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.

Equity investors have already committed more than US$300 million to lithium battery recycler Li-Cycle’s plan to go publicly-listed through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger.

Two subsidiaries of Wisconsin-based electric and gas company WEC Energy Group have put forward plans for their second large-scale solar-plus-storage project in as many months.

Almost 70% of home solar PV in Germany comes with battery energy storage attached and the country’s residential storage market represented around 2.3GWh of installed capacity by the end of 2020.

An order worth US$14 billion placed by carmaker Volkswagen with lithium-ion battery manufacturer Northvolt will have a “significant” impact on the stationary energy storage market, a spokesman for Northvolt has said.

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.

With the US having rejoined the Paris Accord on the climate crisis last week, President Joe Biden has now signed an Executive Order which identifies the importance of mitigating risks in the supply chain for “large capacity batteries”.

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