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.
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.
Long-duration energy storage startup Form Energy has confirmed details of its recently reported Series C investment round, with Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures among continuing investors.
‘Liquid metal’ battery technology developed as a potential low-cost competitor for lithium-ion looks set to be used at a data centre under development near Reno, Nevada.
A tourism development in Saudi Arabia which will have its own international airport and hopes to attract over a million visitors each year will be 100% powered by renewable energy, with the help of a 1,000MWh battery storage facility.
With dozens of massive new lithium-ion battery factories planned or already under construction in Europe, Panasonic and Equinor are investigating the potential for a “green battery business” in Norway.
US developer GlidePath Power Solutions has signed up to use a full life-cycle management platform for the batteries it uses, including recycling and repurposing as it seeks to “resolve the recycling and re-use case upfront, not down the track”.
What is currently thought to be Europe’s largest electric car charging station opened just before the weekend including a 2MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) supplied and integrated by Tesvolt.
