lithium-ion batteries

Lithium Australia (LIT) is to acquire ownership of Germany’s Sadisdorf lithium project— and plans to take on global battery players rushing to grab a slice of Europe’s future electric vehicles supply chain business.

LIT, which was granted a 133 square-kilometre exploration licence for the Saxony site earlier this year, will acquire the lithium/tin project from Germany’s Tin International subject to regulatory approvals.

UK-based speciality chemicals company Johnson Matthey (JM) is set to launch commercial production of its “high energy” battery material technology by 2022— but is staying tight-lipped about which country will host the plant.

Investors have been told the enhanced lithium nickel oxide (eLNO) material plant, which will target batteries for the electric vehicles market, “will be located in Europe, in line with the development of its supply chain”.

A vanadium redox energy storage system is being tested in Spain by Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) as part of a hybrid renewables project.

SGRE said the next-generation redox flow battery at its La Plana test site near Zaragoza offers a 120-kilowatt energy output with 400 kilowatt-hour storage capacity. 

Lockheed Martin is to provide a 2MWh GridStar lithium energy storage system for a microgrid project in Chicago.

The Bronzeville community microgrid project, funded by the US Department of Energy, features a lithium-ion BESS coupled with solar photovoltaics to serve as backup power for critical facilities— including the Chicago Police Department.