The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) supplies most of the world’s cobalt, but exporting semi-finished or finished products rather than raw materials would better help the country capture the value of the metal used in high power lithium-ion batteries.

Three recent interesting steps forward on lithium battery sustainability, a growing concern and area of interest for the clean energy sector. 

A commercial fish farm in Austria has opted to use CellCube’s vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) with eight hours’ duration, in combination with solar energy, to reduce the carbon footprint of its operations.

UK renewable energy and energy storage company Anesco is to build and maintain 100MW of battery energy storage for investors JLEN and Foresight Solar Fund Limited (FSFL).

A new joint venture (JV) is evaluating building battery cell gigafactories in the US, based on advanced lithium-ion technologies, formed by investor Koch Strategic Platforms and manufacturer FREYR Battery. 

The European Union has raised the bar for standards in the battery supply chain with a set of regulations it intends to introduce, but a group of academics and industry experts has pointed out some drawbacks with its approach. One of those experts talks to Energy-Storage.news about the implications for stationary energy storage systems.

The cooling of commercial and industrial (C&I) buildings accounts for a significant percentage of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), but can instead be turned into “powerful energy assets.”

A couple of new initiatives to support increased, sustainable production of lithium batteries for electric vehicles and for the grid have been launched by names that will likely be familiar to Energy-Storage.news readers.

While much attention is paid to the need to recycle electric vehicle (EV) batteries, stationary energy storage systems are also “playing a crucial role in the big picture of battery recycling,” Li-Cycle’s chief commercial officer has said.

Energy storage technology provider Fluence and battery gigafactory startup Northvolt will collaborate to develop “next-generation battery technology for grid-scale storage applications,” the companies said today.