Industry news

Manufacturers and users of battery storage systems have backed an industry-led initiative in the US to “prioritise safety” in the production and operation of equipment.

Researchers at the University of California San Diego say they have improved the safety of a recycling process that regenerates degraded cathodes from spent lithium-ion batteries. 

Canada-based vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) producer Cellcube is to be part of a new consortium that will develop and build grid-scale storage and solar projects in the UK.

Japan-based GS Yuasa has launched operations at its new joint venture lead-acid battery manufacturing plant in Turkey.

US-based power company Duke Energy is selling a minority stake in its renewables business including battery storage assets to infrastructure investment firm John Hancock.

French battery company Saft has won an order to supply its SRX nickel-cadmium starter batteries to a freight rail company in Brazil.

The new Chinese owner of Nissan’s former international lithium-ion business has pledged to slash the cost of manufacturing electric vehicle battery cells to around US$50 per kWh by 2025.

Financial regulators in China have given Tianneng Energy Technology the green light to spin-off its batteries division to “expand and transform” its lead-acid and lithium-ion manufacturing operations.

BMW is to buy cobalt for its electric vehicle (EV) batteries directly from mines in Australia and Morocco to ensure “complete transparency” about the origin of the raw material.

An investigation is under way after an explosion at a lithium-ion grid-scale battery storage facility in the US operated by the Arizona Public Service (APS) utility.