Europe is on course to become the world’s second-largest lithium-ion battery cell producing region by 2025, although some key challenges need to be addressed, a European Commission vice-president has said.
The success of an auction for fast reserve grid services held by Italy’s transmission system operator (TSO) indicates a strong appetite for battery storage, but market rules and regulations need some revision to capture that opportunity.
The European Union (EU) looks set to introduce the “most extensive product legislation in the world for batteries,” but its potential shortcomings include the risk that battery prices could go up and that established manufacturers from Asia might be better positioned to benefit from the rules than the new European value chain.
A €105 million (US$127.6 million) push to develop low-cost, environmentally-friendly lithium-ion battery technology by Sunlight, a designer and manufacturer of batteries headquartered in Greece, will receive €49.9 million in grant funding.
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.
A 10MW / 20MWh battery energy storage project in Belgium has achieved financial close and is expected to begin construction shortly, the consortium behind the project has said.
What does it take to successfully create a multi-gigawatt battery storage factory? Energy-Storage.news’ editor Andy Colthorpe moderates a discussion with some key players in Europe’s race to create a home-grown value chain.
Batteries, hydrogen and other energy storage should be a “key topic of energy policy,” in the EU, Members of European Parliament (MEP) that worked together on formulating a report into the role of storage in a decarbonised, fair and secure energy system have said.
Capacity payments that solar-plus-storage developers could earn from winning in Portugal’s big 700MW solar tender are an interesting first step, but will likely only be a supplementary income to add to what could be earned from ancillary services.
