The UK should become a world-class centre for battery R&D and production, the country’s newly-installed prime minister Boris Johnson has told legislators.
Johnson said the development of battery technology is among key national priorities as his administration prepares to leave the European Union on 31 October.
A new batteries research and innovation forum— the Batteries Europe Platform— has been launched by European Union energy chief Maroš Šefčovič.
Šefčovič (pictured) said the initiative would be a forum setting out Europe’s strategic research and innovation needs and linking existing EU-backed funding programmes to support the European Batteries Alliance.
German carmaker Volkswagen is to invest “just under €1 billion” (US$1.1bn) to build a battery cell production facility in the country with an undisclosed partner.
A VW spokesperson told BEST Battery Briefing its partner would be “a European-based company” but declined to elaborate.
However, the spokesperson revealed the plant would have an annual production capacity of 10GWh and could be in operation by 2022/2023.
EU leaders have released a long-awaited ‘strategic action plan’ that says batteries should be at the heart of future industrial strategy.
But lead-acid was not even mentioned (unlike lithium) in the document— published as part of the outgoing European Commission’s ‘State of the Energy Union’ report: ‘Implementation of the Strategic Action Plan on Batteries: Building a Strategic Battery Value Chain in Europe.’
For a full report, see the latest— Spring 2019— edition of Batteries and Energy Storage Technology magazine, out now! If you’re not a subscriber, click here to subscribe.
In an effort to highlight some of the successes of energy storage projects hitherto and inspire similar ventures henceforth, the European Association for Storage of Energy (EASE) has unveiled a new initiative to showcase “some of the most innovative and inspiring storage projects supporting the energy transition”.
Featured projects include a 6MW/6MWh Engie system in Drogenbos, Belgium that is formed of five separate pilot batteries; a 11.5MW/22.5MWh lithium-ion and sodium-sulfur system in Niedersachsen, Germany; and Highview’s 5MW/15MWh Liquid Air Energy Storage System in Greater Manchester, UK (featured in this week’s BEST Battery Briefing)
Germany has pledged to pump €1 billion (US$1.1bn) into promoting battery cell production by 2021— with the aim of German and European producers “supplying 30% of global demand” by 2030.
The head of the federal economic affairs and energy ministry, Peter Altmaier, also revealed a “new battery cell consortium” could be formed in Germany around the end of this year.
Johnson Controls International (JCI) has announced a definitive agreement to sell its battery business Power Solutions to US and Canadian investment firms Brookfield Business Partners and CDPQ in a cash transaction valued at US$13.2 billion.
The deal ends months of feverish speculation about the future of Power Solutions.
New York and Toronto-listed Brookfield is the business services and industrials company of Brookfield Asset Management. Quebec-based CDPQ (Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec) is an institutional investment fund manager.
The European Union is pledging to throw additional cash at projects that support plans for an EU-wide battery cell manufacturing industry to compete with Asia.
The move comes one-year after the launch of the EU Batteries Alliance initiative— which has been heavily criticised for favouring investments in lithium-based technologies for future electric vehicles while attacking the bloc’s lead-acid industry.
Now EU energy chief and European Commission vice-president, Maroš Šefčovič, has said around €1 million of new funding could be made available under a newly-launched ‘Interregional Partnership for Batteries’ (IPB)— “to promote European cooperation across public authorities, research, and industry” in support of the Batteries Alliance.
Counterfeit batteries are costing legitimate manufacturers in the EU around EUR180 million ($221m) in lost business every year, according to a new report.
The study, from the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), said counterfeit batteries mostly affect the vehicle sector, but are also found in the mobile phone market.
A European Union-backed research project to develop materials for next-generation redox-flow battery systems has been launched in Germany.
The Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology (FICT) is coordinating the ‘FlowCamp’ project, launched towards the end of last month, to develop materials for three next-generation redox-flow battery systems— hydrogen-bromine, aqueous organic and zinc-air flow battery systems.
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