The COVID-19 crisis is bringing into the public eye the US’ dependency on importing goods, particularly batteries for advanced energy storage and electric vehicles, the CEO of a battery materials startup has said.

Controlled Thermal Resources and Lilac Solutions are creating facilities for lithium extraction and chemical processing at a geothermal plant at Imperial Valley’s shallow, saline Salton Sea.

An energy storage system made up of ‘second life’ batteries previously used in Renault’s electric vehicle (EV) has been deployed for Umicore, a multinational materials technology company headquartered in Belgium.

While recycling of lithium and other materials such as cobalt from batteries will greatly increase in the coming years, the potential availability of second life batteries should not be underestimated, according to new research and data.

In the second part of our interview with Valts Grintals, analyst at Delta-ee we discuss why behind-the-meter energy storage, including commercial and industrial (C&I) and residential installations, contributed so much to the market’s recent success.

Already this year we’ve been able to learn directly about the energy storage market in Europe from the Energy Storage Summit in London at the end of February and Energy Storage Europe in Dusseldorf, which just took place last week. Andy Colthorpe summarises what he’s seen and heard.

France-headquartered multinational utility ENGIE has followed up acquisitions in smart energy by incorporating three companies including commercial energy storage provider Green Charge into its parent brand, with the explicit aim of furthering its position in North American markets.

Investment giant Goldman Sachs will invest US$150 billion in renewables by 2025, including energy storage as a key part of this commitment, it has said.