Mat fits tightly against the negative plate surface to add a powerful three-dimensional buffer layer that shuttles charge to and from the NAM. Initial testing demonstrated a 300% improvement in DCA over the control.

Microporous has for years explored ways in which carbon could improve lead acid battery performance and tried to solve some of the problems previous

studies had encountered.

“We put our concept to work in 2018,” the firm says. “We saw the need for improved DCA in lead batteries and the imminent threat of Li-ion in start-stop vehicles.

Previous studies have shown that mixing carbon into the NAM has its drawbacks and we looked for a better solution.

“The work had four main aims: to improve the DCA in batteries; to do this without negatively affecting cold cranking amps; to do this with minimal impact on water consumption; and to eliminate the need for special NAM formulations.

Improved DCA allows for more efficient opportunity charging, which reduces undercharging and increases cycle life. For EFB battery design, improved DCA removes the phenomenon of battery walk down, which is often seen in automotive batteries used in start-stop operations.

PIONEER: Terrapure

Solving lithium ion dangers in the recycling process

T

errapure has developed a product to detect and remove lithium-ion batteries from the lead recycling stream, an innovation that has important implications for the sector given the significant safety risks posed by lithium-ion batteries mistakenly ending up in the lead recycling process. Called the Li-ion detector, or LI Detector, it uses high-frequency radio waves to detect lithium batteries by scanning for their unique charging and protection circuitry. If detected, they can be easily removed by hand or automatically.

More than one million tonnes of lead acid batteries are recycled every year in North America alone. One of the early steps in the process is

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battery breaking, which involves disintegrating the batteries mechanically so the acid can drain out.

This is normally a reliable and safe process; however, problems can occur when batteries other than LABs accidentally enter the process. The biggest risk is from lithium-ion batteries. Upon entering the breaking process, they can explode in contact with the acid, causing damage to equipment and exposing plant personnel to potential harm.

Separating LIBs from LABs is a challenging task as they often look identical or very similar. BCI has been at the forefront of campaigning for standard packaging detailing which batteries are which.

“The LAB recycling industry has

proposed several ideas to identify LIBs but all require tagging or colour coding LIBs at their point of manufacture. Getting all LIB makers around the world to agree to modify their designs at additional cost will be difficult if not impossible. In addition, none of these solutions applies to the countless LIBs already in use,” he says.

Work on the LI Detector started in 2017 with the first commercial tests happening in September 2018. Terrapure has several handheld functioning prototypes.

“This is a huge safety advance for the industry with the capability to protect people as well as equipment from explosions and fires,” the firm says.

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022 • 31

COVER STORY: THE TOP 20 OF LEAD INNOVATION • ADDITIVES PIONEER: Hammond

Lead silicate as a performance additive M

odern battery applications demand robust performance under adverse external conditions and rigorous duty cycles. One factor affecting performance and service life is stratification of the battery cell electrolyte.

Acid stratification has been a known issue which affects battery life, especially for batteries under heavy cycling or PSoC cycling applications. The increased concentration of sulfuric acid at the lower portions of the battery active material plates promotes the formation of a surface layer of passive lead sulfate and reduces plate activation.

Stratification produces inflated open circuit voltage measurements, reduced battery performance and unequal charge across the plates, each of which can lead to reduced battery life.

Ideally, the electrolyte should be a homogenous mixture of water and sulfuric acid. Due to the exchange reactions of the charge/discharge cycle, a flow of sulfate (SO4-) and hydrogen (H+) ions occurs between the active material surface reaction layer and the bulk of the electrolyte. During the charge/discharge cycle of the battery, acid is absorbed and released by the active material.

The mobility of the H+ ions can cause an increase or decrease in acid concentration (specific gravity).

Under ideal recharge conditions, evolved gases will properly mix the electrolyte on a frequent basis. During insufficient recharge or extended periods of inactivity, the denser acid will settle to the bottom of the cell creating a density gradient.

This ultimately leads to reduced battery performance through unequal charge across the plate, increased corrosion, sulfation, and active material loss at the bottom of the plates.

Currently accepted methods to combat acid stratification include the addition of “equalization” charges where the battery is charged at a voltage above the gassing limit (2.43V) to induce the electrolytic formation of hydrogen/oxygen gas bubbles. Simi-

32 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022

larly, air can be mechanically bubbled through the cell to mix the electrolyte.

Alternate VRLA battery architectures such as AGM or gel batteries seek to prevent stratification through immobilization of the electrolyte.

In both architectures, the normally free electrolyte is trapped in either a porous glass fiber matte or transformed into a silica-sol gel by the addition of silica to the sulfuric acid. The silica reacts with the hydrogen ions of the acid to produce a gel network of O-Si-O bonds.

Compared to flooded batteries, VRLA architectures have some disadvantages including increased vul-

Examination of the additive before and after acid treatment by SEMEDS using a Phenom Pro benchtop instrument identified a change in the overall morphology of the starting material. nerability to thermal runaway during abusive charging and the inability to diagnose life-reducing improper charging via electrolyte hydrometer testing.

Overcharging a VRLA battery leads to premature failure and a much shorter service life compared to a properly maintained wet-cell battery.

Additionally, AGM and gel batteries are typically twice the cost of flooded batteries.

Hammond’s additives In search of an innovative solution to the problems of acid stratification, the Hammond R&D team has recently patented the use of novel lead silicate additive compounds in the positive and/or negative electrodes to improve the retention and distribution of H+ ions within the active material.

These additives provide numerous

benefits through the following mechanisms: • A network of silica gel (structure) is created inside PAM or NAM, • Mass transfer of acid from the active material to the electrolyte is reduced during charging.

The additive material consists of a Pb-Si glass frit. The frit is formed by melting silicon rich quartz glass (sand) and incorporating lead oxide molecules in the form of low metallic yellow litharge (PbO) into the structural lattice.

Pure silica has a tetrahedral structure, and in its crystalline form, silica molecules directly bond to each other via oxygen atoms located at the corners of each tetrahedral pyramid.

Introducing PbO to molten silica causes the partial breakage of the original direct silica interconnections.

The resulting lead silicate combines the properties of the two materials and allows the battery’s active material to exhibit the acid-absorbing properties of Si. Key material characteristics include a high composition of PbO relative to SiO2, similar material density to lead oxide, and low levels of harmful impurities. These properties make the material suitable for use as an additive to lead acid batteries.

Additionally, and most importantly, is that in acidic aqueous solutions such as battery electrolyte, the previously mentioned “chain disruption” of the tetrahedral silica molecules by Pb ions deteriorates the chemical durability of the material.

This allows the H+ ions to replace the modifier cations (Pb+) in the glass network, forming Si-OH (silanol) groups which behave like fumed silica. The additive therefore binds with acid protons in the active material creating pockets of silica-acid gel and combating stratification. The by-products of this reaction are harmless, common chemical species typically found in the battery’s active material such as lead sulfate.

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COVER STORY: THE TOP 20 OF LEAD INNOVATION • ADDITIVES Table 1. Results of acid stratification measurements during cycle life of Group 27 batteries Group 27 Flooded Battery (w/ plate height: 5” 12.7cm)

Control

PAM w/ 1% PbSiO3

NAM w/ 1% PbSiO3

Both PAM and NAM w/ 1% PbSiO3

Battery #

D3

A10

B2

C6

Acid stratification after C5* discharge and recharge** (∆ S.G. between top and bottom)***

0.012

0.005

0.006

0.001

Acid stratification after C10* discharge and recharge** (∆ S.G. between top and bottom)***

0.014

0.010

0.007

0.004

Acid stratification after C20* discharge and recharge** (∆ S.G. between top and bottom)***

0.022

0.013

0.008

0.002

Acid stratification after C100* discharge and recharge** (∆ S.G. between top and bottom)***

0.035

0.024

0.017

0.007

* Before discharge, more charging steps were applied to ensure no acid stratification. Specific gravities (top & bottom) were measured before discharge. ** Recharge profile: 115% of discharge energy + 15 Ah (boost charge step) *** Specific gravity (SG) was measured by digital hydrometer in two cells. The results reported are the averaged value.

During development of this additive, Hammond’s research team characterized the interaction between lead silicate and the acidic electrolyte solution. Examination of the material’s ability to react with and retain sulfuric acid were carried out in the laboratory. Lead silicate was tested for solubility in both deionized water and 1.4 specific gravity sulfuric acid.

Test results showed lead silicate is negligibly soluble in H2O, however a considerable amount of weight gain (~22%) was observed after reaction with acid. This weight gain was theorized to be caused by the retention of acid in a silica-gel structure and by the formation of lead sulfate.

Examination of the additive before and after acid treatment by SEM-EDS using a Phenom Pro benchtop instrument identified a change in the overall morphology of the starting material.

One can see the formation of fine granular lead sulfate crystals and smooth greyish regions of exposed silica that occurs after the material reacts with sulfuric acid. EDS probing of these new morphological formations confirms the presence and absence of silicon in each formation.

Electrical examinations Table 1 presents a summary of the stratification evaluation results conducted on these batteries. Note that stratification was considered to have occurred in the batteries if the difference in specific gravity between top

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and bottom of the cell was greater than 0.015 (15 points).

The control battery shows acid stratification after the C20 and C100 discharges. The recharging profile of 115% charge returned + 15Ah boost charge is not sufficient to mix the acid well enough in these two cases. As can be seen, the impact on the acid stratification reduction is as follows: Additive in both PAM and NAM > NAM only > PAM only > Control. Based

on the discharge data, lower capacity was observed if lead silicate was added to the PAM only, which agrees with prior cell testing data discussed above.

The height of the plate in the Group 27 batteries is 5 inch (12.7cm). Tall industrial sized battery types will typically see more serious acid stratification and potentially greater benefits from use of the lead silicate additive to reduce this issue.

Stratification produces inflated open circuit voltage measurements, reduced battery performance and unequal charge across the plates, each of which can lead to reduced battery life.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER Through experimentation with novel lead compounds, Hammond Group Inc has developed a new lead acid battery additive for both the positive and negative electrode active materials. This lead silicate additive has been shown to react with acidic compounds such as the sulfuric acid battery electrolyte to form both gel-like domains of Si-OH as well as lead sulfate.

Cells constructed with the additive demonstrate electrical performance similar to the controls, except for an increase in the overall cell voltage

during formation and cycling, a decrease in capacity at increased additive loading, and a slight increase in CCA seconds to 1V per cell.

Most importantly, results from full-scale battery testing show that an increase in the additive loading level impacts the degree of acid stratification observed during duty life. It is hoped that further optimization of the additive will achieve greater benefit in the ability to control or reduce acid stratification.

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022 • 33

COVER STORY: THE TOP 20 OF LEAD INNOVATION • ADDITIVES PIONEER: Hammond

Next gen expanders to double cycle life H ammond Group, best known in the battery business for its range of expanders, hit the ground running in 2016. It advanced the cause of better lead batteries in two ways — a revolutionary expander formulation and the provision of an open-collaboration research laboratory, known as E=LAB².

Its latest, customizable expanders provide lead acid batteries with dramatically improved dynamic charge ac-

PSoC cycling improvement

Simulated energy storage application

Charge acceptance improvement

34 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022

ceptance while the LAB² is dedicated to industry technical development. Its goal is to enable lead acid batteries to achieve 80% of lithium ion’s technical performance, but at just 20% of its cost.

Dynamic charge acceptance — the way batteries can accept and rapidly store large influxes of energy — is the next big thing for the lead acid business. It opens up two worlds — that of microhybrids in the automotive sector and the huge new areas of business with grid-scale storage.

In laboratory testing and now in production batteries, Hammond has achieved an order-of-magnitude increase in dynamic charge acceptance while simultaneously increasing cycle life.

The charts here shows relative comparisons to Hammond’s control samples.

The innovation does not require a change in other battery paste ingredients, grids, or plates. No change in any other material component or process. No new tooling, production technique, distribution, use, scrap characterization, or recycling. This represents a new expander family, with no safety concerns or known adverse effects.

Moreover, this is customizable according to the needs of the batteries being made and their in-service operating conditions.

Hammond has a long tradition in producing lead chemicals for a variety of glass, ceramics, colour and plastic applications.

“We’ve always pioneered technical substitutes and advancements in answer to an ever changing market,” said CEO Terry Murphy. “We’ve been very successful adapting to industry’s shifting demand for lead-based chemicals.”

The nub of the problem between lead and lithium is mostly a question of price and recyclability. For advanced energy storage — power generation or hybrid vehicles — lithium-ion batteries meet most of the technical requirements, but are too expensive and not recycled. By contrast lead acid batteries are inexpensive and 100% recyclable, but don’t have the necessary cycle life.

“On a personal note,” said Murphy, “a major influence on Hammond’s decision to invest in our LAB² came from Sally [Miksiewicz], who understood these emerging lead acid battery markets better than anyone, which is why East Penn invested in the Ultra Battery.

“My first meeting with Sally was scheduled for a quick 30-minute introduction, but ended up lasting several hours, with another follow-up shortly thereafter. We were immediately on the same page — both recognized the need and importance of research to lead the industry forward.”

Hammond has amassed an impressive assembly of stateof-the-art equipment in LAB² — these range from multi-position testing equipment from Maccor and Bitrode, which can test up from mini-cells to SLI batteries to micro-hybrid and stationary testing. There are also general laboratory instruments such as units providing X-ray diffraction, BET Surface Area, UV/Vis spectroscopy.

Gordon Beckley, chief technology officer, said: “With the equipment we have on offer, the huge number of algorithms that can be input to detail the types of usage batteries undergo — and why — that can form the starting point for what performance can be.

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COVER STORY: THE TOP 20 OF LEAD INNOVATION • ADDITIVES “One huge advantage that we can bring to bear is a rapid material and electrode screening process — typically we can make valid performance predictions within a couple of weeks.

“This is unheard of in an industry where typically it takes several months for a clear picture to emerge from research.”

Hammond’s investment in technology is effectively an attempt at a company level to compete against the US government-subsidized advanced battery research, which has focused on lithium-ion.

The traditional lead acid battery suffers a critical, but certainly not unsolvable, technical deficiency. When subject to high-amp, irregular re-charging intervals — such as energy re-capture from braking, battery life may be seriously shortened, said Murphy.

Better bybrids

This helped form the background for Hammond’s thinking in looking at ways to see how a better hybrid vehicle battery could be made to accommodate rapid and intermittent charging and discharging. Similarly, an energy grid storage battery must handle the inherent gaps between intermittent wind and solar energy generation and its consumption.

“These applications require a battery to perform well in high-rate partial state-of-charge (HRPSoC) operations, accepting a wide range of charging amps at various states of overall charge, and maintain this quality over a normal cycle life,” said Murphy.

“As a speciality chemical business, I felt that Hammond had an enormous potential to address this deficiency, so we made the investment and the strategic commitment to address the PSoC requirement.”

Hammond investigated the lead acid battery principle failure mode in HRPSoC applications through a materials interaction study, testing traditional and advanced expander materials.

“Exploiting insights on material selection, material interaction and dutyspecific formulations, Hammond’s work culminated in its family of negative plate expanders, available for a wide range of HRPSoC applications.

“We’ve discovered a whole new class of materials, but it wasn’t just our new material, or a particular carbon, it was the interaction and exact dosing of these new compounds that was central to this technical breakthrough.”

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PIONEER: Black Diamond Structures

Nanotechnology to give huge boost B lack Diamond Structures is bringing the advantages of the world of nanotechnology to a wider audience.

Black Diamond Structures is the commercialization vehicle for Molecular Rebar, a nanotechnology, based on a patented form of the discrete carbon nanotube, that offers a variety of improvements to the lead acid battery industry.

The first, says the firm, is a dramatically improved cycle life — with increases of over 50% in cycling. Charge acceptance is also improved by around a quarter and there are also benefits of greater performance in cold temperatures as well as strong resistance to physical and thermal abuse.

Molecular Rebar can be easily incorporated into the existing manufacturing process — with no additional capital costs or modifications to production processes.

In recent years, lead acid battery developers have used activated carbon, graphite and hybrid lead carbon electrodes to accommodate higher rates of charge and PSoC operation. These additives show promising results, but frequently require significant alterations to existing production lines and paste-mixing recipes. Determining the optimum carbon composition and implementing the new additions have been challenging.

Furthermore, carbon additives present a host of problems: many contain high concentrations of metallic impurities, which can lead to severe side reactions. Their presence in raw materials destined for use in lead acid batteries is therefore strictly regulated.

Carbon additives also alter paste rheology, requiring downstream process changes to accommodate the mix.

The Molecular Rebar technology delivers advanced technological solutions at an industrial scale with a minimum of disruption to production.

“When we first started thinking about adding Molecular Rebar to

batteries, we understood that the processes of mixing, pasting and curing are well established and have been optimized over decades in the industry,” says a Molecular Rebar Design and Black Diamond Structures spokesperson.

“We challenged our team to ensure that our product could be incorporated into existing processes without disruption or additional optimization of the manufacturing process.”

Black Diamond Structures and Molecular Rebar design, disentangle and functionalize stock carbon nanotubes, making the surface of the tubes compatible with the lead acid battery operating environment, and opening the ends of the tubes.

The process also cleans the carbon nanotubes to reduce the residual catalyst content.

To prepare for use in lead acid battery pastes, the tubes are uniformly dispersed in an aqueous solution. The final product is a pourable liquid which can be introduced directly into the paste mixing process.

The addition of this product to the negative active material improves charge acceptance and extends lifetime under lab-based cycling protocols and in realworld field trials. These tubes in the positive plates enhance the durability of plates subjected to charge/discharge cycling still further.

“Black Diamond Structures has collected significant performance data from industrially produced 12V batteries at its own testing facilities, at customer sites and at third-party testing facilities.

“The data show reductions in charge times of 25%-75% under constant-voltage conditions and increased cycle life of 25%-300%, depending upon the protocol.

Pasting trials have shown that Molecular Rebar can reduce waste and improve production quality,” said one of the principal team members engaged in the project.

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022 • 35

COVER STORY: THE TOP 20 OF LEAD INNOVATION • OTHER ADVANCES PIONEER: Mega Amps

Using stratification for best purpose M ega Amps has developed a patented electrolyte manipulation innovation for flooded lead-acid batteries dubbed EQLYTE, (EE-KEWLITE). This is coupled with an intelligent controller that serves to optimize electrochemical hydrodynamics by increasing the availability of reaction constituents and overcoming reaction rate limitations caused by diffusion, migration and geometric hindrances of battery plate design to yield an optimized electrolyte/activemass interface.

The novel electrolyte circulation technology responds to charge versus

discharge separately, by means of the sensing controller to perform a quasi-dosing function.

Depositing high density electrolyte, typically settled in the lower regions of the flooded battery as a result of stratification, to directly above the active plates to allow for the more dense electrolyte to gradually settle through the active battery block, causes an increased availability of H2SO4 for the discharge reaction more uniformly across the battery plates.

This ultimately results in more than 25% more discharge capacity gained through improved utilization of the active materials.

According to Neill Human, chief technology officer for Mega Amps: “The utilization rate of the active material of typical flooded batteries is governed by a whole host of processes.

We know that electrolyte dynamics in current flooded designs have major capacity and life expectancy limitations.

“We have found a simple way to integrate a nextlevel electrolyte manage-

ment process and mechanism to address some key performance limiting aspects of the flooded battery, where for the very first time, the true utilization of active materials is uniform across the surfaces.

“This is a profound statement, because in today’s lead acid batteries, the true depth of discharge of the active mass is an average DoD across the battery plate length, where the actual DoD will range in accordance with electrolyte concentration gradients as a result of stratification.

“This is proven by the latest study conducted with the synchrotron use at Argonne National Laboratory in conjunction with Electric Appliance Incorporated.”

Using the same principle in reverse for battery recharge, by actually allowing stratification, it now improves battery recharge efficiency and battery longevity by optimizing PbSO4 solubility, where the solubility of PbSO4 is directly correlated to the electrolyte relative density and it is well known that at lower density ranges PbSO4 will be up to three times more soluble than ranges above 1.24 specific gravity, found as we approach higher levels of state-ofcharge during battery recharge.

PIONEER: TBS Engineering

Reaping the benefits of better automation

T

he TBS Automatic Plate Loader has been developed over the last two years as part of TBS Engineering’s underlying business ethos of creating breakthroughs in manufacturing that, they say, accelerates the genius of their customers.

“We’re all aware that the lead battery faces a huge set of challenges in the future,” says Chris Hanes, group

36 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022

director for corporate growth at TBS. “Our response to this has been a thoughtful one, we’ve concentrated on delivering better performance … in effect that means greater speed, automation and efficiency and that translates into competitive advantage.

“Rather than design products that would need, perhaps, a restructuring

of the factory, we look at maximizing the potential of the existing plant and plant space. And this is exactly what our Automatic Plate Loader does.”

The machine has been developed to feed plates into the TBS HiTek enveloping and stacking machines.

Two identical robots de-palletize plates, put them through plate shufflers to separate each individual plate and load them on to the TBS HiTek enveloping and stacking machine. One loader handles positive plates, the other, negative ones. The robots also move empty pallets from the loading stack to the empty pallet stack.

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COVER STORY: THE TOP 20 OF LEAD INNOVATION • OTHER ADVANCES PIONEER: CMWTEC

PIONEER: Digatron

Mixing impedance and high current testing in one package

C

MWTEC has developed a new end-of-line testing machine for lead-acid batteries together with newly developed water-cooled modular e-load modules with highly efficient process control software. This project was developed with the Beuth University of Applied Sciences in Berlin over a period of two years.

“After commissioning and running our first EOL machines for two of our customers, we were able to collect a lot of real battery data from the production lines and examine each individual measurement on site,” says Michael Wipperfürth, sales manager at CMWTEC. Reliability is the most important feature of automotive batteries. To ensure reliability, all batteries are subjected to a load test before shipping. Energy losses must be minimized. The batteries are tested for a few seconds at high current. The resulting voltage determines a pass or fail compared to the nominal values.

Wipperfürth says this new development is the key to combining impedance and high current discharge testing in one device and one software.

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“This test combination was previously only possible in the laboratory,” he says. “But we are now bringing it into the production line and significantly increasing quality control at the production site. Thanks to adaptable test profiles, our EOL can now detect the most common faults within five seconds.”

Mohammed Al-Ogaili, project manager development at CMWTEC, says: “We can find out so much more about the battery by combining discharge with impedance and DC internal resistance testing.

“It shows how additional evaluation criteria such as internal DC resistance, impedance and discharge curves over time can be implemented. The test profiles are easy to configure, and the results can be easily evaluated.”

The internal resistance Ri of a battery can reflect its own characteristics, which include the state of health of the battery and the state of charge. Therefore Ri should be considered with some caution, as it depends on the measurement method, the state of the battery and the temperature.

Battery testing’s next leap forward: rethinking switch mode technology

D

igatron Power Electronics approached the innovation award in 2016 with a different angle — looking to reinvent the battery testing system from scratch with what it calls the world’s first laboratory test system with silicon-carbide technology.

“Points of departure from the norm,” said the firm, “were customer demands with regard to energy efficiency, construction size, circuit density, ergonomics, power and dynamic envelope, as well as the latest semiconductor technology derived from military and aeronautics: Silicon Carbide (SiC) MOSFETs.” Digatron introduced battery testers with active frontends and output amplifiers in SiC-technology in their Repoweren UBT (20V) and MCT (6V) lines. These systems provide up to six 1.8kW test circuits in one 4U (178mm) rack module.

This is equivalent to an almost 10-fold increase of power density compared to any previous designs.

“Our Biconditional Energy Supply Tracking (BEST) system ensures optimum energy efficiency under any operating condition,” says the firm. “This process automatically balances the energy flows between the six circuits and tracks the energy balance of the DC link accordingly, either to regenerate 100% in the DC realm (and top off from AC as needed), or to feed excess energy back to the three-phase grid.”

The Repoweren units can be cascaded in standard 19 inch rack systems. Test circuits can be paralleled up to several kiloamperes.

Extra expenses for climatization or acoustic insulation are unnecessary.

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022 • 37

COVER STORY: THE TOP 20 OF LEAD INNOVATION • OTHER ADVANCES PIONEER: Philadelphia Scientific

Doubling the capacity of battery charging rooms

P

hiladelphia Scientific has developed a ‘charger splitter’ capable of doubling the capacity of a typical battery room, offering a much better return on investment in the process.

Philadelphia Scientific’s iBOS Charger-Splitter is used in tandem with the iBOS [Intelligent Battery Organizing System] battery room management system, effectively using one charger to charge multiple batteries, and increasing the charging capacity of a battery room.

The Charger-Splitters are installed on conventional battery charging systems and when a battery is charged, a flashing LED alerts operators to disconnect it and plug it in to an uncharged battery. This enables the sequential charging of two batteries with one charger.

One of the biggest investments in a battery room is the cost of the chargers. They are an essential piece of equipment but are only used an average of 22% of the time.

The iBOS Charger-Splitter makes it possible to utilize unused charger capacity and halve the number of chargers needed to charge a battery fleet.

The company estimates that for sites with 20 chargers or more, it will more than pay for the entire iBOS system with money left over.

Alerts are displayed on the remote operations display to ensure the switch gets done and reports on the iBOSWorld website track user performance using the system.

In some cases, Charger-Splitters will enable battery room managers to reduce the number of chargers used by a third to a half, the company estimates.

For the average battery room, that’s an annual saving of tens of thousands of dollars.

It estimates that warehouses and DCs that are planning a new battery room can achieve 50% savings on charger purchases because they will require only one charger for every two batteries, not one charger per battery.

For battery rooms that must increase capacity by purchasing more batteries or trucks, half the number of chargers will be required than if Charger-Splitters are not being used.

Charger-Splitters also provide an ideal solution when managers do not want to install costly extra power infrastructure to support additional chargers in a battery changing area.

PIONEER: Wirtz Manufacturing

Recycle batteries in one stop mobile shop

B

attery Recycling Systems, one of the Wirtz group of companies, has designed the RTR (Ready To Run) series of equipment for recycling lead-acid batteries, which the company says can arrive on site, pre-assembled and mounted on a skid in a shipping container, can be commissioned for production in less than a day and offers four product separation streams — metallic lead, paste, separators and polypropylene.

The RTR will be able to recycle from one tonne and up to 20 tonnes of lead batteries a day, and is ideal for small recyclers, said vice president for sales and technology Doug Lambert.

38 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022

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INSIDE HOPPECKE As latest analysis shows the lead battery industry is a key economic driver for Europe, Hoppecke CEO Marc Zoellner talks about his company’s investment in a new batteries brand and production line in Poland and gives his take on why the EU may be… John Shepherd reports.

Learning to love lead The Eurocrats who set the European Union’s energy and environmental policies in Brussels haven’t always looked kindly on lead batteries.

The noises for the past 10 years in the corridors of power — that’s the European Commission (broadly speaking the un-elected civil servants that govern the EU) not the European Parliament (elected MPs) — have resounded to one word lithium.

More than a year ago, this magazine revealed that the number two in the Commission — in a verbatim transcript of a speech that he gave — seemingly knew nothing about lead batteries and clearly thought Europe’s future could not possibly lie in a “technology that belonged to the past”.

He also wanted to drive rare earths out of car batteries, which was briefly a talking point (and a puzzling one) to the battery industry.

But is the EU now learning to love lead? It certainly should — in terms of economic value to the bloc alone.

The latest investment boost for the sector has come from Hoppecke, one of Europe’s oldest, independent lead battery manufacturers and its CEO, Marc Zoellner, is more than optimistic about the future of the technology within and beyond European shores.

In the spring, Hoppecke launched production of a new line of pure lead AGM batteries at a newly-built plant in Poznan, Poland. The pace of the project was impressive, considering the decision to build the facility was only taken less than two years ago.

Speaking to Energy Storage Journal for this interview just weeks before going to press, Zoellner said: “We’re in the process of starting up production and beginning to deliver the first batteries to our customers.

“We are proud that we took the brave decision while still in the Covid period to build a new plant, despite the travel and other restrictions that were in place at that time.”

The target market for the new ‘grid Xtreme VR’ batteries line — which Hoppecke says represents “the highest

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“From our point of view, the back-up power market will outgrow other battery markets. Lead batteries are probably a blueprint for other technologies” Marc Zoellner, Hoppecke CEO level of development of today’s lead acid storage technologies” — are UPS systems in data centres and for backup power in telecom applications. The batteries are designed as top and front terminal versions.

“The market we have identified is already growing, we can see that with the increased use of digital technologies, so our foresight and work is already paying off. Data centres and

telecoms infrastructure in particular depends on high performance batteries and Poznan will supply those sectors,” Zoellner says.

“Digitalization is one of the major trends that can have a positive impact on our industry and another big trend is the increasing need for the storage of data and communications, which will become only more important in the future with the use of artificial

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022 • 39

INSIDE HOPPECKE DO IT CARL!’ — THE HOPPECKE LEGACY It was the efforts of a woman nearly a century ago that led to the launch of one of Europe’s best known battery manufacturers, Hoppecke.

The company credits the start of its more than 90 years of history to a “strong woman” — Auguste Zoellner.

In 1927, Auguste urged her 62-year-old husband, Carl, who was a major merchant from Cologne, to channel his efforts into boosting the economic prospects of the region and in turn helping those affected by unemployment with the words: “Do it, Carl!”

Carl chose two fir trees as the company’s logo, with their trunks linked by a crossbeam to form the letter ‘H’.

Four generations later and there is still a family member at the helm —

Marc Zoellner. His great grandfather, grandfather and father were his predecessors, all as CEO and company shareholders.

“We are proud to be one of the remaining private battery companies in Europe. There were around 25 in the days of my predecessors, my father for example, but the sector is a smaller industry now,” Zoellner says.

“However, there are some privatelyowned battery companies and supplier companies around, so it really is still a strong industry and there are a lot of initiatives from those private companies that keep this industry thriving. We also have very good integration in working with the big internationals and other companies through associations such as EUROBAT.”

In 1927, Auguste urged her 62-year-old husband, Carl, who was a major merchant from Cologne, to channel his efforts into boosting the economic prospects of the region and in turn helping those affected by unemployment with the words: “Do it, Carl!”

40 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022

intelligence (AI) and electromobility.

“We see big demand ahead for lead batteries such as ours in what is a growing market. AI is just at the starting point, there will be many applications and we want to serve a part of that market.

“All these will require an energy infrastructure that is safe and secure in ensuring the transmission and storage of date and that is just one area where batteries such as ours will be needed.

“From our point of view, the backup power market will outgrow other battery markets and that’s why we thought we should come out with a new product, offering better performance, a longer lifetime and better economics in terms of production and operation.”

Meanwhile, Zoellner says the company has developed a “whole new range of products” based on pure lead technology and is continuing to manufacture its standard battery products at its sites in the towns of Hoppecke and Bremecketal in western Germany.

Zoellner, who is also president of EUROBAT, the European association for manufacturers of automotive, industrial and energy storage batteries, is philosophical when asked about the EU’s apparent ‘problem’ with seeking to regulate against lead batteries while encouraging greater investment in lithium and other technologies.

“This perspective is changing. The single biggest political importance in the EU today is the ‘Green Deal’ and its policy objectives (such as reducing climate change and enhancing circularity). The Green Deal requires increased reliance on renewables and the storage of electricity — and for that you need electrochemical storage.

“That in turn broadens the view from a policy perspective, because you are then not only looking at specific elements of materials, but at storage technologies themselves. In terms of lead batteries, you are looking at an industry that has been established for a very long time and one that manages the circular economy well. In fact, it has the highest recycling rate of a metal globally, so this technology has many good things to offer.

“In the past, from a political point of view, lead was looked at more in terms of the materials it used and the potential hazards associated with that.

“But now, politicians and others are looking at lead batteries more as electrochemical storage facilities that do the job they are designed to do well. They also see these batteries as

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INSIDE HOPPECKE a probable blueprint for developing new technologies, too. So, I personally, as an entrepreneur, see a bright future for lead batteries.”

In terms of Hoppecke’s own research and development activities towards advancing lead battery technology, Zoellner politely declines to go into detail.

He acknowledges the technology evaluation agreement his company entered into in November 2019 with Silicon Joule bipolar battery tech developer, Gridtential Energy, adding: “There has been some evaluation but beyond that I can’t say more at this stage. We continue to look at everything in terms of advancing battery technologies.”

Although predominantly a lead battery manufacturer, Hoppecke added lithium to its portfolio nearly 20 years ago. Three years ago, a sister company — Intilion — was formed in Paderbourne, Germany, devoted to the lithium batteries market.

Intilion’s focus is on three areas of application: stationary commercial and large-scale storage systems for the intermediate storage of renewable energies, traction energy storage systems for industrial trucks such as forklifts, and high-voltage systems for trains and other heavy-duty applications.

“Just as we continue to innovate with lead batteries, we can also contribute to new applications for the integration of renewables through Intilion,” Zoellner says.

But Hoppecke’s core business remains focused on lead batteries which, as an independent report released in April noted, is worth an estimated €15 billion ($16 billion) of value added or gross domestic product a year to the European economy.

The report — Economic Contribution of the European Lead Battery Industry — said the downstream industry activity driven by the use of lead batteries was worth €7.3 trillion of gross domestic product across retail, construction and healthcare.

And about €2 billion of country exports of lead acid batteries from the 27 EU member states are consumed by non-EU countries, such as the UK, Switzerland, and China, the report said.

Zoellner says: “As CEO of Hoppecke, I see this industry as one that has a bright future and one that contributes to the challenges the energy sector faces. The battery industry is one of movement, investment and innovation and is very much a living industry.”

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The way they were: Hoppecke in 1935

Hoppeke’s new facility in Poland

EUROPE’S LEAD BATTERY INDUSTRY — THE FIGURES The European lead battery industry (battery manufacturing, container and separator manufacturing, accessories, assembly equipment, recycling, primary lead producers and mining companies) directly employs approximately 31,700 workers.

In addition, it supports about 75,000 jobs in other companies supplying into this industry and 77,500 jobs from worker spending in different industries. Together, these total over 184,000 jobs. Beyond jobs, the European lead battery industry annually supports the

following4: • €7.6 billion in labour income • €14.7 billion in GDP • €36.5 billion in output or overall economic impact, and • €1.9 billion in social security payments.

The industry also contributes to wider economic growth by enabling households and businesses to be more productive. Numerous downstream industries rely on lead batteries to operate, with the largest users being motor vehicle repair, construction, and transportation. (€1=$1.05)

Source: Report: Economic Contribution of the European Lead Battery Industry by EBP US

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022 • 41

THE CHINA PERSPECTIVE Despite the EU’s oft-stated goal of building a battery cells manufacturing network to challenge Asia’s dominance, a senior Beijing envoy to Germany tells Energy Storage Journal, China is happy to play a key supporting role in shaping Europe’s batteries future.

How China’s battery tigers are helping Europe’s nascent battery industry roar Many of the draft rules soon to become EU law under the Batteries Regulation are part of an undisguised effort on the part of the bloc’s leaders to dethrone Asia from its dominance in the batteries market.

Measures imposing tough ‘green criteria’ seeking to make European battery products an international standard and setting carbon emission limits on production are part of the arsenal of policies the bloc has crafted, in an attempt to allow Europe’s own gigarevolution to pick up speed and so challenge dominance from battery makers in countries such as China and South Korea.

But while the policy-making rumbled on, Asia’s battery tigers prowled into town. The ‘competitors’ are no

longer across the other side of the world — they’re busy at work in EU member states.

And in exclusive interview with Energy Storage Journal, the commercial counsellor at China’s embassy in Berlin, Wang Weidong, says his nation is happy to be supporting Europe’s green energy agenda.

As far as the Batteries Regulation is concerned, Wang says Chinese battery companies believe the new rules will have a positive impact in “promoting green, low-carbon and sustainable development” of the battery industry and tackling climate change.

Key players in China’s battery industry are among others, such as South Korea, who have been busy setting up shop in the EU — in partnership with

“It is conceivable that Sino-European exchanges in the methodology of battery products will be undertaken and a cooperation mechanism will be established … “This should facilitate mutual market access, create a win-win situation and make constructive progress towards global climate protection” — Wang Weidong 42 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022

European peers — and in some cases benefiting from generous EU financial incentives.

Wang says data from the federal government-backed Germany Trade and Invest (GTAI) shows that around 5,700 Chinese firms across a variety of sectors were active in Germany in 2021, which in turn employed a total of more than 103,000.

And despite what Wang said were difficult economic conditions, GTAI data on foreign direct investment for Germany in 2020 indicated some 170 greenfield investment projects from China — a 10% increase over the previous year.

Those investors include Chinese battery manufacturing majors Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) and SVOLT Energy Technology. “They specialize in electromobility and are building battery manufacturing factories in Germany,” Wang says.

Meanwhile another Chinese battery titan, Narada Power, ploughs ahead with its range of projects in support of strengthening Germany’s power grid.

Wang says all three companies “are examples of China’s integration into the world economy and the result of the globalization of the (batteries) value chain.

“With China’s opening-up process and economic growth, Chinese companies are increasingly expanding their global presence,” he says. “Decisions to enter the German and European markets are made by Chinese investors based on business interests, just like German companies in China.”

And now that Chinese battery companies and others have become interwoven into the commercial fabric of Europe’s industrial landscape, Wang hopes Chinese companies “will be offered fair competitive conditions here and that they can be treated equally with local companies”.

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THE CHINA PERSPECTIVE In terms of the growth and technological impact of Chinese battery businesses in Europe, Wang says that while Narada has been involved in lead acid and lithium ion battery technology for more than 20 years, “lithium batteries have gradually become the core product” of the firm’s product portfolio in recent years.

Since 2017, Narada has been working with German partner companies to develop and deploy battery energy storage projects with a total capacity of 75MW/125MWh. These lead carbon ESS projects have been implemented in five phases, each with an output of 15MW/25MWh. Narada has also established a European Energy Storage Service Center in Germany from which it offers services to European customers.

In addition, Wang says the company has provided batteries for frequency control storage projects with a capacity of 50MWh commissioned in Ireland, while a grid peak regulation 300MWh storage project is scheduled for delivery in Italy by the end of 2022, according to Wang.

In future, Narada’s focus will be on the “core business of intelligent energy storage and on lithium batteries”.

CATL also sees “great development potential” for lithium battery technology. “Breakthroughs in their performance, such as energy density, range, safety, service life and charging have been achieved.”

“At the same time, new products and business models are appearing from CATL such as cell-to-pack and cell-tochassis, such as CTP,” Wang says.

“The innovation of battery industry depends on the development of key technologies, but market acceptance

also plays a crucial role.”

In early April, Contemporary Amperex Technology Thuringia (CATT), the group’s first manufacturing plant built outside China, received approval for an initial plant capacity of 8GWh per year.

Wang says: “The construction of the plant, which is also CATL’s first battery factory in Germany, is in the final phase and the installation of the machines are in full swing, so that the first cells can roll off the assembly line at the end of 2022.”

Anja Siegesmund Thuringia minister of environment energy and nature conservation and Matthias Zentgraf CATL Europe president

CATL’s Thuringia plant in Germany: ready for action by the end of the year

HOW REALPOLITIK ENERGIZED THE GREEN ENERGY AGENDA Since the launch of the European Battery Alliance in 2017, the European Commission has trumpeted calls to make the bloc a world leader in sustainable battery production.

In doing so, Europe has not been shy in dishing out billions of euros to build a home-grown battery cells manufacturing network in its quest to slap down Asia’s dominance in the market.

However, politics make strange bedfellows. While the EU sought to invest in building its own batteries empire, it was revealed in July 2018

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that Germany would unlock the coffers of an economic aid fund — to support CATL’s construction of a battery cells factory in the country.

The agreement was announced during talks between Germany’s then chancellor Angela Merkel and Chinese premier Li Keqiang.

Officials said the financial support was allowed under EU guidelines for regional investment.

It’s also been barely two years since European Commission vice president and champion of the Battery Alliance, Maroš Šefcovic, said in a speech to a Nordic Battery Scene webinar that

reducing Europe’s “overdependence on third countries, both for batteries and the raw materials needed to make them, is crucial to boosting our strategic autonomy and resilience in this area”.

In that June 2020 speech, Šefcovic bemoaned the fact that “73% of the batteries bought in the EU are made in China, and only 6% in Europe”.

Today, those remarks can perhaps be better revised to say: “We don’t mind buying batteries from Chinese companies, so long as they’re made in Europe.”

Realpolitik in action, no doubt.

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022 • 43

THE CHINA PERSPECTIVE With a total investment of €1.8 billion (about $1.9 billion), CATL intends to expand production capacity to 14GWh and create 2,000 jobs in Germany. “CATL is therefore bringing its state-of-the-art technologies to Europe,” says Wang.

According to Wang, the spirit of industrial cooperation in the batteries sector should also be a model for governments to work together in using technology to tackle climate change.

“It affects us all and can only be mastered through our joint efforts.

China has committed to peak carbon emissions by 2030 and become carbon neutral by 2060. Germany and Europe have also set themselves an ambitious goal for climate neutrality,” he says.

“To achieve that goal, both Europe

and China are trying to expand renewable energies. Energy storage is an essential technical component for the energy transition. The low-carbon transformation and the innovations in climate protection technologies, which include energy storage, therefore hold great potential for cooperation between China and Germany.”

Wang says Chinese president Xi Jinping and German chancellor Olaf Scholz agreed during a video conference on May 9 that both sides would “deepen cooperation on climate protection and energy transformation”.

The incoming Battery Regulation “clarifies binding requirements on carbon footprints, due diligence, material recycling targets, labelling and information management,” he says.

“With the rapid technological inno-

ASIA’S BATTERY DRIVE INTO EASTERN EUROPE

A number of Asian battery players are making inroads into the European battery cells manufacturing market.

In December 2020, the Hungarian government said Chinese lithium battery components company Shenzhen Kedali Industry would open a manufacturing base in the north of the country.

In July 2021, the European Commission approved a proposed €90 million ($94 million) subsidy

by Hungary for construction of a second electric vehicle battery plant in the country by South Korea’s SK Innovation.

The announcement came after SKI secured a $500 million ‘green loan’ from the Export-Import Bank

44 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022

of Korea towards construction of the facility — and unveiled plans to start building a third battery plant in Hungary.

On March 18 this year, the European Commission approved a €95 million package of aid offered by Poland’s government to support the LG Chem group’s expansion of its EV battery cells production plant in the country.

Commission executive vice president Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said an investigation into the incentives offered confirmed that the expansion “will contribute to job creation and to the economic development of a disadvantaged region, without unduly distorting competition”.

vation in this industry and the globalization of the supply chain, it is desirable that international coordination of the production standards in the battery industry be strengthened.

“China and Europe are the world’s most important regions of production and consumer markets for new energy vehicles and power batteries,” says Wang. “German electric vehicles equipped with Chinese power batteries are sold all over the world.”

Wang also hints at a desire to work closely with Europe in advances in next generation battery technology, saying it is “conceivable that Sino-European exchanges in the methodology of battery products will be undertaken and a cooperation mechanism will be established.

“This should facilitate mutual market access, create a win-win situation and make constructive progress towards global climate protection.”

However, Wang says that as world economies seek to pick up pace in the aftermath of the pandemic there are still challenges ahead. He acknowledges that for all China’s economic and industrial might, it too is not immune from global events.

“There are disruptions in the global supply and transport chains, which can be observed in many countries.

The reasons for this situation are manifold: bottlenecks in container shipping, rising commodity prices and so on,” he says.

What Wang terms as the “current Ukraine crisis” has, he says, “further aggravated the situation.

“China is now also being negatively affected. For example, like in Germany, in China there is a shortage of chips for the automotive industry.”

Wang is also open about the impact of a fresh outbreak of Covid cases in China in recent months that has led to some companies temporary halting production.

But, conscious of China’s role as a global player in the materials supply chain for a range of industries, Wang says the government issued new Covid-19 prevention guidelines, designed to enable businesses to “resume work to secure and stabilize industrial supply chains.

“In 2021, China’s exports increased by 21.2% year-on-year. In doing so, China has helped meet the manufacturing and living needs of other parts of the world and helped to sustain the global industrial and supply chain. We will continue these efforts in the future.”

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The Leading Exhibition Series for Batteries and Energy Storage Systems

2022–2023

AUGUST 23–25, 2022, SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL SOUTH AMERICA’S HOT SPOT FOR BATTERIES AND ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMS www.ees-southamerica.com

DECEMBER 7–9, 2022, GANDHINAGAR, GUJARAT, INDIA INDIA‘S LEADING ELECTRICAL ENERGY STORAGE EXHIBITION www.ees-india.in

JUNE 14–16, 2023, MUNICH, GERMANY EUROPE’S LARGEST EXHIBITION FOR BATTERIES AND ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMS www.ees-europe.com FOLLOW US

FORTHCOMING EVENTS While we have taken every effort to ensure these details are correct, please contact the conference organizers with any queries, or check websites below and throughout the listings for any amendments to the programme.

Advanced Automotive Battery Conference Europe — AABC Europe

Battery India

SPARK

June 20 – 22 Bengalaru, India

June 21 – 22 London, UK

June 13 – 15 Mainz, Germany

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.

SPARK will be the meeting place for innovators and leaders in the energy sector to shape the future of the energy transition.

SPARK will bring together 350 senior speakers and thousands of attendees from across Europe. If you are a utility, DSO, TSO, power developer, end user, transport operator, or solution provider – this is the show for you.

Make plans to participate at the European AABC event where chief battery technologists from major European automakers will present their development trends and projected battery needs, and their key suppliers will share their latest offerings and roadmaps for the future.

Contact Cambridge Enertech E: ce@cambridgeenertech.com www.advancedautobat.com/europe

Contact Battery and Recycling Foundation International E: info@bfi.org.in www.bfi.org.in

SAVE THE DATE!

European Lead Battery Conference September 6 – 9 • Lyon, France ElBC is set to be the biggest lead battery innovation event yet in 2022, with a packed programme including new market insights, energy storage systems, automotive battery updates and the latest in research and technical innovations.

Exhibit at the ELBC and join the largest global gathering of lead battery experts, with more than 1000 attendees expected from across the lead battery industry.

Contact: International Lead Association • E: elbcexpo@ila-lead.org • www.elbcexpo.org

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Contact Terrapinn www.terrapinn.com/exhibition/spark

Eurobat General Assembly June 23 – 24 Brussels, Belgium After an absence of two years, EUROBAT is thrilled to move back to an “in person” Forum event!

The EUROBAT Forum is the annual event of our association, where we host more than 100 key stakeholders, including senior executives from the battery industry, policy-makers, NGO representatives and other stakeholders.

The European battery industry finds itself today at a critical crossroads.

Key EU legislative files are currently being debated, including the European Commission’s proposal for a Batteries Regulation. At the same time, there are other Green Deal policies on the table, such as the Waste Shipment Regulation and the Industrial Emissions Directive, among others.

These files will drive our industry in terms of energy efficiency, sustainability and decarbonisation, while we develop further the industrial ecosystem of automotive and industrial batteries in Europe.

These developments also come at a time when Europe and the European industry have to deal with the impact of the Russian war against Ukraine.

Will this have an impact on the rollout of the Green Deal? What will it mean for energy security in the EU? Could it jeopardise the supply of battery raw materials?

These and other questions will be answered in Brussels on 24 June during our 3 expert sessions on State of the Industry, Sustainability and Raw Materials and Innovation!

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FORTHCOMING EVENTS European Fuel Cell Forum July 5 – 8 Lucerne, Switzerland

International Flow Battery Forum June 27 – 29 Brussels, Belgium The International Flow Battery Forum (IFBF) promotes flow batteries as a crucial technology within the electrical energy storage sector. We believe this is timely and relevant; there is a real need to educate and inform a wide audience of the attributes, features and benefits of flow batteries.

The International Flow Battery Forum is the major international conference covering all aspects of flow battery research, development, technology, manufacturing and commercialization.

Contact The International Flow Battery Forum E: info@flowbatteryforum www.flowbatteryforum.com

The Battery Show Europe June 28 – 30 Stuttgart, Germany Join the leading meeting place for the advanced battery and H/EV technology community. Meet manufacturers, suppliers, engineers, thought leaders and decision-makers for a conference and trade fair focused on the latest developments in the advanced battery and automotive industries.

The 15th EUROPEAN SOFC & SOE FORUM addresses issues of science, engineering, materials, systems, applications and markets for all types of Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC), Solid Oxide Electrolysers (SOE) and Solid Oxide Electrochemical Reactors.

Additionally the more and more established issue of CO2 emission reduction and reuse is addressed as well.

The Forum is the largest international meeting on Solid Oxide Technologies building the bridge from science to application. Business opportunities will be identified for manufacturers, industry, operators and investors.

Contact EFCF www.efcf.com

International Automotive Recycling Congress — IARC July 5 – 7 Basel, Switzerland IARC 2022 is the international platform for discussing the latest developments and challenges in automotive recycling, bringing together more than 250 decision-makers in the ELV recycling chain such as car manufacturers, metal and plastic scrap traders, recyclers, shredder operators, policy-makers and many more.

Contact ICM AG www.icm.ch/iarc-2022

Contact Informa Markets E: thebatteryshowcs@informa.com www.thebatteryshow.eu/en/Home.html

PlugVolt Battery Seminar

Battery Cells & Systems Expo and Conference

Day 1 of 2022 event will feature multiple technical tutorials presented by industry subject matter experts and world renowned professors from Top 50 US universities, followed by Days 2 and 3 focusing exclusively on Automotive and Stationary/Grid storage applications respectively.

Day 2 will also offer attendees an opportunity to tour INTERTEK battery test labs, and participate in an evening reception for industry networking.

June 29 – 30 Birmingham, UK Battery Cells & 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 www.batterysystemsexpo.com

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Future Energy Asia July 20 – 22 Bangkok, Thailand The exhibition and summit will convene Energy Ministers, Policy Makers, Energy Majors including NOCs and IOCS, Power Generation authorities, midstream gas and LNG players, EPCs and Project Consultants and renewable energy developers. The conference will advance innovation and collaboration with the participation of key energy stakeholders, project developers, policy makers and Ministers.

Participate in Future Energy Asia for direct access to top-level networking events and multi-billion dollar project investment.

Contact DMG Events E: info@futureenergyasia.com

World Battery Industry Expo August 9 - 10 Guanghzhou, China Committed to promoting global market trade and battery industrial chain, WBE has developed into a professional exhibition with the largest number of exhibitors in battery enterprises and the highest participation of professional visitors and foreign buyers. Relying on its worldwide influence and thousands of overseas buyers, WBE provides exhibitors with high-quality buyers resources to help enterprises get more business opportunities.

Contact Guangdong Grandeur International Exhibition Group E: grand@grahw.com www.battery-expo.com

July 12 – 14 Plymouth, MI. USA

Contact PlugVolt JC Soman E: juratesoman@plugvolt.com www.plugvolt.com/seminars/

Guanghzhou, China

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022 • 47

FORTHCOMING EVENTS Oslo Battery Days August 22 – 23 • Oslo, Norway The 4th OBD Battery Conference will meet to discuss and provide a platform for technological innovations and business opportunities with the latest updates in that fields in Norway and abroad. The conference is held every second year and is the leading Battery conference in Norway, bringing together participants from leading private and public companies, startups, investors, academics and businesses that are interested in the battery revolution.

Contact Schive AS Erik Schwings Hagelien Tel: +47 90 73 91 59 E: post@schive.no www.oslobatterydays.com

The Solar Show Africa August 23 – 24 • Johannesburg, Africa As Africa’s’ largest energy conference & exhibition, The Solar Show Africa brings together government ministries, utilities, power producers, municipalities, regulators, large energy users, project developers, investors and solution providers to allow new business opportunities and valuable connections to be made.

ees South America August 23 – 25 • Sao Paulo, Brazil The special exhibition “ees South America” is the industry hotspot for suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and users of stationary and mobile electrical energy storage solutions.

Covering the entire value chain of innovative battery and energy storage technologies – from components and production to specific user application - it is the ideal platform for all stakeholders in the rapidly growing energy storage market.

The focus at ees is on energy storage solutions suited to energy systems with increasing amounts of renewable energy sources attracting investors, utilities, installers, manufacturers and project developers from all over the world.

Contact Solar Promotion www.intersolar.net.br/home

PCIM Asia August 31 – September 2 Shanghai, China PCIM Asia offers a chance to see the latest developments in power electronics components and systems. The strong link between conference and

48 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2022

exhibition guarantees the high quality of the show. This unique combination fosters the fast and easy exchange between industry and science, for which PCIM Asia is famous.

Contact Messe Frankfurt www.pcimasia-expo.cn.messefrankfurt. com/shanghai/en.html

Intersolar Mexico September 6 – 8 Mexico City, Mexico Intersolar Mexico serves as the industry’s go-to source for invaluable technology trends and premier B2B contacts in the promising Mexican solar market.

Representatives of leading companies and organizations in the solar market will comment on the development and prospects of both the solar thermal and photovoltaic sectors.

Among the topics to be addressed are: project financing, energy storage, business models and innovations in distributed solar generation, the regulatory situation, decarbonization in the industrial sector.

Don’t miss this unique opportunity to get valuable industry insights and engage in the most inspiring discussions and unrivalled networking opportunities amongst the leading experts in the field Contact ICM AG E: info@icm.ch https://events.icm.ch/event/0ed92807fd1d-452a-8d20-d24ba90095aa/summary

Expo for Decarbonised Industries September 20 – 22 Düsseldorf, Germany Messe Düsseldorf’s program includes the world’s leading trade shows for the energy-intensive industries of glass, plastics and metals. The network of these three events already offers great potential for target-group-specific visitor promotion for decarbXpo: it comprises around 7,000 exhibitors and 339,000 visitors.

Contact Messe Dusseldorf www.decarbxpo.com

Contact Solar Promotion www.intersolar.mx

Automotive Supplier Summit

The Battery Show North America

Meet the key players of the automotive industry at the B2B Management Conference with accompanying exhibition in Wolfsburg - the home of the worlds biggest Automotive OEM. Discuss the current challenges of the automotive industry and the future of the automotive supply chain industry.

The Automotive Supplier Summit @IZB2022 will take place as a hybrid event, both in Wolfsburg and online.

September 13 – 15 Novi, MI. USA The Battery Show brings together engineers, business leaders, topindustry companies, and innovative thinkers to discover ground-breaking products and create powerful solutions for the future. From raw materials to components, find what you need to power your next project.

Contact Informa Markets www.thebatteryshow.com

October 10 Wolfsburg, Germany

Contact IPM AG www.automotivesuppliersummit.com

Batteries Event

International Congress for Battery Recycling — ICBR

October 18 – 21 Lyon, France

September 14 – 16 Salzburg, Austria

Batteries 2022 will cover all aspects of the battery circular economy, beginning from the production of the battery through raw materials, battery manufacturing, battery use and safety, management and applications, going through market trends, research and development, new technologies and finally closing the loop with a focus on recycling, second life and regulations.

ICBR 2022 is the international platform for reviewing the challenges faced by the Battery Recycling Industry on a global basis. For 26 consecutive years, ICBR has brought together the international community of experts and decision makers of the entire Battery Recycling value chain, including battery recyclers and manufacturers, collection organizations, OEM’s, policymakers, materials and services providers and many more.

Contact Avicenne Energy www.batteriesevent.com

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Updated events calendar

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