Ensuring high quality levels in the manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries is critical to preventing underperformance and even safety risks. Benjamin Sternkopf, Ian Greory and David Prince of PI Berlin examine the prerequisites for finding the ‘sweet spot’ between a battery’s cost, performance and lifetime.

Proposed updates to EU legislation on batteries that aim to address some of the issues associated with Europe’s supply chain have been welcomed by trade industry association RECHARGE, albeit with the suggestion that they may be too complex in their current form.

Canadian public utility company and transmission system operator Hydro-Québec has launched a battery energy storage subsidiary as well as announcing a large-scale green hydrogen project.

Southern California Edison (SCE), one of California’s three main investor-owned utilities, has signed new long-term contracts with developers of 590MW of battery energy storage.

US energy storage safety expert advisory Energy Storage Response Group (ESRG) was created through a meeting of minds from the battery industry and fire service. Andy Colthorpe speaks with ESRG principal Nick Warner and business manager Ryan Franks on what the industry needs to do to win the trust of firefighters, code officials and other stakeholders including banks and insurers.

LG Chem has voluntarily recalled some of its residential battery products in the US amid concerns surrounding fire safety.

Commercial and industrial (C&I) microgrid projects have been awarded to Enel X and EDF Renewables North America in very different settings in the US, both using a combination of solar PV and stationary battery storage to improve air quality, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and add resilience.

Energy storage’s potential and value needs to be allowed to shine for Canada to achieve its goal of net-zero emissions by 2050 – and to avoid being left behind in the international race to modernise global energy systems.

Lithium battery recycling company Li-Cycle now has capacity to recycle 10,000 tonnes a year of spent lithium-ion batteries, having just opened its Rochester, New York facility for commercial operations.

Around 2.1GWh of battery storage had been installed in Germany by the end of 2019, in households, at commercial and industrial (C&I) facilities and at large-scale in grid-connected applications.