Energy Storage Journal, Summer — Issue 33

POWERING THE SMART GRID

Issue 33: Summer 2021

March of the gigafactory Global battery arms race intensifies Striking white gold

UK firms explore vast resources of lithium under the British Isles

Testing, testing ...

Cutting edge methods putting reliability and battery safety first

Solid state batteries It’s the future for lithium energy storage but how scalable is it? www.energystoragejournal.com

For the challenges ahead...

EDITORIAL Debbie Mason: debbie@energystoragejournal.com

Tiny steps in the long march to battery sufficiency When Benchmark Mineral Intelligence CEO Simon Moores spoke to world leaders at the G7 summit in Britain in June, he said the UK had the basics of a lithium economy that will allow it to join the global battery arms race.

He was talking about the potential lithium resources that are being explored by two companies in the southwest part of England — see our story on page 28 — and Britishvolt’s new gigafactory, which is in the planning stages and will be built further north (see our cover story on page 20).

He called on the UK prime minister to put an ecosystem in place for the entire battery chain, beginning at the top of government and working all the way down.

Encouraging, perhaps — but the reality is these are minuscule steps in what will be a very long march towards any sort of self-contained industry, either in the UK or anywhere outside Asia.

nickel, China has the second, first and seventh highest production respectively of each of these.

There may well be some in the ground elsewhere, but in the UK, for instance, as Kathryn Goodenough from the British Geological Survey puts it — ‘we’re just not a mining country any more’.

As well as the raw materials, the UK doesn’t have the supply of anodes, cathodes, separators and electrolyte needed — again, this is beginning, but it isn’t there yet.

BNEF (Bloomberg New Energy Finance) has world rankings that put China at the top in 2020 in terms of capacity of the most important categories of raw materials (resource availability, mining and refining capacity), cell and components (electrolyte, anodes, cathodes, separators and cells) and demand.

The numbers for China are almost identical in BNEF’s forecasts for 2025, and while it controls these essentials this is unlikely to change.

Because, looking at the UK as a case in point, despite the excitement about the potential thousands of tonnes of battery-grade lithium on its doorstep, or underneath it, the country has barely any of the other essential ingredients needed to make up the battery manufacturing pie. The UK, with the rest of Europe, is years behind Asia — including G7 member Japan — which have got theirs sorted.

Given that the production of lithium batteries was an Asian phenomenon before the rise of China, with Japan and South Korea’s control pre-dating their neighbour by more than a decade, it might seem surprising that Europe and North America hadn’t attempted to step into the ring until now: the thought that the necessary manufacturing and supply chains required might have to come in-house didn’t seem to occur to them.

Refining, for example, is overlooked. Lithium can’t go anywhere near the inside of a battery cell until this is done and at the moment there are very few options domestically.

It’s as if they had to be frightened into it.

The British Geological Society insists that it is entirely done in China — and while some disagree, with one company processing tiny amounts in the UK and others unveiling plans to build refineries, the fact is this will take years to make any meaningful difference. The vast majority is refined in China and will have to be imported.

And that’s just lithium — just one out of the basket of chemicals needed for battery cells.

The problems with cobalt coming from the DRC are all well known — and in any case, China refines 70% of it. With the other basics — graphite, manganese and

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The US made its first move with its Tesla gigafactory in Nevada and could push up to third place from its current sixth, according to BNEF. And at last, though it may be too late, Europe is also joining the race in building behemoths in which to make batteries.

The UK’s first one, by Britishvolt, is just the first of the minimum of four the UK will need if it is to satisfy demand domestically, says Benchmark — and the others are in the planning stages.

But while it’s all very well building the facilities in which to make the mega tonnes of batteries the world will need to put in our cars and back up our grids, unless we can solve the critical deficit of materials with which to make them, the march to a self-sufficient lithium battery economy won’t get much further than the first step.

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021 • 1

Contents

CONTENTS

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

FEATURES

Energy Storage Journal | Issue 33 | Summer 2021

COVER STORY: GIGAFACTORIES

BRITISH LITHIUM

TESTING

20

26

31

THE MARCH OF THE GIGAFACTORY

CAN THE UK STRIKE WHITE GOLD?

TESTING UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT

The booming demand for batteries is going to have to be met somehow — and gigafactories are being conceived, planned and built at breakneck speed

Excitement is mounting about a huge potential source of lithium in the British Isles just as plans for the first UK lithium battery gigafactory are being sketched

The growing number of battery fires in electric vehicles underlines the necessity for making sure of the health, safety and reliability of the battery

11

15

24

35

More than 100,000 Cameroon homes to be connected to battery-backed minigrids

Australia: ARENA gives the go-ahead for 250MW pumped hydro plant at old gold mine

If the UK is to forge a lithium-ion economy it’s going to have to build its own battery behemoths

The kind of testing method depends on the type of battery or storage system required

IN THIS ISSUE: 1 EDITORIAL: Tiny steps in the long march to battery sufficiency | 3 NEWS: LATEST FROM THE NEWS DESK | 5 PEOPLE 6 TECHNOLOGY & R&D | 10 RENEWABLES + STORAGE | 12 PROJECTS & INSTALLATIONS | 16 DEALS | 19 US NEWS 20 COVER STORY: Gigafactories: Global battery arms race intensifies | 26 BRITISH LITHIUM: Can the UK strike white gold?

31 BATTERY TESTING: Battery testing is one of the basic building blocks needed before all types of batteries can be brought to market 37 CHEMISTRY UP CLOSE: Are solid-state batteries a viable chemistry? • Plus: the logic behind an LNMO cathode strategy

ABOUT US

41 FORTHCOMING EVENTS: ESJ sorts through the re-scheduled programme following major disruptions caused by Covid-19.

Energy Storage Journal — business and market strategies for energy storage and smart grid technologies Publisher: Karen Hampton karen@energystoragejournal.com +44 7792 852 337 Editor-in-chief: Michael Halls mike@energystoragejournal.com +44 7977 016 918

Let cool heads prevail

Editor: Debbie Mason | email: debbie@energystoragejournal.com | tel: +44 1 243 782 275 Advertising manager: Jade Beevor | email: jade@energystoragejournal.com | tel: +44 1 243 792 467 Reporter: Hillary Christie | email: hillary@batteriesinternational.com Finance: Juanita Anderson | email: juanita@batteriesinternational.com | tel: +44 7775 710 290 Subscriptions and admin: admin@energystoragejournal.com | tel: +44 1 243 782 275 Design: Antony Parselle | email: aparselledesign@me.com Reception: tel: +44 1 243 782 275 The contents of this publication are protected by copyright. No unauthorized translation or reproduction is permitted.

Every effort has been made to ensure that all the information in this publication is correct, the publisher will accept no responsibility for any errors, or opinion expressed, or omissions, for any loss or damage, cosequential or otherwise, suffered as a result of any material published.

Any warranty to the correctness and actuality of this publication cannot be assumed. © 2021 HHA Limited. UK company no: 09123491

The lead-lithium storage debate steps up a notch The new titan of lead The CEO interview

Next gen integrators

on, head-to-head

the ideal middle man

soon to a 2021 Ecoult’s UltraBattery, Anil Srivastava and • Coming 2 • Energy Storage Journal Summer smart grid near you, ready to take lithium Leclanché’s bid for market dominance

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LATEST FROM THE NEWSDESK

China’s Ganfeng Lithium to sell $630 million in new shares Ganfeng Lithium, one of the world’s top lithium producers, has decided to sell $630 million in new shares to boost capacity and make further investments, Reuters news agency reported on June 11.

The Hong Kong (H) shares on offer equate to around 20% of the firm’s existing H shares, number-

ing 48 million.

The Reuters report was released three days after another one announced the company was to build a plant that would produce 50,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) a year, in line with its plans to raise annual capacity fivefold to 600,000 tonnes.

The plant will convert spodumene into lithium battery materials, said a filing to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

However the firm primarily wants to expand overseas, and intends to use 80% of net proceeds for this purpose.

Ganfeng Lithium already has locations in Mexico,

Australian town powered entirely by renewables for 80 minutes Horizon Power, Western Australia’s regional and remote energy utility, said on June 22 that it and project partner PXiSE Energy Solutions had powered the tiny western Australian town of Onslow for almost an hour

and a half.

Some might call Onslow a village, with just 846 people registered in the 2016 census, although it has grown by 20 since the previous census of 2011.

Horizon and PXiSE claim

Solar plus storage: ‘greater than the sum of its parts’ A new report from researchers at North Carolina State University and North Carolina Central University published on June 2 says that when a power system combines energy storage and solar power generation, the end result is greater than the sum of its parts in terms of the system’s ability to handle peak energy demand.

The report, The Symbiotic Relationship of Solar Power and Energy Storage in Providing Capacity Value, appears in the journal ‘Renewable Energy’.

The researchers looked at the power system in North and South Carolina to assess issues related to renewable energy and reliability. With data on power demand and the mix of power generation sources, the researchers built computational models to assess how much power a system could expect from different sources during periods of

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peak energy demand.

The models allowed researchers to vary the size of solar farms in the system and the amount of energy storage in the system to determine how those changes might affect the overall reliability benefits during periods of peak demand.

“When a system combines solar and energy storage, that combination can be relied upon to provide up to 40% more power during peak demand than if you just added the output from each source,” says the research.

First author of the paper is Daniel Sodano, a former graduate student at NC State.

The paper was co-authored by Joseph DeCarolis and Jeremiah Johnson, North Carolina State University; Anderson Rodrigo de Queiroz, North Carolina State University and North Carolina Central University.

the 100% power achievement could be the first in the world, serving “as a successful demonstration of how advanced microgrid control technology and a distributed energy resources management system can empower communities to embrace increasing amounts of renewable energy without experiencing grid stability issues”.

“In the recent demonstration, the town was served by approximately 700 kW

Argentina, Ireland and Australia, as well as several in China.

In addition to refining and producing batterygrade lithium, the company makes lithium batteries for applications from energy storage systems to consumer electronics. It also has a battery recycling plant in eastern China. of domestic solar from over 260 customers; 600 kW of utility solar; a grid formed by a power station battery storage system; and solar smoothing support from a zone substation battery,” says Horizon Power.

“The breakthrough was the exclusive use of household rooftop and utility solar assets, which are nondispatchable energy sources, and precisely coordinating that with energy storage resources and load and weather forecasts to provide stable, continuous, high-quality power to a grid.

ENTEK signs MoU with UK gigafactory builder Britishvolt Separator firm ENTEK and Britishvolt, the company building the UK’s first lithium-ion battery gigafactory, on June 14 signed an MoU that means separators will eventually be domestically produced in the UK and supplied straight to the production line.

The MoU will look at how ENTEK’s separators can be used in Britishvolt’s batteries and following that, a potential investment in a facility to produce the ceramic coated separator materials.

ENTEK already has a plant in Newcastle-uponTyne, in the north of

England, and the plans are for another one next to Britishvolt’s gigafactory in Blyth, also near to Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

“We are delighted to have been selected as Britishvolt’s preferred lithium-ion battery separator partner and eager to align our objectives and investments with their transformational plans to build a 30GWh+ factory in the UK,” said Larry Keith, ENTEK CEO. “Co-location at Britishvolt’s site will allow access to an abundance of renewable energy, essential for power intensive manufacturing processes,” said Britishvolt.

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021 • 3

LATEST FROM THE NEWSDESK

Israeli cold energy storage firm raises $13.6 million in merger

Nostromo, the Tel Avivbased cold energy storage company, on June 21 finished a merger with Tel Aviv stock exchange-listed firm Somoto to raise $13.6 million for commercializing its energy storage ice cells for commercial and industrial buildings.

The company has already signed a 20-year agreement with the Hilton Beverly Hills hotel in Los Angeles, US for a 1.5MWh system to serve the Hilton and Waldorf Astoria hotels.

The technology is an ‘IceBrick’ modular system that can be installed in places such as roofs and basements and is charged during hours when electricity demand is low or there is a renewable energy supply surplus.

The stored energy is released during peak consumption hours, ‘relieving the grid from the high air conditioning electricity demands’, and the system can be scaled up to a multi-MWh capacity, the firm says.

“Our technology provides a solution to the energy requirements of air conditioning systems, which are the largest consumer on the grid,” said CEO Yoram Ashery.

“Over the last few years, we’ve witnessed the rapid growth and deployment of lithium-ion-based energy storage systems. This has sparked growing concern about the serious environmental consequences and safety issues these batteries pose.”

Canadian anode firm signs MoU with Korea Metal Silicon Canadian anode firm NEO Battery Materials announced on June 11 it had entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with South Korean silicon powder manufacturer Korea Metal Silicon to “pursue strategic opportunities for the advancement of low-cost, scalable silicon anodes through leveraging the developments in silicon technologies from both parties”.

NEO will work with KMS on finding ways to remove the cost bot-

tleneck associated with nano-silicon powders and to develop manufacturing capabilities to mass produce low-cost nano-silicon powders at a scalable and commercially viable level for NEO’s proprietary silicon anodes.

Better silicon anodes are widely regarded as key to improving the price and effectiveness of lithium batteries.

The agreement would help accelerate NEO’s its silicon anode technology commercialization plans.

4 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021

DHYBRID installs solar-plusstorage in Somaliland port The small region of Somaliland, a disputed area in the east African country of Somalia, has had a solar-plusstorage microgrid system installed in the port city of Berbera, German tech firm DHYBRID Technology said on June 22.

The 8MW/2MWh PV and lithium battery installation has also been combined with three diesel generators, which has enabled the local utility, BEC, to reduce electricity bills to some of the lowest tariffs in the region, DHYBRID claims.

“With the help of its international partner teams and remote commissioning, DHYBRID was able to complete this large-scale expansion in just six weeks, despite the pandemic and extensive global logistics challenges,” said DHYBRID. The installation should be welcome in an area which has some of the highest energy prices in the world, with most systems consisting of

isolated city grids of diesel generators.

The number of solar plants being built in the region is growing quickly, but while they complement the existing generators, they pose major challenges to the power grids, says Benedikt Böhm, CEO of DHYBRID. “Various generators within the grid must be continuously coordinated, especially when renewable energies are involved. Otherwise, problems with the grid frequency and voltage will become unavoidable, making it impossible to utilize all the available power,” says Böhm.

“It is simply not enough to just consider the solar capacity available. Effective grid management is essential.”

“The requirement was clear: Berbera needed a scalable energy supply that could be monitored and managed centrally within the shortest time frame possible,” said Ibrahim Yaqub, CEO of BEC.

EC partners battery association to strengthen value chain BEPA, the Batteries European Partnership Association, on June 23 signed a memorandum of understanding with the EC to launch a €925 million ($1.1 billion) programme aiming to develop a ‘competitive and sustainable industrial battery value chain’.

BATT4EU will be run under Horizon Europe, a research and innovation framework that comes under the EU, which will provide the funding, which will go towards ‘research and innovation to develop a variety of differentiated technologies that will result in a competitive, sustainable and circular European battery value chain’.

The EU recognizes it has fallen behind Asia in the global battery race.

“The demand for batter-

ies is continuously growing, however, the production of batteries is still highly concentrated in Asia: for instance, less than 1% of global lithium-ion battery cells are currently manufactured in Europe, compared to over 90% in Asia,” the announcement says.

“Europe needs to catch up in this important area and it will do so by putting environmental sustainability and circulatory at the heart of its battery production to address the ambitions of the green energy transition.

“By mobilizing €925 million, the partnership will boost research and innovation to develop a variety of differentiated technologies that will result in a competitive, sustainable and circular European battery value chain.”

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PEOPLE NEWS

Fluence announces new vice president of support & services

Carol Couch

Siemens and AES company Fluence on May 20 said it had appointed Carol Couch as vice president of support & services.

Couch, whose academic and professional background is predominantly in manufacturing and supply chain operations, joins

Fluence from Itron, which provides international technology for smart operations within utilities, such as smart grids, smart water and smart gas devices.

Previous employments include time at Datalogic, Hewlett Packard, Intermec Technologies and Agilent Technologies.

Fluence said: “Couch will lead Fluence’s strategic development of manufacturing and supply chain expansion for the global utility and commercial and industrial energy storage markets.”

Crouch said: “Streamlining our global manufacturing, supply chain and

operations processes will help increase efficiency and lower costs for customers, which supports our overall mission to transform the way we power our world for a more sustainable future.”

The creation of Fluence was announced in 2017 and set up in 2018, when tech giants Siemens and AES Energy formed a joint venture to ‘offer both large and small customers the full gamut of proven, state-ofthe-art energy storage solutions in over 160 countries’.

“This will accelerate the integration of renewables into the energy network of tomorrow,” AES president

US Energy Storage Association announces new board officials The US Energy Storage Association on May 17 announced its new 2021-2022 board of directors and officers, with Fluence market applications vice president Kiran Kumaraswamy elected chairman.

Kumaraswamy has been on the ESA board since April 2019, and became vice chair a year later. He started at Fluence in January 2018, when he was hired as market applications director, before taking his current position in December that year.

Before Fluence, Kumaraswamy was market development director at AES Energy Storage, but his longest tenure was at consulting and technology services company ICF International, where he worked for almost 10 years.

Kiran Kumaraswamy

Jacquie DeRosa

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Jeff Bishop

Umicore Group names new CEO to start in Q4

Mathias Miedreich

Jacquie DeRosa, vice president of battery energy storage with Ameresco, was elected vice chair, Plus Power head of policy and communications Polly Shaw becomes secretary and the co-founder and CEO of Key Capture Energy, Jeff Bishop, is treasurer.

“Our board represents diverse segments of our industry membership, and I am eager to work together on our broadly shared priorities in accelerating the storage market towards our vision of 100GW of new energy storage by 2030 and educating stakeholders on the benefits of storage in creating a more reliable, efficient, sustainable, and affordable electric grid,” said ESA interim CEO Jason Burwen.

Polly Shaw

and CEO Andrés Gluski said at the time.

Since then the company has announced a raft of energy storage projects across the world, including in Germany and the US.

Umicore, the international materials and recycling group that also recycles lithium batteries, said Mathias Miedreich would take over from Marc Grynberg as CEO of the group in the last quarter of 2021.

Miedreich has a lot of experience in the automotive sector, much of it in clean mobility. He moves to Umicore from Faurecia, the French automotive technology group, where he has worked for eight years, latterly as executive vice president of the Clean Mobility division.

He has also worked for Siemens and Continental.

Grynberg will be nominated to the supervisory board in 2023, with ‘an appropriate interval so as to ensure the required autonomy of the new CEO’.

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021 • 5

NEWS — TECHNOLOGY AND R&D

PNNL awards $53 million contract to build grid storage The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, based in the US state of Washington, announced on April 13 that it had awarded a $52.9 million contract to build a so-called ‘Grid Storage Launchpad’ to construction engineering firm Harvey | Harvey-Cleary and Kirksey Architecture.

“The Grid Storage Launchpad will provide systematic and independent validation and testing of new grid storage technologies — from basic materials and components to prototype devices — under realistic grid operating conditions,” says the laboratory.

The contracts awarded to the two Houston-based firms to design and build the launchpad in Washington are part of a $75 million facility funded by the US Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity.

The PNNL says the launchpad will “promote rigorous grid performance requirements to all stages of technology development and will accelerate the development of innovative technologies. It will link researchers from national laboratories, universities and industry in a collaborative setting to speed innovation and deployment of grid-scale energy storage technologies.

“Construction could begin as soon as late this year, with the building operational and ready for occupancy as soon as 2023, pending appropriations,” it says.

The PNNL says the facility, still to be designed, will have a minimum size of 85,000 square feet. It will include 30 research laboratories, testing chambers capable of assessing prototypes and new grid energy storage technologies at 100kW and below under realistic grid operating conditions.

A characterization laboratory dedicated to understanding fundamental ma-

terial properties of storage technologies will also be part of the facility.

Patricia Hoffman, acting assistant secretary for electricity at the Department of Energy, said: “By bringing together the best and brightest minds in a state-of-the-art facility, we will accelerate energy storage innovation, boost clean energy adaptation and increase grid safety, reliability and resilience to support a growing fleet of electric vehicles and increasing renewable power.”

The Department of Energy selected PNNL as the host site for the GSL in

August 2019, noting the laboratory’s extensive work in grid energy storage and power grid modernization, as well as its research on improving battery performance, reliability and safety.

In addition to federal funding, the state of Washington has committed $8.3 million for advanced research equipment and specialized instrumentation.

The two contractors are already part of the designbuild team for the Energy Sciences Center, a $90 million research facility under construction on the PNNL campus.

Power Edison wins contract to supply world’s largest mobile storage system Power Edison, the New York-based energy company, has been contracted by an unnamed utility to deliver what it says will be the world’s biggest mobile energy storage system, the firm announced on April 20.

Referring to the recipient only as ‘a major US utility’,

Power Edison says it has agreed to deliver a trailerbased 3MW/12MWh battery energy storage system this year, to “provide higher reliability and unlock myriad benefits.

“Energy storage has key reliability and economic applications for electric

6 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021

utilities and the commercial and industrial sectors,” says Power Edison. “This includes grid resiliency, demand management, renewables integration, EV charging support and back-up power.”

Mobile systems such as Power Edison’s can be useful for utilities that may need a

temporary standby during difficult times and at shorter notice.

Power Edison’s systems can also be delivered by water or rail, and in a 2016 interview with Bloomberg, founder Shihab Kuran said the company was ‘the Uber of battery storage’.

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NEWS — TECHNOLOGY AND R&D

Rio Tinto finds battery-grade lithium in waste as it seeks gold Mining giant Rio Tinto has joined the race to produce battery-grade materials with the production of

lithium from waste rock in California, the firm said on April 7.

The firm says it was

Faraday Institution commits another £23 million to battery research The UK’s Faraday Institution on March 30 said it would commit £22.6 million ($31.1 million) to battery research in five specific areas: extending battery life, modelling, recycling and re-use, solid-state batteries, and battery safety.

The spending comes on top of £55 million it awarded in September 2019 to UK-based consortia for research into battery chemistries, systems and manufacturing methods.

“In doing so, and by strengthening the organization’s commercialization team and strategy, it is further focusing on those areas of battery research that offer the most potential to deliver commercial impact for the UK,” the organization says.

More than 450 researchers across 21 universities make up the Faraday Institution, which also uses 50 industry partners to work on energy storage

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technologies that it believes ‘will transform the UK energy landscape from transportation to grid’.

While it describes itself as an independent institute, the Faraday Institution is funded out of the public purse — specifically, from the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, which is part of UK Research and Innovation, a non-departmental public body funded by the government.

“The Faraday Institution’s vital research into energy storage is pivotal for meeting our net-zero commitments, particularly as we shift to low emissions transport on our roads and in our skies,” said government minister for investment Gerry Grimstone.

“I’m delighted that we’re continuing to support their valuable work as part of our commitment to strengthen the UK’s science and research sector, ensuring we build back greener from the pandemic.”

looking for gold in the waste rock at the Boron mine that had piled up over the years, but instead discovered battery-grade lithium.

“We figured out how to chemically process nearly a century’s worth of mining waste to unearth batterygrade lithium,” the firm says. “And we’re looking at the potential to build a full-scale production plant which, once up and running, could produce enough lithium to power 70,000 electric vehicle batteries — without the need to mine anything else.”

If the feasibility assessment is successful, Rio Tinto aims to scale up production to an initial capacity of 5,000 tonnes.

The Boron project “draws on Rio Tinto’s long-standing partnership with the US Department of Energy’s Critical Materials Institute, which is focused on discovering ways to economically recover critical mineral by-products from existing refining and smelting processes,” Rio Tinto says.

“CMI experts have worked alongside Rio Tinto technical leads to help solve a number of key processing challenges to produce battery-grade lithium at Boron.”

Rio Tinto has another feasibility study into a lithium project in the pipeline, in Serbia, which should be completed by the end of this year.

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Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021 • 7

NEWS — TECHNOLOGY AND R&D

US DOE funds feasibility study to convert coal plants into ESS Thermal energy storage company Malta and Duke Energy, the North Carolinian utility, announced on May 19 they would work together to study the feasibility of converting decommissioned coal plants into longduration energy storage systems by integrating pumped heat into existing infrastructure.

The US Department of Energy is funding a yearlong study into using Malta’s 100MW, 10hour pumped heat energy storage system into the existing infrastructure at one of Duke Energy’s coal plants in the state.

The system will store electricity from a power plant or from the grid by converting electricity into thermal energy.

Heat is stored in molten salt, which Malta says is a decades-old, proven method of storing thermal energy, and cold energy is stored in an antifreeze-like solution with components and subsystems used in the liquefied natural gas industry.

“The system operates like a conventional power plant,” says Duke Energy.

“When electricity is needed, the thermal energy powers a heat energy to produce clean, reliable energy.”

“For years, Duke Energy has actively evaluated emerging technologies, and the Malta study marks the first time we will evaluate long-duration thermal energy storage,” said Regis Repko, senior vice president of Duke Energy’s Generation and Transmission Strategy organization.

“We expect the results to influence the future of energy and apply to our larger generation fleet.”

Scottish gravity storage firm in demo to ride the hydrogen wave Scottish power generator firm Gravitricity said on May 19 that it was planning to incorporate hydrogen and heat into its underground energy system.

The Edinburgh-based firm signed an agreement to build a 250kW demo at Port Leith, in Scotland, in May last year.

This involves using excess electricity from the grid to winch 12,000-tonne steel weights, filled with iron ore, up a 15m-high rig before releasing them down shafts to generate and send electricity to the grid when required.

Testing is halfway through and the technology is operating successfully, says managing director and co-founder Charlie Blair.

Now the firm says it will turn the shafts into pressurized stores for hydrogen, capable of safely accumulating vast quantities of the gas, and capable of storing it as well as dropping the weights.

Blair says a pressure cap will be placed over the top of the shaft to contain the gas, which could be hydrogen or compressed air — “the point is it’s safe underground, contained by the geology of the earth,” he says.

Storing huge amounts of energy storage underground could solve the problem of seasonal storage, of which batteries are simply not capable.

“Seasonal fluctuation are huge,” he says, “and we have to find a way to absorb it and pull it out in the winter.

8 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021

Our technology uses the same space, the same infrastructure, as the weights, and is somewhere between geological storage of hydrogen and above-ground hydrogen, which is expensive.”

“The future hydrogen economy will need to find economic and safe ways to store hydrogen where it’s needed,” said Gravitricity co-founder Martin Wright.

“At present our domestic gas network has vast amounts of storage built in — under the North Sea. The gas grid of the future will be powered by intermittent renewables — and that means we need to find ways to store green hydrogen when energy is plentiful, close to where it’s required.

“Our idea is to make each Gravitricity shaft serve as a very large, sealed pressure vessel, and to use the shaft itself to hold significant quantities of gas.

“We believe this will be far more economic and safer than above-ground storage pressure vessels — and will massively increase the storage capacity of the system.”

He said he envisaged building multiple shafts co-located with a hydrogen electrolysis plant to form a dual function — store excess electricity for the electrolysers to use and the plant’s output as a buffer into the gas grid.

It is unclear how the blocks system would work alongside the hydrogen storage.

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NEWS — TECHNOLOGY AND R&D

Eos Energy confirms three orders for its zinc storage technology Eos Energy, the US-based developer of zinc-based energy storage systems, on April 12 said it had signed three agreements to provide energy storage systems for one project in India and two in the US. In India, the project will back up a solar development by Azure Power Global, which makes and operates utility-scale, microgrid and rooftop solar installations and has more than 1GW of solar installations on its books.

“India’s renewable market has seen dramatic growth over the past few years, and storage is starting its upswing, particularly as independent power producers, such as Azure Power, commit to using only renewable-generated electricity in the nation’s round-the-clock auctions,” says Eos. The auctions are where India’s renewable energy generators compete to supply power to the country’s grid.

“Eos’s success in India

is driven by its earlier deployment of energy storage systems with a leading IPP to support solar shifting in this critical market, which demonstrates the safety and resilience of Eos’s technology in harsh environments, including temperatures as high as 45°C,” says Eos. In the US, Eos Energy’s installations consist of one in Texas and one in California.

In Texas, Eos’s project has been booked as part of an agreement to provide more than 1GWh of energy storage to Hecate Energy, which develops and operates solar, natural gas, wind and energy storage projects across the world.

“Given recent grid challenges in Texas resulting from winter storms, energy storage is more important than ever to ensure a reli-

able, resilient grid,” says Eos. “This project, and the broader arrangement with Hecate, are aimed to address this specific need in many utilities across Texas.”

In California, Eos has teamed up with ZGlobal, a power engineering consultancy, on a solar-paired project that could be the first of many.

“Texas and California represent key areas of growth for Eos in the US, while India presents great potential for our global expansion plans,” says Balki Iyer, chief commercial officer at Eos. “With this announcement, Eos’s order backlog has grown to approximately $30 million, which includes more than 20 orders totalling approximately 107MWh over the past six months.”

Eos’s aqueous zinc technology is known as Zynth, and has been designed ‘to overcome the limitations of conventional lithium-ion technology’, the company says.

ESB and dCarbonX sign MoU to explore offshore hydrogen storage ESB in Ireland has signed a memorandum of understanding with energy storage developer dCarbonX to assess and develop offshore hydrogen storage, the firms announced on May 26.

The storage will be in subsurface storage caverns off the coast of Ireland in what the partnership says will become a ‘green hydrogen valley’ centred around the Poolbeg peninsula in Dublin, “integrating renewable hydrogen production and storage with a view to decarbonizing heavy transport, shipping, industry and

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power generation”.

The hydrogen stored could be used to balance the grid, producing the gas from surplus wind power for conversion back into the grid when the wind is not blowing.

“ESB and dCarbonX will work together on licensing, environmental studies, site selection, project sanctioning, offshore infrastructure development, commissioning and operations in areas that are adjacent to ESB’s existing and planned future infrastructure,” the companies said.

Hydrogen today comes in many colours. Believed to be a ‘clean’ fuel itself, the act of manufacturing it as a fuel is energy intensive and produces carbon, now considered unhelpful in today’s environment.

If the gas is produced through coal gasification, it is known as brown hydrogen. If created from natural gas, it becomes grey hydrogen. If the manufacturing process uses carbon capture and stores the gases produced in creating grey hydrogen, it is promoted to blue hydrogen.

Turquoise hydrogen sits in the cleanliness ranking just below blue, because the process produces solid carbon using a molten metal pyrolysis, that can then be used for industrial applications, and thus redeems itself.

Yellow hydrogen is runnerup to green, using nuclear power to produce the gas, and top of the colour order is green hydrogen, which is produced using only renewable energy.

Market analysts Wood MacKenzie predicts that green hydrogen will become cost competitive by 2040.

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021 • 9

NEWS — RENEWABLES + STORAGE

Apple steps into energy storage sector with 240MWh battery plan Computer giant Apple has announced it was boosting its presence in the energy storage sector with one of the largest battery projects in the US, a 240MWh system in the California Flats.

The battery will store electricity generated by its 130MW solar farm and will be capable of storing enough energy to power more than 7,000 homes for one day, Apple says, marking ‘the next frontier’ of the company’s efforts to become carbon neutral by 2030.

Media reports that the batteries will be Tesla lithium-ion ‘megapacks’ have not been confirmed by Apple.

News agency Reuters quoted Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives, as saying that the installation would take away the concern of intermittency as well as help the grid in terms of stabilization.

“It’s something that can be imitated or build upon by other companies,” she said, adding that Apple planned to share its experience of building the installation with other companies.

In the same announcement, Apple said 110 of its manufacturing partners around the world were moving to 100% renew-

able energy for their Apple production, which means almost 8GW is set to come online.

It also says that alongside

its utility-scale storage installations, it intends to invest in more distributed storage capabilities in the Santa Clara valley.

Rural Puerto Rican community selected for minigrid The mountainous rural community of Castañer in Puerto Rico has been selected by Pathstone Corp and the Solar Foundation to have a minigrid installed for businesses in the area.

The solar and battery system is being developed with the help of the Microgrid Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico and a grant from the US Economic Development Administration.

In September 2017, Hurricane Maria devastated the island nation, killing nearly 3,000 people and causing around $90 billion of damage. Many people were left without power for six months.

In 2019 the Autoridad de Energia Eléctrica (Puerto Rico’s electricity authority) issued An Action Plan for a Greener, More Resilient Puerto Rico, in which it recommended minigrids of ‘self-sufficient electric islands’ be created through distributed resources and transmission and distribution systems.

It identified eight areas

which have now been mandated as sites for segmenting the island’s grid into minigrids.

“To support hurricane preparedness, new peak generation resources may be deployed at existing sites and relocated when new minigrid infrastructure is developed,” it said.

“Optimized resource locations and minigrid technologies will allow isolated operation of systems impacted by severe weather events.”

About 60% of the main island of Puerto Rico is mountainous, with the archipelago lying at the boundary of the Caribbean and North American tectonic plates. Earthquakes are a regular occurrence, with an average of five occurring every day — although the great majority of them are not large enough to be sensed.

It means minigrids are a good option for the region, providing a decentralized system as opposed to larger networks that have a greater effect on people

10 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021

when power is cut.

In December, Enel X and Eaton combined to deploy a solar plus storage microgrid at Eaton’s manufac-

turing facility on the main island. This will also be used to supply energy to Puerto Rico’s grid as needed.

Boris Johnson takes advantage of global summit to highlight UK energy park The first solar panel in what will be the UK’s first utility-scale wind, solar and battery facility was installed on June 9 by UK prime minister Boris Johnson, never one to shirk at a media opportunity.

The Carland Cross site in Cornwall is owned

by ScottishPower, and happens to be in the same county as the G7 summit, where world leaders including Joe Biden, Emmanuel Macron, Justin Trudeau and Angela Merkel were discussing the pandemic and climate situation.

In total, 10,000 solar panels will be installed to create a 10MW solar farm, alongside the 20MW wind farm already operating, and a 1MW

battery system for storage.

The park will generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of 15,000 homes, ScottishPower says.

“Sites like this one, which combine wind, solar and storage, are going to be vital in building the capacity and reliability we need for our energy network to go completely carbon free,” said Keith Anderson, CEO of ScottishPower.

ScottishPower has also submitted a planning application for an extension at the existing Whitelee wind farm near Glasgow, the UK’s largest onshore wind farm, to add a 40MW solar farm. The site already has a 50MW battery.

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NEWS — RENEWABLES + STORAGE

More than 100,000 Cameroon homes to be connected to battery-backed minigrids More than 100,000 households in Cameroon could be connected to microgrids based on solar plus battery storage in the first feasibility study of its kind in the country, the US Trade and Development Agency said on March 29.

California-based lithium battery designer and manu-

facturer SimpliPhi Power will provide the batteries to Renewable Energy Innovators Cameroon (REIc) for 134 minigrids in collaboration with the NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory), which is owned by the US Department of Energy.

REIc managing director

TEP’s largest solar-plusstorage system goes live Tucson Electric Power announced on May 3 that its new solar generating facility with battery energy storage had gone live at its new Wilmot Energy Center.

This includes a 100MW solar array and 30MW BESS. Each is the largest of their kind on TEP’s local energy grid. TEP will buy power from the WEC under a long-term agreement with an affiliate of NextEra Energy Resources, its owner and operator.

The batteries will be charged by 314,000 solar panels. On most days, TEP will charge the battery in the

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morning and early afternoon when solar resources are most productive, then deliver stored energy during peak usage periods.

The WEC will produce enough energy over a year to serve the annual electric needs of about 26,000 homes.

This month, TEP will also start delivering power from its new 250MW Oso Grande Wind project in New Mexico. With the addition of the two systems, TEP has the ability to produce nearly 26% of its power from renewable resources.

Jude Numfor said the ultimate goal was to provide access to electricity for 760 remote villages in Cameroon over the next few years.

Around 30% of Cameroon’s population lives below the poverty line, according to the Borgen Project, a poverty reduc-

tion NGO. The World Bank says that 37.3% of Cameroon’s population did not have access to electricity in 2018, although things have improved since 1990, when the proportion was double that.

The SimpliPhi project is one of several minigrid initiatives around the world that USTDA is involved with as part of its ‘Made in America’ solutions to address the lack of energy access in emerging countries.

Enel North America starts projects for 1.5GW renewables plus 319MW energy storage Enel Green Power North America, a subsidiary of Italy’s Enel Group, announced on May 5 it had started construction on five new renewable energy projects in the US. The five new projects under construction will generate over 4.1TWh of renewable electricity a year, enough to power more than 525,000 US households annually.

Over their lifetime, the five new projects

are expected to generate around $450 million in tax revenue for local communities and new income for project landowners, the firm said.

With these projects, Enel Green Power North America says it has over 2.3GW of renewable generation under construction and by mid-year will have 606MW of battery storage capacity being built.

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021 • 11

NEWS — PROJECTS & INSTALLATIONS

Philippines signs first agreements for 1GW of storage installation Philippine power company SMC (San Miguel Corporation) has signed agreements with major energy storage firms to provide up to 1GW of storage for the archipelago, including 470MW from Fluence and 220MW from ABB, the firms have announced.

Fluence on June 9 said it had completed the commissioning of two 20MW/20MWh battery storage systems in a first wave of its portfolio that will eventually provide 470MW/470MWh across 13 sites across the islands.

It builds on the first 10MW/10MWh battery installed at Zambales, which Fluence says ‘served as both a proof of concept and a template for the development of subsequent energy storage assets across the Philippine grid’.

The rest of the systems will be in place by the end of July 2022, the company says.

In another agreement announced on June 4, Swiss technology giant ABB work

with SMC to install seven battery systems across the islands.

The systems will have a total capacity of 220MW, 80MW of which will be installed this year, the rest in 2022, the announcement said.

Five of the battery systems will be installed on the island of Luzon, the largest of the Philippine islands and also home to the capital, Manila.

“The region will benefit from BESS as part of the government’s ‘Build, build, build’ programme that aims to establish a ‘golden age of infrastructure’ to boost industry and tourism,” a statement said.

The Philippines is no stranger to power cuts, suffering outages year after year at times of high temperatures.

On June 1, the local newspaper The Manila Times re-

ported that the island grid had been placed on yellow and red alerts, with rotating brownouts lasting up to an hour affecting parts of the island.

Quoting data from the NGCP (National Grid Corporation of the Philippines), the paper said available capacity was at 11,729MW but demand was projected to peak at 11,514MW. Leaving a buffer of just over 200MW.

KORE Power names potential states for US lithium-ion battery manufacturing KORE Power announced on May 11 the latest step in its plan to establish the first lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility owned by a US company by short-listing a search for locations in three states either Arizona, Florida or Texas. The final selection will be announced this summer.

The one million square foot manufacturing facility will support up to 12GWh of battery cell production and provide an independent US supply chain for lithiumion battery cells that will be critical to the future of

power grids, electric vehicles and more, says the firm.

KORE Power says factors influencing its final decision include: friendly tax, regulatory and strong pro-business environment; established complimentary industries such as e-mobility, solar and semiconductor; state and local economic development incentivization programmes; available workforce capacity; and, local community support, cooperation, and commitment.

“The new manufacturing facility will add to the company’s annual

12 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021

production capacity of 2GWh that we are in the process of scaling up to 6GWh to serve the rapidly growing battery market,” says the firm.

The company’s planned US manufacturing project will operate with net-zero carbon emissions through strategic partnerships and solar-plus-storage co-generation.

“We are delivering critical capacity in a market that’s starved for supply as we support the US and global communities becoming greener,” said Lindsay Gorrill, KORE Power CEO.

“Because we use proprietary software in our battery management systems, we maintain the rights over our battery cell intellectual property and have influence over our minerals and materials process, so we can quickly serve customers and adapt to changing needs, in an environment when many others are reportedly sold out until 2022.”

KORE Power plans to employ more than 3,000 full-time personnel at the facility, which it reckons will generate upwards of an estimated 10,000 direct and indirect jobs.

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NEWS — PROJECTS & INSTALLATIONS

ESS sells iron flow battery to Patagonian utility Iron flow battery maker ESS has agreed to provide one of its battery systems to the remote area of Patagonia in Chile, the company said on April 27.

ESS will work with the Chilean utility Edelaysen to install the battery, which it calls an ‘Energy Warehouse’, to store renewable energy and cut three quarters of the diesel generation used for power with the utility.

At the moment, the utility is powered by a run-ofriver hydropower system, which needs to be supplemented by diesel generators throughout the year to boost supply when demand exceeds what can be produced.

The iron flow battery system is just 300kW/2MWh in output, but could save around $3 million in diesel

over the 25-year life of the system, the company says.

Edelaysen belongs to the electrical energy distribution company Grupo Saesa, which has around 900,000 customers in a 1,000-mile stretch of the Andes in Chile.

“Our analysis showed that if they used lithium-ion batteries, Edelaysen could only shut down their diesel gensets for about three

months per year,” said new ESS CEO Eric Dresselhuys, who was appointed on April 20. “Patagonia is one of the most remote and pristine areas of the planet, and we are pleased that Saesa has entrusted our clean and safe long-duration battery technology to provide vital grid support,” he said.

Dresselhuys has worked at companies such as Procter and Gamble, Smart Energy

Water and Enian, and is on the board of directors at Autogrid Systems, which develops software products and services for smart meter and energy use analysis.

ESS says its utility-scale energy storage systems have between four and 12 hours of flexible energy capacity.

Their electrolyte consists of iron, salt and water, all abundant and non-toxic materials.

PG&E launches community microgrid programme in wake of wildfire season One of the US’s biggest utility companies, Pacific Gas & Electric, has launched a microgrid scheme to help isolated communities keep their lights on in times of crisis, PG&E announced on April 13.

The Community Microgrid Enablement Program sets out to facilitate the development of front-ofthe-meter microgrids that are used by customers in California, a state where last summer’s wildfires broke records for the acreage burnt.

At least 100,000 people went without power as PG&E was forced to switch off supplies in some areas while in others, grid supplies failed to cope with demand.

PG&E has been work-

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ing with local governments and communities interested in developing microgrids for their areas and the results were approved by the Californian Public Utilities Commission in March.

“Prioritized projects will be those that serve disadvantaged communities, critical facilities such as hospi-

tals, and areas with a higher likelihood of public safety power shutoffs or other significant power outage events, as well as projects with higher levels of renewable energy,” PG&E said.

The first project under the programme has already been picked out — the Redwood Coast Airport Renewable Energy Micro-

grid, which features solar power generation with battery storage.

The microgrid will provide energy for 18 customer meters, such as the ArcataEureka Airport, and ‘serve as a lifeline for Humboldt County in a natural disaster or other emergency’.

It is due to come online in December.

Mongolia seeks bids for 80MW/200MWh BESS Mongolia’s ministry of energy announced on May 6 that it had received financing from the Asian Development Bank towards the cost of its first utility scale energy storage project.

Part of this ADB financing will be used for payments under the contract.

The contract is for the construction and completion of the design, supply, installation and commissioning of a 80MW/200MWh battery energy storage system, this also includes two years of start-up operation support.

The ministry is inviting suitable bidders — defined on their experience on similar projects as well as their financial resources — to tender for the project. The bidding process follows ADB procedures and closes on July 20.

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021 • 13

NEWS — PROJECTS & INSTALLATIONS

Aggreko commissions first grid-stabilizing battery in Turkey Mobile and modular energy firm Aggreko said on March 30 it would install the first grid-stabilizing battery in Turkey.

Just 500kW/500kWh in size, the battery will deliver system services so that it can help the distribution system operator enhance grid stability.

While being first deployed at a substation near Alaca, the modularity of the system means it can be redeployed to other substations in the region to provide temporary grid relief if necessary.

Aggreko’s ‘Y.Cube’ batteries are housed in one 20ft standard container and offer 1MW of power with a duration of 30 minutes or one hour at 500kW. Quoting DNV GL Energy Advisory team leader Faik

Tursun, the Turkish news agency Anadolu said the country should be tackling the rising share of renewables in its energy mix, which would require more storage.

He said that the unit cost of battery technologies was expected to drop by 60% from 2016 to 2030, which would mean ‘even unfeasible projects will soon become feasible and profitable just in a few years’.

The rise in battery technologies in Turkey has been slow to get off the ground, given that in the 2016 Overview of the Energy Storage Possibilities to Support the Electrical Power System research paper by the Energy Market Regulatory Authority made it clear that storage would be needed as the penetration of variable gen-

eration increased.

“It is clear that high penetration of variable generation increases the need for all flexibility options including storage, and it also creates market opportunities for these technologies,” the paper said.

“Historically, storage has

Fluence, Siemens to install pilot storage in Lithuania Lithuania is taking its first step towards battery storage on its transmission network with a 1MW pilot project by Siemens and Fluence, transmission system operator Litgrid announced on April 6.

The pilot, near the capital Vilnius, will be a proof-ofconcept project for much larger facilities in Lithuania ‘as the country pursues a synchronous interconnection with the continental Europe electric grid and a transition to clean energy’, says Fluence.

“With ‘virtual transmission lines’, energy storage is placed along a transmission line and operated to inject or absorb real and reactive power, mimicking transmission line flows.

“Storage deployed this way can also provide other critical network services,

including grid-forming capabilities, virtual inertia for local grid stability, black start capability, power oscillation damping and voltage control mode.”

Litgrid is keen to secure a stable power system and is testing energy storage options to stabilize the grid and ensure resiliency. It is a move away from Soviet-

era energy ties towards integrating with EU countries.

“We face the challenges of the shift to renewable energy, but we are also doing a synchronization project, which is the switch from our current operation in the post-Soviet grid to an independent cooperation with our partners in

been difficult to sell into the market, not only due to high costs, but also because of the array of services it provides and the challenges it has in quantifying the value of these services — particularly the operational benefits such as ancillary services.”

Europe,” says Litgrid CEO Rokas Masiulis.

“This, combined with a system that relies heavily on electricity imports, means that we have to seek innovative solutions; that’s why we are looking at battery energy storage at the transmission level.

“The lessons learned in this pilot project will soon prove to be extremely useful — not only for us, but also other energy companies in Lithuania and abroad.”

Zenobe agrees to install Europe’s biggest grid-connected battery Battery storage owner and operator Zenobe Energy said on April 6 a 100MW battery project it has agreed in the UK will be the biggest grid-connected battery in Europe.

It is the first project to get planning permission since the UK abolished a requirement for all bat-

14 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021

teries bigger than 50MW to get government approval, an onerous and lengthy procedure.

Zenobe, which is based in London, says the battery, near the northern city of Chester, will be one of the first in the world to absorb reactive power directly from a transmission network.

“As the UK continues to adopt renewable power generation, managing voltage levels and ensuring reactive power management is vital,” says the company.

It will double Zenobe’s stationary battery capacity, keeping it on course to install 1GW by 2026.

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NEWS — PROJECTS & INSTALLATIONS

ARENA gives go-ahead for 250MW pumped hydro plant at old gold mine Australia’s Renewable Energy Agency has conditionally approved up to A$47 million ($36 million) to fund the first pumped hydro plant to be installed in Australia for almost 40 years, ARENA confirmed on April 24.

The K2-Hydro 250MW/2,000MWh pumped hydro project, at the former Kidston gold mine in north Queensland, will turn the old pits into an upper and lower reservoir to hold water and pump it between them to generate power.

Genex Power, leading the project, says its flagship installation is the first pumped hydro system in the world to use a disused gold mine, and it will also integrate large-scale solar generation. The solar

part, KS1, will add another 50MW of generation to the total capacity, with the potential to increase it and add wind generation.

ARENA says the construction should be completed by 2024.

“This is a landmark project for all involved and paves the way for renewables to play a larger role in

Australia’s electricity grid,” said ARENA CEO Darren Miller.

“Genex will be delivering the first pumped hydro project in Australia since 1984 and the first to be solely for energy storage and generation rather than water management.

“Large-scale storage will play a key role in ensur-

ing security and reliability of Australia’s electricity system as we transition to renewables. Pumped hydro is expected to be a key technology enabling us to store abundant solar and wind energy when it is available and dispatch this energy later, so it is imperative these projects get underway.”

Australian consumers have some of the highest electricity bills in the world, and the country is at the forefront of new storage installations amid the global trend towards renewables and storage.

The country plans to double the size of its 150MW/194MWh battery, at Hornsdale which was the largest battery in the world when it was installed in 2017.

Tata Power-DDL switches on India’s first battery storage system for grid-connected community India’s first grid-connected community BESS was on March 27 switched on in Delhi, courtesy of Tata Power-DDL and Nexcharge.

The relatively small 150kW/528kWh containerbased system has been provided to utility Tata PowerDDL by the Leclanché/ Exide Industries joint venture Nexcharge, which was formed in 2018.

It will manage peak loads and voltage regulation and provide system flexibility and reliability at distribution level in Bani Ragh, which was chosen because of its dense population and space constraints.

The system, known as CESS, also has a black start capability.

“The set-up will help in providing continuous and reliable power to key consumers during exigency,”

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the firms say. “The battery energy storage system will charge during the off-peak hours and discharge power during peak condition.

“This will enhance the life of the asset, prevent the interruption on account of overload and capex deferral in putting additional support for placing distribution transformers only to meet peak load requirements.”

“This will further strengthen our network and ensure reliable and quality power supply to our consumers at all times,” said Tata Power-DDL CEO Ganesh Srinivasan.

“Instead of building humungous infrastructure of transformers and electric equipment, CESS can be used to meet peak demand while storing surplus power. I believe wider adoption

of such storage systems will help in balancing the load curve of distribution companies and make them future ready.”

Nexcharge CEO Stefan Louis, who is also chief technology officer, said battery storage provided the agility that solar and wind integration with grids required.

“This should pave a new path for wider adoption of grid-scale energy storage technology across India,” he said.

Traditionally a lead-acid battery firm, Exide Industries embraced lithium-ion technology in June 2019, when it signed a joint venture with Leclanché to begin producing lithium batteries in India. At the time it said it was responding to Indian government policies.

“This ideally comple-

ments our leading position in the lead acid storage battery market in India and will allow us to take the lead in the lithium-ion battery industry, which is expected to grow significantly in the next few years,” he said at the time.

In its India Energy Outlook 2021, the International Energy Agency said India had the potential to add 140GW-200GW of battery capacity by 2040.

“Battery storage will likely play an important role in India achieving its renewable energy capacity target of 450GW by 2030. India already has 93GW of ongrid variable renewable energy and is targeting annual additions of 20GW-40GW,” said analyst Kashish Shah, from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021 • 15

NEWS — DEALS

ESS Tech gets public listing after its merger with ACON S2 ESS Tech, a manufacturer of long-duration iron flow batteries for commercial and utility-scale energy storage applications, and ACON S2 Acquisition Corp, a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, announced on May 7 they ‘had entered into a definitive agreement for a business combination that will result in ESS becoming a publicly listed company’.

The business combination values the combined company at a $1.072 billion pro forma enterprise value. The transaction will provide approximately $465 million of pro forma net cash to the combined company, assuming no redemptions by ACON S2 shareholders.

Assuming no public shareholders of ACON S2 exercise their redemption rights, ESS’ existing shareholders, including its founders, will own approximately 64% of

ESS CEO Eric Dresselhuys: “We’re excited about today’s announcement as it marks the beginning of our next chapter to capitalize on burgeoning opportunities in the long-duration energy storage market.”

the combined company.

As part of the transaction, ACON S2 raised a $250 million fully committed PIPE [private investment in public equity] from institutional investors including Fidelity Management & Research, SB Energy Global Holdings, a wholly-

owned subsidiary of SoftBank Group, Breakthrough Energy Ventures and BASF Venture Capital. In total, investors in the PIPE will own approximately 16% of the issued and outstanding shares of common stock of the combined company at closing.

The firms expect the transaction to close in the third quarter.

ESS CEO Eric Dresselhuys said: “We’re excited about today’s announcement as it marks the beginning of our next chapter to capitalize on burgeoning opportunities in the long-duration energy storage market.”

“ESS offers a remarkable technology that is a gamechanger in the world’s transition to clean energy,” said Adam Kriger, CEO of ACON S2 Acquisition Corp. “With its tremendous market opportunity and leadership position in cost, performance and sustainability, ESS has a

clear trajectory for growth as it scales.”

ESS says: “In the long run, grid-scale energy storage will need the capabilities of long-duration storage to pick up the load for four to 12 hours when variable generation wanes, yet be flexible enough to support fast-changing grid needs.

“The total addressable market for energy storage systems is expected to grow at a 34% CAGR from $8 billion in 2020 to $56 billion in 2027, driven primarily by growing deployments of solar and wind power, as well as a desire to increase the power grid’s resiliency.”

ESS, founded in 2011, has developed an iron flow battery technology which uses cheap raw materials — iron, salt and water — making environmentally safe and potentially costeffective energy storage systems.

Li-Cycle formalizes partnership with Renewance Canadian lithium battery recycler Li-Cycle on June 8 said it had formed a partnership with the battery management company Renewance, which is based in Illinois, US. The two firms have been working together since the start of 2020, and based on that experience have decided to formalize the arrangement.

Li-Cycle offers a ‘hub and spoke’ system for recycling batteries — in which it uses decentralized facilities so that batteries can be mechanically processed close to sources of supply and large-scale production is centralized to capitalize on economies of scale.

Renewance designs software and offers project

management services to handle batteries throughout their life cycle and at end of life.

Since February 2021, when it announced it would be going public, LiCycle has been active: in April it said it would build a third facility in North America, and in May it signed an agreement with a General Motors joint venture to recycle scrap materials from battery cells.

“The US energy storage market is set to grow to nearly 26.5GWh annually by 2025 and will account for 50% of the global market this year, according to the US Energy Storage Monitor and IHS Markit,” the firm says.

“Lithium-ion batteries

16 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021

are the primary technology used to store energy and as systems go offline or are upgraded, it is imperative to sustainably return the end-of-life batteries back into the supply chain.

“By combining their respective strengths in lithium-ion battery recycling and battery life cycle management software and services, Li-Cycle and Renewance expect to play an important role in helping developers and utilities decommission energy storage systems safely, recovering the valuable minerals from within the end-of-life batteries, and returning those materials to the economy.”

Touting its company’s recycling technology as a more sustainable alterna-

tive to mining, Li-Cycle president and CEO Ajay Kochhar said the combined efforts of all companies involved would ‘be instrumental in redirecting battery manufacturing scrap from landfills and returning a substantial amount of valuable battery-grade materials back into the battery supply chain’.

“The world needs improved technology and supply chain innovations to better manage battery manufacturing waste and end-of-life batteries and to meet the rapidly growing demand for critical and scarce battery-grade raw materials through a closed-loop solution,” the firm says.

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NEWS — DEALS

Fluence and Northvolt sign deal to develop grid-scale storage technology Fluence, the energy storage and technology company created by Siemens and AES, has teamed up with Swedish battery start-up Northvolt to develop grid-scale battery storage technology, the firms announced on April 21.

The two firms will work together using Northvolt batteries and management systems optimized for Fluence’s energy storage technology — lowering the total cost of ownership, the firms say.

“The agreement provides Northvolt with an unmatched channel to deliver systems to the global market and expands Fluence’s supply chain to include the

leading European-based battery manufacturer,” the firms said.

Northvolt is also developing recycling capabilities, it says.

Northvolt is expanding its manufacturing facilities in a number of countries, not least Poland, where the firm in February said it would

build the largest factory in Europe for energy storage systems.

The company said it would spend $200 million on expanding its factory in Gdansk to an ultimate battery system manufacturing capacity of 12GWh. Production should begin in 2022.

Last July, Northvolt signed a deal with BMW to make batteries at a gigafactory in Sweden, which it is building and should start producing batteries in 2024.

The factory, in Skellefteå, will have a starting battery production capacity of 32GWh with the potential to expand to 40GWh.

Korean battery maker strikes deal to save

firm from pulling business out of the US A last-minute deal between Korean battery firms SK Innovation and LG Energy on April 11 has averted a 10-year import ban of SKI batteries and subsequent pull-out of the firm from the US, news agency Bloomberg reported on April 12.

The two firms have been in a two-year intellectual property rights row, with LG Energy, a unit of LG Chem, accusing SKI of stealing billions of dollars’ worth of crucial battery manufacturing information, increasing its competitiveness with major automakers Ford and Volkswagen.

SKI has denied receiving or using any confidential information from any former LG Energy staff it has employed, says Bloomberg.

The argument led to the US International Trade Commission siding with LG and issuing a limited 10-year exclusion order, which prohibited SKI’s lithium batteries from being

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imported into the United States. However it did allow for the ruling to be quashed if the two sides struck a deal or if US president Joe Biden intervened and overturned it.

Reuters news agency said SKI then threatened to halt construction of a $2.6 billion battery plant in the state of Georgia on the basis that ‘the Commis-

sion’s orders destroy the economic viability of SKI’s investment in battery production in Georgia and will rationally and inevitably lead to its abandonment’.

The deadline for an agreement or overturn to be reached was April 11, and at the eleventh hour SKI agreed to pay $1.8 billion to LG Energy in a deal that ‘should allow SKI to

reap the long-term benefit of EV proliferation in the US’, according to Morgan Stanley analyst Young Suk Shin, quoted by Bloomberg.

Both firms also agreed to withdraw all lawsuits lodged in South Korea and overseas, and not to undertake any legal action against each other for the next 10 years.

CS Energy announces closing of acquisition by American Securities CS Energy, a project management firm for the solar, storage, and emerging energy industries, announced that on May 4 that it had been acquired by affiliates of American Securities, a US private equity firm.

American Securities acquired the equity interests in CS Energy from a fund managed by the Infrastructure and Power strategy of Ares Management Corporation and The Conti Group.

CS Energy has constructed over 1GW of solar projects and 300 MWh of energy storage projects throughout the US and in international markets.

“CS Energy is extremely excited to be partnering with American Securities through our next phase of growth,” said Matthew Skidmore, CEO of CS Energy. “Our management team and strategy will remain consistent on a go-forward basis and we

are excited to continue to grow our business by continuing to execute great projects for our customers.”

Lazard acted as lead financial adviser to CS Energy on the transaction.

Cowen also acted as financial adviser to CS Energy. Morgan Lewis & Bockius was legal counsel to CS Energy. Weil, Gotshal & Manges served as legal counsel to American Securities.

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021 • 17

NEWS — DEALS

Demand for battery metals exposes dearth of traders The boom in battery demand from electric vehicles and stationary storage applications has caused a surge in battery metals prices and with them, a need for metals traders, Reuters reported on June 2.

Proco Commodities, a recruitment firm, recorded 50% more metal trading moves in the first five months of 2021 compared with last year, and said demand for metals traders ‘has grown exponentially through 2021’.

“The war for metal trading talent in the current market is fierce,” said Proco director Ross Gregory.

Reuters said commodity trader Trafigura had set up a special business development unit for non-ferrous metals such as copper and aluminium, and restructured its metals trading

unit into the four books of lead and zinc, nickel and cobalt, aluminium and copper.

The news agency said hedge funds that do not typically hire specialist metal traders were poaching them from traders and merchants — for example BlueCrest Capital Management, which had hired its first metals-focused traders

for the fund.

With the number of potential battery gigafactories numbering 211 across the globe at the moment, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, the vast majority in Asia, demand for battery metals is only going to rise.

While there are probably enough of them in the ground, getting them into

the factories is a looming headache for manufacturers, who will have to solve problems such as erratic supply chains, using cobalt from the DRC and China’s monopoly of certain materials, such as refined graphite, says Richard Herrington, head of the Earth Sciences Department at the Natural History Museum in London.

UK National Grid and PPL Holdings in multi-billion dollar utility deal The UK National Grid has agreed to buy Western Power Distribution from US firm PPL Holdings for $7.8 billion as it sells Narragansett Electric, a Rhode Island gas network owned by the UK company, to PPL for $3.8 billion, it announced at the end of March.

Later this year the National Grid will also begin a process that will culminate in the sale of its majority stake in National Grid Gas plc, which owns the national gas transmission system.

National Grid says the transactions will pivot the portfolio towards electricity; strengthen its long-term outlook with an increased presence in

electricity distribution; help achieve the UK’s net zero targets; and generate returns for shareholders, among other things.

The sale means 40% of the National Grid Group’s assets will still be in the US, where it began expanding in 2000 with the acquisition of the New England Electric System and Eastern Utilities Associates. It bought the Rhode Island network in 2006.

The former state-owned company was listed on the London Stock Exchange in December 1995.

Western Power Distribution is based in Bristol, in England’s south west. It is the largest UK electricity distribution business, and is expected to see huge

18 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021

growth because of the energy transition away from fossil fuel burning and towards renewables and storage.

In August 2020 PPL announced plans to sell WPD, which is made up of four distribution network operators serving nearly eight million customers in central and southwest England and south Wales.

“These transactions will be transformational for our UK portfolio,” said National Grid CEO John Pettigrew. “The acquisition of WPD is a one-off opportunity to acquire a significant scale position in UK electricity distribution. WPD has a high quality, fast growing asset base and an excellent

track record of customer satisfaction, operational performance and financial returns.

“We have received a premium valuation for our Rhode Island business and I am confident that we will also deliver attractive shareholder value from the NGG sale in due course.”

“In National Grid, we’ve found a respected partner that has a long track record of strong operations in the UK, is eager to build on WPD’s success, is focused on advancing UK decarbonization initiatives and shares a strong commitment to employees, customers and the communities we serve in the UK,” said PPL president and CEO Vincent Sorgi.

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NEWS — US

Biden pledges to put an end to battery supply chain weaknesses US president Joe Biden has given a massive boost to the US battery industry, on June 8 recommending that critical spending is carried out to expand the US’ capability of producing its own batteries for EVs and stationary storage.

The administration made the decision at the end of a 100-day review, begun in February, which was commissioned “to develop a strategic process to address vulnerabilities and opportunities in the supply chains of four key products, including advanced batteries”, the Department of Energy said.

“Today the Biden administration is announcing a set of immediate actions it will take to make the US more competitive in the battery market. The administration is also recommending Congress make critical investments to grow America’s ability to produce high-capacity batteries and products that use batteries, like EVs and stationary storage.”

The four key immediate actions aim to: • strengthen US manufacturing requirements in federally funded grants, cooperative agreements and R&D contracts • procure stationary storage • provide financing to the advanced battery supply chain for EVs • release a national blueprint for lithium batteries.

The DoE will also recommend a series of actions to Congress, including federal grant programmes; making national and school buses electric; giving incentives to encourage drivers to buy electric cars; spending more on producing batteries and providing jobs; and developing environmentally friendly practices for extracting critical minerals.

The actions have been welcomed by the battery industry.

“The Biden administration understands that we can’t build a clean energy future

that’s wholly based on imports,” said Lindsay Gorrill, CEO of KORE Power, a battery manufacturer.

“Investing in the US energy storage supply chain will turn today’s vulnerability into tomorrow’s opportunity. That’s something we can’t afford to miss.”

KORE Power is building the first lithium-ion battery facility owned by a US company, a 93,000m2 facility that Gorrill says could produce up to 12GWh of batteries.

“We are delivering critical capacity in a market

that’s starved for supply as we support the US and global communities becoming greener,” said Gorrill.

In March, Biden revealed the government’s ‘Jobs Plan, which includes investment proposals that should also boost energy storage deployment at what the US Energy Storage Assocation says is an ‘unprecedented scale’, “President Biden is proposing a 10-year extension and phase down of an expanded direct-pay investment tax credit and production tax credit for clean energy generation and storage,” the announcement said.

“From factory to grid frontline communities, it has the policies needed to achieve our goal of 100GW of new energy storage by 2030 to decarbonize our power system, make our infrastructure resilient and put Americans in every state to work in a globally competitive industry,” said interim CEO Jason Burwen.

US breaks another record for energy storage deployment The US has set another record for energy storage deployments, this time in Q1, bringing 910MWh online in 2021, says Wood Mackenzie in a report out on June 8.

Last year’s first quarter total was beaten by 252%, and this is just the start of it — WoodMac forecasts that 2021 will notch up 12,000MWh of new storage over the whole year, three times the amount added last year.

However Q1 2021 pales into insignificance when compared with the last quarter of 2020, in which around 2.25GWh

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of storage was deployed — around 2GWh of this front-of-meter.

Residential storage deployments fall behind front-of-meter in terms of capacity deployed. However, more residential storage was deployed in Q1 for any quarter on record and the market segment has grown for nine consecutive quarters.

“Back-up power to complement rooftop solar systems has become the key selling point for residential battery systems in all US markets,” said analyst Chloe Holden. “Although other states also have

growing markets, California will continue to lead the residential segment by a significant margin through 2026.”

One factor that is likely to spur growth even more in the US is the introduction of a standalone storage investment tax credit (ITC), which if passed by the US Congress would mean Wood Mackenzie would increase its five-year forecast by up to 25%.

“An extra 20%-25% growth for the US market over the next five years would supercharge an already fast-growing energy storage market,”

said Holden. “The frontof-meter segment would see the largest incremental growth, with an extra 6GW of capacity expected through 2025, which is 25% of our base case market forecast.

“Without the ITC, we forecast that the front-ofmeter segment will add 3,674MW in 2021 and 6,915MW in 2026.”

The report said commercial and community-scale installations were not growing in the same way, with just 25MW-35MW of new projects being installed in each of the last five quarters.

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021 • 19

COVER STORY: GIGAFACTORIES

The march of The booming demand for batteries is going to have to be met somehow — and gigafactories are being conceived, planned and built at breakneck speed.

Frank Millard reports on Europe’s moves.

Ever since the 1973 oil crisis, when OPEC placed oil embargoes on governments that supported Israel in the Arab-Israeli war, industry has been keen to seek out alternatives to fossilfuelled transport and electricity as a contribution to energy security.

The widely accepted theory of carbon-associated climate change has prompted governments to push for practically as well as commercially viable answers in terms of performance, cycle life and cost, and as a result, other forms of energy storage are getting their day in the sun — not least battery technologies.

To make enough of them for the growing demand, gigafactories are being conceived, planned and built — and it’s not just factories for lithiumion batteries that will be needed: next generation batteries emerging with other chemistries are also going to need a manufacturing home as countries increasingly adopt intermittent energy sources such as wind and solar.

Caspar Rawles, head of price assessments with Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, says his firm is tracking 211 supersized (greater than 1GWh

20 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021

capacity) lithium-ion battery plants globally, either in operation, construction or in a planning phase, totalling more than 3.8TWh of planned capacity by 2030.

In Europe he predicts that by 2030 there could be 22 gigafactories, at whatever stage of readiness, with a total annual capacity of 621GWh. “This is more than enough pipeline capacity but not all of these plants will make the quality of cells required,” says Rawles. “It isn’t guaranteed that they will make it to production, and we are starting to see smaller operators face financial difficulties as competition grows within the space.”

The Spanish research centre for electrochemical and thermal energy storage, CIC energiGUNE, does not agree that the proposed capacity for Europe will be enough. It claims that even if all 22 factory projects come to fruition and produce an annual total of 600GWh, it will only meet half of the expected base demand in the continent.

And this is just batteries for electric vehicles — stationary storage applica-

tions are not even factored in.

Just one company, Tesvolt, has confirmed it is focusing on batteries for stationary storage: in Germany, it was the first company to build a gigafactory in Europe dedicated to stationary ESSs, and began production in April 2020.

The facility at Lutherstadt Wittenberg has a production area of 12,000m2, where it makes battery storage systems of various sizes with storage capacities ranging from 9.6kWh into the multiMWs. Italvolt to build largest factory in Europe Italvolt is one example of the new size of factory being planned and built in Europe.

Taking over an abandoned Olivetti di Scarmagno plant, the 300,000m2 gigafactory near Turin in Italy has a capacity of 45GWh, with the first construction phase due to be completed in spring 2024. The facility will employ 4,000 workers, and the wider ecosystem will provide up to 10,000 new jobs.

As well as the main facility, a re-

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COVER STORY: GIGAFACTORIES

the gigafactory search and technology centre is being developed in collaboration with the Politechnico University in Torino.

Raw materials will arrive on site and enter the production line, emerging as complete battery units of varying sizes and capacity. These will be transported to a EV manufacturing site and installed directly into the vehicles.

Lars Carlstrom, CEO and founder of Italvolt and a car enthusiast, is particularly keen on the gigafactory being sited in Italy.

“Having worked within the sector (at Saab and others) for a number of years before starting Italvolt, I’m acutely aware of the importance of Italy to the automotive ecosystem — we cannot let that fade away, like it has done in Detroit,” he says.

Financing mammoth projects Carlstrom says Italvolt has not yet entered into any public funding to pay for its mammoth factory, although he said there would be a discussion ‘at some point’.

At the moment, companies outside China are financing expansions from their own balance sheets, says Benchmark’s Rawles, but there is a growing interest from the financial industry in the sector.

“Typically, new operators, such as Northvolt, are raising capital through traditional debt facilities,” he says.

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“We have also seen some capital raised for cell production via SPACs (special-purpose acquisition companies), which is something relatively new to the industry.”

The EU also sees battery manufacture as a green path to the future and

is keen to help with financing. It has already provided cash through institutions such as the European Investment Bank, but more avenues have recently opened up.

Sara Ortíz, economic-financial director with CIC energiGUNE, says

European gigafactories in various planning stages

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021 • 21

COVER STORY: GIGAFACTORIES And in New York…

Imperium3 New York — iM3NY — announced on April 19 that it had secured $85 million in funding from investment firms Riverstone Credit Partners, Riverstone Holdings and Magnis Energy Technologies to back construction of a gigafactory at Endicott in New York State. iM3BY’s gigafactory is now fully funded and will be able to manufacture an initial capacity of 1GWh of battery cells a year.

The build-out of the gigafactory has begun with production scheduled for early 2022, and Paul Stratton, senior vice president of sales and marketing, said their first market would be the commercial and residential sectors.

“Although electric vehicles are a very attractive market where we believe our first product offers many competitive attributes, our first markets will focus on energy storage for solar and other sources, both commercial and residential,” he said.

“Our product will achieve extended life cycles over others, up to 4,500 at present and possibly many more as we gain more test data.”

The batteries will be those designed by Charge CCCV (C4V), an R&D company founded by Shailesh Upreti, who has worked with and continues to be mentored

by Nobel laureate Stanley Whittingham.

C4V and iM3NY have worked together for 10 years and the batteries produced in the new gigafactory will use their patented ‘bio mineralization’ technology, which the company says creates higher capacity, safer and longer cycling batteries at a lower cost.

“The company’s substantial growth plans include building out 32GWh of capacity over eight years, which will create direct employment opportunities for approximately 2,500 people,” iM3NY says.

22 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021

that several projects have announced they will apply for funding to build battery factories under the €672.5 billion ($815 billion) Recovery and Resilience Facility announced by the EU this February.

The funding is meant as a postpandemic stimulus package for members of the bloc, and grants and loans will be available ‘to finance national measures designed to alleviate the economic and social consequences of the pandemic’.

To be eligible, projects must focus on the key EU policy areas described as ‘the green transition including biodiversity, digital transformation (where Ortíz suggests battery factories fit in), economic cohesion and competitiveness, and social and territorial cohesion’.

“Many of the projects announced in recent months have already announced their intention to apply for these funds in collaboration with the different national governments, intending to accelerate their launch and development process,” says Ortíz.

“Some of these executives have already informed the European Union of their specific plans to develop and invest in gigafactories located in their territories.”

Sustainability Peter Harrop, chairman of electronics market research firm IDTechEx, believes the next 10 years will be fairly predictable in that the decade will include a mass movement towards building new gigafactories.

But he says there will be a time when the music stops.

“Then people who have been investing in gigafactories (‘because you can’t go wrong, can you?’) will probably find some stranded assets, but not until 15 years from now,” he says.

Although lithium batteries will still be in high demand for at least the next 10 years, we are probably heading for severe battery shortages as a result of a lack of materials rather than a lack of the factories in which to process them, he says.

It takes a long time to bring a mine onstream and there are usually geopolitical considerations and obstructions.

There is a big push for cell plants to reduce emissions and in Europe particularly a number of plants use renewable power supplies to achieve carbon neutrality at their operations.

The EV supply chain is under scrutiny from an ESG perspective to ensure that the next generation of vehicles not

only cut emissions at the tailpipe but also during production.

“Not only are we seeing the push to reduce emissions during cell production but also throughout the entire value chain from the mine,” says Rawles.

There must also be a greater push for getting recycled materials into battery manufacturing, and Italvolt is taking this on board, with plans to integrate a recycling plant with its gigafactory.

The company has already signed a memorandum of understanding with American Manganese, whose technology, Carlstrom says, will make it possible to recover 99.8% of all minerals in the battery.

Supply chains Italvolt believes batteries must be produced locally to avoid long transport costs and more pollution going into the environment.

“Which, as we all know, is one of the key reasons behind electric vehicles in the first place,” says Carlstrom.

“Many batteries on the market today are considered ‘dirty batteries’ if they’re made in a factory powered by fossil fuels. Central governments across Europe must address this issue urgently, otherwise we’ll miss our zero emissions targets.”

In March, Italvolt signed a letter of intent with certification firm TÜV SÜV for technical advisory services such as sustainability, risk assessment and battery testing.

AMTE Power also aims for its facility to be as sustainable as possible.

Landscaping will be designed to improve the habitats for biodiversity and mitigate the visual impact of the facility, and every detail is being considered in how to keep facilities ‘green’.

“Where possible, off-site module construction will be used to reduce waste and CO2 in construction,” says Kevin Brundish, CEO of AMTE Power. “The manufacturing system will require sustainable power 24/7 — a modular energy centre will be used to harvest energy from solar arrays on the roof and landscaping.

“Battery energy storage systems will allow solar energy to be used overnight. Ground source heat pumps will provide background process energy.

The design intent is to allow the system to export to the grid, giving instant energy for frequency stabilizers to keep the lights on.”

The march of the gigafactory is certainly on — but it will largely depend on whether the materials can be got through the front door.

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COVER STORY: GIGAFACTORIES

Supply chain threats multiply No battery manufacturing plant of any kind is viable without a guaranteed supply of raw materials. There is no shortage of raw materials, but the more that are needed, the less secure the supply chain becomes, says Richard Herrington, head of the Earth Sciences Department at the Natural History Museum in London.

In 2019 Herrington wrote to the Committee on Climate Change warning that to meet electric car targets for 2050 the UK would need just under two times the world’s annual production of cobalt, nearly the entire world’s production of the rare earth neodymium, three quarters of the world’s lithium and at least half of the world’s copper.

Herrington, whose research looks into the behaviour of metals critical for the modern economy in earth systems, particularly cobalt and rare earth metals vital for battery manufacturing, says around 70% of cobalt comes from the DRC, ‘which has seen its share of uncertainties, politically and socially’.

“The added issue here is that 20% of the DRC supply comes from artisanal small miners, where there is evidence for practices such as child labour which is not something that should be supported,” he says.

“Cobalt has a further issue as a byproduct metal, largely from copper mining, and this means that its supply can be erratic as mining practices change. Most of the cobalt is then refined in China and so that country effectively controls 70% of world supply.

“In the case of graphite, China has a similar monopoly since it produces around 62% of the world’s mined production of graphite. There are supply options such as Brazil, Mozambique and Norway which should hopefully guarantee a secure supply chain in an expanding market.

“Also, graphite can be produced as a byproduct of hydrocarbon processing but the future of that source could be uncertain.”

Lithium is roughly 50% produced in Australia from hard rock sources and 50% from Chile and Argentina from salar brines, however Herrington says expanding production in these areas is tricky as the Australian deposits are difficult to scale up and there are social issues with South America’s lithium supplies.

“The good news is that close-tomarket deposits of lithium are found in Serbia and more latterly potentially in Portugal, Germany, and Cornwall (UK). Cornwall has the potential to

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Richard Herrington

supply around half of what the UK will need if the company reports are to be believed,” he says — see ‘Gigafactory Britain’ feature on page 26.

For stationary storage, Herrington says redox flow battery systems using multivalent metals such as vanadium will be challengers to lithium, although vanadium supply is also quite tight, with China controlling around 50% of the world’s available resources.

“There are alternative producers, but a key question will be whether the industry can double production to cope with the World Bank estimate of a 200% increase in demand needed before 2050. This is not as extreme as the 500% increases predicted for cobalt, graphite and lithium but still challenging to deliver in the time pledged.”

The development of gigafactories linked to car production plants makes sense as this can secure the main parts of the manufacturing supply chain, but it does not solve the issue of supply.

In theory, by about 2035 there will be enough end-of-life batteries around to provide up to 40% of the metals needed for new batteries, so recycling strategies will be essential and gigafactories linked to manufacturers could aid efficiency, Herrington says.

Circumventing the chain Supply agreements are a clear way to get around the issues of transparency in the supply chain and for manufacturers it makes sense to make a deal with a miner directly so they know for sure where the metal comes from, says Herrington.

However, such agreements can lead to shortages for the open market,

which in the worst case could drive manufacturers to source their metals on the open spot market, where information about their source may be absent.

“Blockchain technologies to monitor material flows is also something being touted as a way to ensure that metals are tracked throughout the supply chain. Currently knowing where metals come from is difficult since for most metals, all the supplies become homogenized at a refinery (say in China), where it then becomes difficult to provenance specific supply.”

Diversity of supply is essential to ensure there is no total reliance on one source, he says. A range of sources means each can be objectively assessed for its pros and cons, be it the kind of labour used to produce it or environmental considerations such as the ability to minimize energy and water use and work towards a zero waste scenario.

“Mining projects should be designed so that they are inherently regenerative: a cradle-to-cradle model as espoused by some, where industry is itself responsible for protecting the ecosystems in which it operates,” Herrington says.

“An example would be treating mining as a temporary intervention to remove materials useful to people before returning the space for another use.”

The main concern for cell plants will be a secure supply of sustainable battery minerals, says Caspar Rawles, head of price assessments with Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.

“At the moment we are seeing key players in the battery supply chain lock up raw materials in long-term supply contracts, and as more and more of these contracts are signed it leaves little for companies that are yet to act,” he says.

“At Benchmark we are predicting deficits in critical battery mineral markets including lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite at various stages between now and 2030. In the case of lithium and cobalt we expect these markets to fall into deficit before 2025 — cell and automakers will need to act now to secure the battery minerals they will need.”

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021 • 23

COVER STORY: GIGAFACTORIES

Gigafactory Britain If the UK is going to forge a lithium-ion economy, as Benchmark Mineral Intelligence CEO Simon Moores told the G7 summit in June, it’s going to have to join the gigafactory march.

In a sector where China leads the world and the US and Europe are racing to catch up, recent UK government funding for gigafactories is all about levelling the playing field, says Stephen Gifford, head of economics and market insights at the UK Faraday Institution.

The Faraday Institution believes that seven gigafactories will be needed

Coventry

Coventry Airport has been selected as the preferred site for a West Midlands gigafactory.

Coventry Airport Ltd and Coventry City Council have formed a joint venture to bring forward a planning application for the site before an investor is identified.

This is to make the site more attractive to prospective manufacturers and drastically speed up steps to operation.

Jim O’Boyle, cabinet member for jobs and regeneration at Coventry City Council, says a bid will be submitted for a share of the £500 million ($708 million) government fund for gigafactories in the UK. “Plans are at a relatively early stage

24 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021

in the UK and employment in the automotive industry and battery supply chain could grow from 170,000 to 220,000 by 2040.

The UK government says it is dedicated to building gigafactories, and as part of prime minister Boris Johnson’s Ten Point Plan, announced in November 2020, the government said it would make £500 million ($710 million) available as part of a wider commitment of up to £1 billion ($1.4

but discussions are ongoing with car and battery manufacturers to understand their requirements as we develop our planning application and our wider offer, including access to our world-leading supply chain and automotive eco-system,” he says.

The location of the site is ideal for the UK’s automotive industry, being close to major car makers such as Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin, as well as the London EV Company.

Coventry is also home to the new UK Battery Industrialization Centre, which is part of the government’s ‘Faraday Battery Challenge’ programme to speed up the development of battery technology.

billion) to support the electrification of vehicles and their supply chains, including developing gigafactories.

Moves were already in place to support the move towards developing a battery industry: in 2018 the UK Battery Industrialization Centre, created under the Faraday Institution, opened its doors to researchers, manufacturers and companies.

All kinds of support is offered there ‘to enable large-scale battery production opportunities’, such as providing equipment, advice, training and manufacturing knowhow, as well as taking the steps towards commercialization.

The UK’s SMMT (the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders) estimates that the UK will be manufacturing up to two million PHEVs a year by 2040, requiring a battery production capacity of 120GWh a year.

With capacity currently 2.5GWh and just 13GWh planned there is a way to go, but the Faraday Report — March 2020 Annual Gigafactory Study UK: Electric Vehicle and Battery Production Potential to 2040 does predict there will be 140GWh a year by 2040.

Faraday suggests that EV production at the levels that will be required will almost certainly depend on the establishment of a secure domestic EV battery supply, meaning UK-based gigafactories.

Rumours of Tesla and Tesla-type gigafactories being built in the UK and elsewhere in Europe have proliferated but hopes were dashed when one was instead announced for Germany — the Tesla Berlin-Brandeburg Gigafactory is due to open this July, with a planned capacity of more than 100GWh a year.

That doesn’t mean the UK has been left out of Tesla’s plans — in March, business minister Kwasi Kwarteng hinted the carmaker had shown interest in Somerset, believed to be the Gravity site near Bridgewater.

But with or without Tesla, moves to build gigafactories in the UK are being drawn up, with some further ahead in the planning stages than others.

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COVER STORY: GIGAFACTORIES Blyth — Britishvolt

Isobel Sheldon, Britishvolt’s chief strategy officer, says total spending on Britishvolt’s state-of-the-art gigafactory at Blyth in the north of England is £2.6 billion ($3.7 billion), making it one of the largest industrial investments ever made in the UK. “By the final phase of the project in 2027, it will be employing up to 3,000 highly skilled people producing more than 300,000 lithium-ion batteries for the UK automotive industry. It will further provide up to 5,000 jobs in the wider supply chain,” says Sheldon.

“Production will begin at the end of 2023 with the first phase seeing

10GWh of capacity installed, before ramping up to a total capacity of 30GWh by 2027.”

Plans to break ground this summer before beginning production at the end of 2023 remain on track.

Sheldon says that despite the pandemic, construction has continued for both industrial and domestic projects with no impact on deadlines.

The company is planning a flexible manufacturing approach, allowing it to move into different sectors rather than being limited to a single technology, or cell chemistry.

“ESG (environmental, social and

governance) is at the core of our business and sustainability is paramount to the project,” says Sheldon.

“We are establishing a full digital twin (a complete replica of physical assets built with artificial algorithms that can help provide a real-world model for the actual processes) that will be fully running in quarter two of this year, giving us the opportunity to simulate production processes and flows ahead of construction completion. This enables us to optimize design and efficiencies ahead of completed construction and fitment.”

ion blends, as well as lithium iron phosphate and the newest sodiumion chemistry.

“Our new gigafactory facility will build on our development work, and bring product for the car battery and energy storage industries to market,” he says.

“Our differentiated product for the ESS cell market is ‘Ultra Safe’. It’s a safe and cost-effective re-chargeable pouch format battery cell to address key applications in ESS, whether that’s microgrids or larger systems.”

AMTE plans to build a smart plant that has been drawn up with the help of HSSMi, a sustainable manufacturing innovation consultancy.

“We worked through the challenges of building a gigafactory using practical, problem-solving

methodologies focused on three key areas: the scale-up of products and processes, productivity enhancing opportunities, and supporting the transition to a circular economy,” Brundish says.

AMTE Power AMTE intends to build a facility in 2022, with a team analyzing detailed design and process engineering plans for three possible sites.

Output will start at 2GWh-3GWh, with a view to increasing to 10GWh using a modular plant design.

“The AMTE Power gigafactory will be sustainable and aligned with our ESG goals for the business, staff, and local groups,” says CEO Kevin Brundish.

“The design will include office and training space within the manufacturing building, so allow for future expansion to support the UK automotive sectors and government commitment to target net zero CO2.”

Brundish says AMTE’s plant at Thurso, Scotland has successfully demonstrated the manufacturing process for all current lithium-

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Kevin Brundish, AMTE Power CEO

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021 • 25

BRITISH LITHIUM

Can the UK strike white gold?

Excitement is mounting about a huge potential source of lithium in the British Isles just as plans for the first UK lithium battery gigafactory are being sketched.

If the two firms exploring the area are right, it may not be long before the UK battery industry can cross lithium off its shopping list.

In 1987, the UK National Environment Research Council published a British Geological Survey, The lithium potential of the St Austell granite.

“By currently known world standards it is of a substantial magnitude,” the report reads. “Data suggest that just over three million tonnes of lithi-

um in part of the top 100m constitute a realistic economic target.”

Given that this is almost a quarter of the world’s demonstrated reserves of the element — the encyclopaedia Britannica estimates the global total is 11 million tonnes — this is a vast amount.

British Lithium chairman Roderick Smith

Disused clay pit in Cornwall

26 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021

Chile, the world’s largest producer with mine production in 2006 recorded as 8,200 tonnes, also has three million tonnes of demonstrated reserves.

Today, almost 35 years after the report, analysts Benchmark Mineral Intelligence believe there is enough to support what it told the G7 summit in Cornwall in June could be a ‘lithiumion economy’ in the UK. Back in 1987 lithium batteries had just been invented. Based on John Goodenough and Stanley Whittingham’s research, Akira Yoshiro had developed a lithium battery two years earlier, but the BGS report did not rank batteries among the top uses of the element, although its properties for energy storage were recognized.

“Lithium is used in aluminium reduction where it acts as a flux in the fused electrolyte, and it is estimated that this end-use accounts for 30% of domestic US consumption,” the report says. “A further 40% is accounted for by applications in glass, ceramics and lithium-based lubricants.

“The element is also used to a lesser extent in batteries and this sector has shown considerable growth in recent years… it has good fluxing properties and the low density and strong ionic character are of critical value in electrical storage devices.”

The first slabs were laid.

Cornish rock Two companies are licensed to explore Cornwall’s lithium resources in different ways.

British Lithium is looking to mine the former clay pit on the St Austell granite that was the subject of the 1987 BGS report.

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BRITISH LITHIUM

“It’s like a Great Awakening —we are so encouraged by what we’re seeing so far that we think there’s a good chance we won’t need to even send it to a refinery” — Jeremy Wrathall, Cornish Lithium CEO The firm claims the pit has an identified resource of more than 100 million tonnes of lithium, and it would be possible to produce 20,000 tonnes a year — enough to supply a third of Britain’s demand by 2030, when the true EV era will be ushered in.

British Lithium chairman Roderick Smith says the Cornish resource is contained in mica as opposed to spodumene, which is exploited in Australia.

“This type of lithium as a mineral is the only type that’s been found in

the world — it’s in a mica and we’ve developed a process for extracting it then separating it,” he says.

“It’s a completely different process and because it’s never been done commercially, we had to develop the technology and that’s a big part of what we’ve done. It involves physical separation, no heat — it’s sophisticated mechanical separation, and there’s no equipment doing this in the UK so we had to build a lab and ship the equipment over here to do it.

“Granite contains three minerals: quartz, feldspar and mica. First you have to separate the mica from the granite, then you have to get the lithium out of the mica. We have a way of doing it without using chemicals and very little energy.

“We are doing the fourth drilling programme right now. We have produced battery-grade lithium carbonate at laboratory scale and are perfecting that technology and applying for patents. Next is a pilot plant. That will produce big enough samples for battery makers to test the process within about 18 months.”

Commercial production could happen in three to five years, he says, although they are working on a 20-year plan with the ultimate aim of producing 21,000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium carbonate a year.

“Our production wouldn’t be a big tonnage, but it’s worth a lot of money,” says Smith. “With some minerals you need a huge fleet, railways, ports, massive infrastructure — you don’t need that here, it would be about three shipping containers a day, so the impact on the local area wouldn’t be noticeable.

British Lithium’s Andrew Smith, CEO (left), and metallurgical manager Klaas Peter Van Der Wielen.

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World battery arms race Presenting to world leaders at the G7 summit in the UK on June 11-13, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence managing director Simon Moores (pictured) said the world was in the midst of a global battery arms race, with supply chains key to being able to stay on the front line.

If the UK wanted to stay in the race, it had to build a lithiumion economy from the top, he said, from the highest levels of government and down.

“It’s not just battery capacity, we need an ecosystem to go with it to gain dominance in EVs and energy storage as that new industry emerges,” he said.

“This is not just a China phenomenon like it was four years ago — this is a global phenomenon now. The Biden administration is promising more to come — at least 10, if not 20, gigafactories in the US. But for these it’s not just capacity, it’s quality.

“Lithium-ion batteries are speciality products and the chemicals that go into them are not chemicals, they are speciality chemicals.”

There is a fear that China has control of these chemicals, but in fact, he says, the country has just 23% of the basket of chemicals (lithium, cobalt, manganese, lithium, graphite) needed, although it does refine 80% of them.

The UK will need 140,000 tonnes a year of lithium, which is 100,000 tonnes more than both Cornish and British Lithium say they will produce in total, as well as 315,000 tonnes of cathodes and 210,000 tonnes of anodes from top tier companies such as CATL, Panasonic and LG Chem, Moores estimates.

The numbers can only go higher: Moores believes that at least four gigafactories will have to be up and running by 2035 if the UK is to stand a chance of competing.

The race is on.

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021 • 27

BRITISH LITHIUM “We need the whole battery value chain in the UK… power generation is probably the biggest industry in the world and it’s transforming very rapidly” — British Lithium chairman Roderick Smith

“We need the whole battery value chain in the UK. And it’s not just for EVs — grid storage gets less attention because it’s easy to do the numbers on cars, but power generation is probably the biggest industry in the world and it’s transforming very rapidly.”

Cornish brines Cornish Lithium is the other firm looking at lithium in Cornwall, and if CEO Jeremy Wrathall is right, the UK could join the world rankings of lithium producers with the amount of

One eye has to be on the environment

“The whole environmental platform is changing things. Governments all over the world are forcing the very destructive transformation of petrol and diesel and ICE for electric cars, for example, for environmental reasons,” says Roderick Smith, CEO of British Lithium.

“But the solutions for that have to be environmentally sustainable as well. It wouldn’t be acceptable for the government to ban combustion engines and then come up with a dirty alternative.

“So with technology it has to be the most sustainable carbon-negative way of producing these things without creating waste and so on.”

The so-called Lithium Triangle of Chile, Argentina and Bolivia is a worrying case, he says.

“It’s environmentally awful,” he says. “It’s such a fragile environment — what water there is in the ground they are pumping out and evaporating, and depleting what small amount of water there is.

“The salt lakes are 12,000 feet up in the Andes, there’s barely any rainfall, and they’re pumping this super-saturated brine containing lithium into gigantic evaporation pots to produce lithium.

28 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021

“It is an important producer but it hasn’t grown as fast as hard rock lithium because it’s so environmentally awful.”

Smith says British Lithium’s method — for which there is a patent pending with the UK Intellectual Property Office — uses no chemicals and very little energy, and their licensed area is an abandoned clay pit which is already dug.

“Because of the environmental sensitivity we have sourced it in order of priority,” he says, “and eliminated anything that’s in an area of outstanding natural beauty, or near a village or farmland — any difficulty, we avoided it.”

Cornish Lithium is equally cognisant of environmental damage, and Wrathall says the brines will be exploited from areas that have already been disturbed, like the clay pits.

“It’s a huge area of disturbed ground that we’d be repurposing to extract lithium from the same place,” he says. “Deposits in Europe are challenged because of the infrastructure — national parks, cities, and so on — but in Cornwall it’s not intrusive because the land has already been mined.”

the reserves he believes the country is sitting on.

He believes a massive granite complex underneath much of the 860,000acre southwestern county of Cornwall could be one of five giant lithium-enriched complexes in the world.

While it may not be quite up there with the Lithium Triangle producers and Australia, the potential for his company’s production of 20,000 tonnes of lithium a year could mean that the UK would be far less reliant on imports.

“We can’t make any claims as to how big it is — we don’t know yet — but we do know that granite underneath Cornwall extends from one end to the other,” says Wrathall. “We’ve mapped the fractures, we know that.

“We also know that the water is very unusual, if not unique, for the low total dissolved solids-to-lithium ratio. Most brines are very salty, some hyper saline, but we’ve got much lower salinity than sea water.

“In terms of needles in haystacks, there’s less hay and more needles.”

Whatever the quantity, Cornish Lithium has already made lithium carbonate from the brine extracted from these deep fractures — and Wrathall says he is almost spoilt for choice as to which technology to use to extract it.

It is likely more than one will be chosen, because the depth of the brines can affect their salinity and lithium grade, therefore could need a different approach.

“We are assessing well over 20 lithium extraction technologies from around the world and we are assessing which ones work best,” he says.

“We’ve looked at resins, cartridges, membranes, beads, fibres, organic fluids –this space is rapidly filling, with people approaching us from universities asking us if they can take our brine and test their technology.

“It’s like a Great Awakening — and we are so encouraged by what we’re seeing so far that we think there’s a good chance we won’t need to even send it to a refinery.”

Words of caution Kathryn Goodenough, principal geologist with the British Geological Survey, is far more cautious. The brines in Cornwall, she says, are certainly lithium rich — but there are no data to quantify exactly how much there is.

“There’s a rabbit warren of tunnels that are filled with water, which will be rich in lithium,” she says. “If you

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BRITISH LITHIUM go deeper, there are natural fractures in which the brines are circulating, enriched with lithium because it has been leached in from the surrounding rocks for many millions of years.

“We know that but we don’t know how much there is because we don’t have a defined resource estimate.”

“One of the first steps in exploration is to have a good resource estimate so that you understand what’s there based on quite a lot of data, then you step to the next stage, which is understanding what we call the reserve,” she says. “The reserve is not just what’s there but also what could be extracted feasibly in the current socio-economic and commercial climate.

“In Cornwall at the moment we don’t yet have a resource estimate, let alone a reserve, to know if there’s enough there to be commercially viable. I mean there very likely is, but we don’t have that data.

“Until they have what we call a code compliant resource estimate, compliant with the mining code, either of Australia or Canada or wherever — there are various different mining

codes around the world — there is no basis for saying how much there is.”

Goodenough believes imports will be necessary for at least 10, if not 20, years.

“It’s also the lithium supply chain, which you can summarize as involving exploration, then mining, then refining, then manufacturing, and then use. At the minute, the UK is firmly in the exploration stage. We are unlikely to have mining before the next decade. Even if we have mining, we’re then going to have production of most likely a lepidolite concentrate which would probably have to go overseas for refining.”

Yet refining is one step already being made in the UK. Leverton Lithium is one of two companies in Europe that convert, refine and produce lithium chemicals: and it is based in Basingstoke, about 200 miles (330km) away from the St Austell clay pit.

“Currently our main output is to other industrial markets with only 5%-10% going into lithium batteries, but of course this is growing,” says

Today’s major lithium sources Unlike lead batteries, which use large quantities of recycled lead from ULABs, there won’t be anywhere near enough lithium from recycled batteries to make any kind of dent in demand for years to come.

“Stocks of used batteries that could be recycled right now are very low compared to anticipated demand.

This means that understanding the geology and natural resources of lithium is vital, as this will underpin exploration and mining for this critical raw material,” says the British Geological Survey.

Today, China has a stranglehold on lithium resources – not only because they produce it, but because they refine at least 80% of it, possibly even more, the BGS says.

In 2019, China came fifth in the world with an annual lithium production of 7,500 tonnes after the three South American countries making up the so-called ‘Lithium Triangle’ — Chile, Bolivia and Argentina — and Australia, says the US Geological Survey in its January 2020 report Mineral Commodity Summaries.

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“Six mineral operations in Australia, two brine operations each in Argentina and Chile, and one brine and one mineral operation in China accounted for the majority of world lithium production,” it says.

“Lithium supply security has become a top priority for technology companies in the United States and Asia. Strategic alliances and joint ventures among technology companies and exploration companies continued to be established to ensure a reliable, diversified supply of lithium for battery suppliers and vehicle manufacturers.

“Brine-based lithium sources were in various stages of development in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, China and the United States; mineral-based lithium sources were in various stages of development in Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, Congo, Czechia, Finland, Germany, Mali, Namibia, Portugal, Serbia, Spain and Zimbabwe.”

British Lithium and Cornish Lithium are making efforts to get the UK added to the list.

CEO David Hicks.

“So we are already producing the right products at the right quality. The European demand is quite low but set to grow rapidly.”

He warns there will be no demand in the UK for lithium refining until there are cathode material plants as well as cell factories — which is unlikely for a few years yet.

“The technology is there for Cornish Lithium but it is new and unproven on an industrial scale and they also have to decide if they want to go from miner to battery-grade producer, which is a big step, or to stop short of that and pass on an intermediate material to companies like ours to refine/ purify to the final high-quality levels.

“We have discussed it with them, and as they progress further down their exploration path I am sure we will have further discussions about working together.”

“The UK has potential for these things, but it’s no longer a mining country,” says Goodenough. “We don’t have the knowledge and the data that we need.”

“The UK has potential for these things, but it’s no longer a mining country. We don’t have the knowledge and the data that we need” — Kathryn Goodenough, principal geologist, British Geological Survey

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021 • 29

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BATTERY BATTERY TESTING TESTING

Testing under the spotlight Battery testing is one of the basic building blocks about bringing all types of batteries to market. But getting it wrong is expensive. The growing number of battery fires in electric vehicles underlines the necessity for making sure of the health, safety and reliability of the battery, reports Frank Millard.

In February this year, Hyundai was forced to recall 82,000 Kona EVs because of the battery fire risk. In November 2020, GM had to recall almost 67,000 of its Chevy Bolts for the same reason. In 2020 as a whole, the number of lithium battery fire recalls in EVs hit a record high, according to an IdTechEx report on thermal management published in December.

Among major automakers the second half of last year has been the worst six months for lithium battery recalls ever.

Although batteries are generally stable, deterioration or abuse such as an impact can affect that stability. There are also differences according to application: stationary storage batteries have different requirements from EV batteries, or batteries in portable medical devices, for example.

Safety tests ensure the safety of the product even under extreme conditions. Performance tests provide information about lifecycle, behaviour under load conditions and best usage strategies.

IEC62133 regulates batteries in mobile devices, IEC62619 is for industrial applications like fork lifts, trains, and IEC 63056 is for stationary energy storage.

“Specific tests depend on the application,” says TÜV SÜD. “The UN38.3 transportations test is necessary to get permission to transport batteries in quantity, for example. An EV battery has to fulfil the UNECE Regulation 100 for electrical safety before it gets its type approval.

“But OEMs do a lot of additional

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performance testing to guarantee the correct behaviour during use. For other segments there are no tests required by law but there are some IEC standards defining the state of the art, which should always be fulfilled when bringing a product to the market.”

Testing processes tend to be similar across static and mobile energy stor-

age, addressing the same priorities and concerns. Reliable leak testing is essential throughout the production process.

“Damage to battery cells while in transit to an OEM’s assembly plant also needs to be considered,” says Thomas Parker, leak test sales manager at Inficon. “The thermal runaway of a single battery cell can cause burning

Failure modes battery packs - Inficon

Direct electrolyte leak testing - Inficon

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021 • 31

BATTERY TESTING UTAC CERAM Millbrook UTAC CERAM Millbrook conducts battery testing to assess the life of battery cells, modules and packs; determine battery safety in a wide range of situations including crash events; and validate the performance of batteries under a range of environmental conditions.

“For lithium-ion batteries the majority of the testing is for safety, but on a test time basis, life testing takes most of the time,” says Peter Miller, chief engineer for batteries, at the company. “Many tests have dedicated equipment for them, for example the first 38.3 test checks survival in a low pressure (equivalent to flying at 15,000m) and that requires a specialized altitude chamber.”

Shock, stress and temperature testing are part of the 38.3 transport requirements, but as these only cover safety they do not require that the device functions to specification afterwards, says Miller. “Normally a large part of the testing would be related to the device in normal operation. For example, with a Li-ion battery, temperature has a major impact on its life and performance.”

The temperature for stationary batteries is normally controlled with an air conditioning system, while a water glycol liquid cooling system is typically used for automotive.

“In either case it’s important to check the simulations done at the design stage are accurate by checking the batteries over a wide range of temperatures,” says Miller.

The testing may also need to include the impacts of solar loading (the sun can add around 1kW per m2 of heat to local areas, potentially causing a very uneven internal temperature distribution within the battery, which can reduce its life, says Miller).

“Safety testing is also conducted to understand what would happen should a leak develop in the field and to check any built-in leak detection systems,” he says.

Leak test processes are influenced by part characteristics, cycle time, leak limit, cavity under test, and budget. These can involve standard air pressure decay, differential decay and mass flow, as well as tracer gas solutions based on sniffing and accumulation.

“Battery pack enclosures are generally tested with the mass flow method because of the large total volume,” says Miller. “The leak rate can be assessed by measuring the air flow that crosses a flow-rate sensor to overcome the pressure difference between a reference volume and the test piece. The advantage is lower testing times for large objects.

“Battery packs, battery modules and occasionally cooling circuits can apply the pressure decay method, where the pressure decay to the atmosphere or a tight reference is measured.”

32 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021

“Automation enables testing to take place 24 hours a day, 365 days a year” - Peter Miller, chief engineer Batteries, at UTAC CERAM Millbrook. electrolyte to reach temperatures up to 1,100°C. “Exposure of water to the inside of an individual battery cell or battery pack is an issue for safety (reaction to water creates an acid that can rupture the cell, sometimes causing overheating and exploding) as well as performance. Leakage of electrolyte from the cell is a safety issue (hazardous to humans) as well as a performance and warranty issue.”

Specific tests include tracer gas testing of rigid battery (prismatic and cylindrical) cells via helium before electrolyte filling, says Parker.

“After filling, a final test of the electrolyte itself specifically traces electrolyte leakage through extremely small openings/holes.

When the cells are installed in the battery pack and the lid is sealed, the completed pack is pressurized with a tracer gas (helium or safe hydrogen/nitrogen mix) and tested in compliance to IP67).”

For batteries that have a liquid cooling system, testing can demonstrate that no leak is present and any overpressure events are safe.

Changing technology Although battery testing is well understood, the underlying chemistries are still evolving so there are still new things being learned.

“A more major change in chemistry could require different testing depending on its strengths and weaknesses and how these differ from other types of cells,”

Timeline: lithium’s burning from last summer December 2020 On December 16 LG Chem recalled its lithiumion home battery systems in Michigan, US — just over a week after it launched a new line of the products.

November 2020 Polestar recalled the majority of its Polestar 2 models sold globally to replace faulty battery inverters. Some 4,586 vehicles were affected by the recall.

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BATTERY TESTING says Peter Miller, chief engineer for batteries, at UTAC CERAM Millbrook.

Some regulations only apply to lithium-based chemistries, so a sodium-ion or flow battery would not require testing to that section of the regulations, and potentially may not need any testing for transport purposes.

Miller says that with long-duration tests, such as life tests, automation enables testing to take place 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Engineers can also secure remote access, enabling them to monitor tests without actually having to be physically present on site.

“For safety tests the worst outcome needs to be accurately assessed and suitable risk management put in place, which requires staff with a very good knowledge and experience. Our test site near Bedford in the UK is 2.8 million square meters so dedicated areas can be used for higher risk tests,” says Miller.

Most test standards specify accuracy measures, which must be met, but effort also goes into ensuring that tests are conducted in a way that gives accurate and repeatable results, says Miller.

“There are occasional situations where a test that appeared sensible

Robot sniffing battery pack by Inficon

to now — fire! fire!

November 2020 General Motors recalled 68,667 Chevrolet Bolts, and told owners not to park their cars near their house or in their garage for risk of fire.

October 2020 Hyundai said it would globally recall some 77,000 Kona Electric models manufactured between September 2017 and March, 2020, according to Yonhap news agency. The recall comes after 13 fires in the model have been reported since 2018.

October 2020 German carmaker BMW warned customers in August not to charge its plug-in hybrid cars because of a fire risk with batteries. In October the initial 40,000 recalls were topped up by a further 27,000. The 3, 5 and 7 series, Mini Cooper Countryman and i8 were among other models using lithium batteries made by Samsung.

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August 2020 Ford recalled more than 20,000 Kuga Plug-In Hybrids due to battery safety concerns. In some instances, faulty batteries overheated when charging, causing fires. Ford referred to its recall as a ‘Safety Action’.

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021 • 33

BATTERY TESTING Faraday Institution The UK’s Faraday Institution uses many physical test techniques and facilities to develop scientific understanding, including collaboration with NPL, The National Physical Laboratory (the UK’s National Metrology Institute) and Diamond Light Source, the UK’s national synchrotron science facility at Harwell, Oxfordshire.

The data from physical tests are also used to help populate and validate battery digital twins: offering battery designers modelling tools to accelerate battery pack design and deliver improvements to commercial battery performance, lifetime and safety.

James Gaade, head of programme management at the Faraday Institution, says operando nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of current generation NMC811/ graphite lithium-ion batteries is used by the University of Cambridge to understand the structure, dynamics, and lithium deposition during the battery aging process.

“The technique enables the detailed investigation of lithium deposition on graphite, which is an important degradation mechanism and key potential safety hazard.

Insights gained will aid in developing future charging protocols to manage this effect more robustly,” he says.

Another example is 3D imaging of lithium protrusions in solid-state lithium batteries using X-ray computed tomography by University College London.

Using X-ray computed tomography with nanoscale resolution, Gaade says the technique has enabled the study for the first time of the 3D morphology of dendrites inside short-circuited solid electrolytes.

“The crack/lithium-protrusion behaviour qualitatively supports a model of propagation combining electrochemical and mechanical effects, with the knowledge gained being used to develop alternative solutions and/or controls,” Gaade says.

“In the UK, with the support of the Faraday Battery Challenge, the British Standards Institute has developed three codes of practice to provide guidance and recommendations at cell, module/pack and vehicle level and bring together key relevant information on standards and legislation in the UK and globally.”

Gaade says battery pack gateway testing protocols have been developed within Faraday Institution research by Newcastle University as part of the ReLiB project to understand the condition of battery modules and packs at the end of a vehicle’s life to aid the ability to make decisions on reuse, repurposing or recycling.

34 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021

when written down gives unexpected results, but those are opportunities for learning and improving our understanding. These can result in improvements to test capabilities that then benefit future customers, or even fed back into national or international standards.”

Where much research is going into getting more precise results and better integrated benches, with additional sensors collecting chemical and mechanical data in addition to the classic electrical and

temperature values, another trend is towards simulation supported testing, says TÜV SÜD. “The idea is that datapoints and trends are collected by physical testing but the result of test cases in between are interpolated by simulation,” the firm says. “This simulation is based on models influenced by the actual inputs of the physical testing. This leads to a more precise prediction of the battery behaviour since not all combined test cases can be covered with testing.”

International battery testing firm Digatron has been developing systems for more than half a century Digatron, headquartered in Aachen, Germany with manufacturing facilities in the US, China, India & Italy, offers battery testing, formation, aging and assembly equipment, and provides testing equipment for cells, modules and packs for any battery chemistry, fuel cell or supercapacitor system.

“Our systems are used around the world to develop electric vehicles, energy storage systems, and simulation systems for wellknown OEMs in mobility, energy storage, battery manufacturers.

They work with any battery chemistry, fuel cells, and supercapacitor systems and are used in R&D and EOL globally,” says Marcus Peng, director of sales at Digatron Power Electronics.

“The company offers a regenerative version of these systems

even for cells and module testers, where the discharge energy from one cell can be used to charge another.

“The real-world advantage is that the round trip energy usage for battery testing is greatly reduced.”

Digatron also has pilot scale pouch and cylindrical assembly, formation and ageing systems for lithium-ion cells, which universities and research groups are using to produce cells for speciality applications.

“These systems enable our customers to provide high-quality cells to customers who are not able to procure cells from automotive suppliers,” Peng says.

Peng says the firm’s lead-acid formation systems are used by manufacturers of SLI, start-stop and motive batteries.

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BATTERY TESTING

Fine-tuning tests for different applications The whys and wherefores of testing are dependent on how the battery or energy storage system will be deployed.

Stationary energy storage systems and automotive batteries all have to be tested, but there are differences in how and why. Automotive batteries, for example, need to withstand conditions such as vibration that might not be relevant for stationary applications.

Energy storage systems can be large, requiring careful assessment of their inherent safety as well as how they can be safely integrated into the built environment, says Ken Boyce, senior director of principal engineering at global safety certification company UL. “The size of energy storage systems, and the possibility of propagation leading to a much larger event, can present challenges for the testing environment that must be addressed.”

Many of the tests applied to stationary energy storage systems typically involve different charge and discharge rates and different ambient temperatures depending on the use case, and demand profiles can therefore be very different from automotive applications, says Martin Plass, business development leader at the Battery & Energy Storage Technology Test Center, DNV Energy.

“EVs’ high energy density to reduce weight, and high c-rates for fast charging and peak power delivery are very important, but for stationary systems a common application is shifting solar peak power generation from daytime to evenings to flatten the duck curve and reduce peak demand,” says Plass.

“This means that when we test stationary BESSs, we often look at systems designed to store and release energy over one to six hours, with c-rates of 0.167 to 1.0.”

Utility companies that deploy these systems have a different time-planning horizon from car companies, he says.

“They look at investments for 20-30 years versus (for example) eight-year warranties for automotive batteries.

So, longevity of the BESS and augmentation plans become very important in these long-range scenarios.

“Instead of 30-100kWh in a typical EV, you might have 100MWh BESS in containers, made up of multiple mod-

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ules and racks, so the safety considerations with that much stored energy become very important to avoid dangers to operators and property in the proximity to the systems.”

The most widely recognized safety test protocols for energy storage systems is the US and Canadian national standard for safety, UL 9540, the world’s first safety standard published for ESSs. It contains rigorous requirements to demonstrate the suitability of the design under normal conditions as well as abnormal ones and failure modes.

“For battery energy storage systems, UL 9540 requires the batteries integrated into an energy storage system also comply with requirements including the US and Canadian standard for safety for stationary batteries, UL 1973,” says Boyce. “Energy storage system requirements also address a stringent evaluation of the functional safety of battery management systems.”

BMSs should demonstrate that the software, firmware and hardware are appropriately coordinated to keep the batteries in a safe operating mode and are immune from inherent failures or external influences that can impair the ability to perform critical safety functionality.

Requirements of UL 9540A are used to determine the capability of the battery technology to withstand thermal

“Energy storage system safety testing requires unique laboratory facilities, and continually enhancing the way the tests are safely and appropriately conducted is a focus for the technical community” — Ken Boyce, senior director, Principal Engineering at UL

Testing at global safety certification firm UL

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021 • 35

BATTERY TESTING runaway, and evaluate the fire and explosion hazard characteristics of battery energy storage systems that have demonstrated they can do so.

“This approach provides critical safety information about the system and how it can be safely integrated into the built environment,” says Boyce.

Plass says DNV has developed a Battery Performance Scorecard program that cycles 30 to 40 battery cells at different conditions for six to 12 months to fully characterize degradation of specific types of cells under various stress conditions.

“The resulting test data is then fed into a data analytics program, called Battery AI, to build a model for this type of battery cell and predict how the battery will perform under different scenarios, for example solar power peak shifting on a daily basis by four hours for 20 years,” he says.

“Characterization of battery cells

“DNV has developed a Battery Performance Scorecard program that cycles 30 to 40 battery cells at different conditions for six to 12 months to fully characterize degradation of specific types of cells under various stress conditions.”

— Martin Plass, business development leader, Battery & Energy Storage Technology Test Center, DNV Energy

can facilitate quality assurance practices, to assess products being shipped to project sites.”

DNV also uses a relatively new standard, ANSI/UL9540A, which forces battery cells into thermal runaway and then measures the heat and gases that are released and the propensity of the battery to develop a chain reaction of cells.

A small instigating event in a battery can cascade to neighbouring cells, which then creates additional heat as they go into thermal runaway, cascading successively through the whole battery.

“The latest revision of the NFPA 855 fire protection code requires UL9540A testing along with a number of other certification requirements for battery cells and systems, such as UL1642, UL1973 and UL9540,” says Plass.

Similar safety test standards are being developed in Europe under the IEC standards scheme.

Research into the failure mechanisms of batteries and how these failure modes can be duplicated in accelerated test set-ups is ongoing.

“We know that most batteries degrade faster at higher or lower temperatures or cycle at faster charge and discharge rates. But the failure mechanism that causes this degradation might be different from what causes a battery to degrade when operated at room temperature or slower c-rates for many years,” says Plass.

He says the change in coulombic efficiency during first charge and discharge cycles in testing can be representative of a battery’s long-term degradation behaviour.

“Additionally, machine learning techniques are being developed to extrapolate this limited characterization data into long-term performance expectations. If these methods can be reliably established and validated, it would

shorten the time required for degradation testing.”

Fire fighting The current ANSI/UL9540A thermal runaway test method only evaluates dangers caused by internal battery failures. It does not properly account for fire safety from anti-propagation systems that can prevent or slow down cascading thermal runaway events.

“Many test labs, especially in Asia, use a fairly loose interpretation of the standard to test battery systems that can result in an underestimation of the risks,” says Plass. “The UL9540A standard therefore requires further improvement to eliminate the room for varied interpretations.”

DNV operates fire test centres in Rochester, New York, where the BEST Test & Commercialization Center conducts testing to determine the precise propensity of cells to enter thermal runaway, and what type of gases are released and in what quantities during these events.

For battery module and rack fire testing, Plass says DNV has a unique test site in the UK, where mega fires can be investigated by setting a whole battery container on fire.

Plass says another area that is quickly developing is the use of simulation to evaluate risks, such as computerized fire and explosion modelling to evaluate battery safety in stationary battery deployments of various designs and scales.

Testing is evolving as additional experience is acquired in assessing battery vulnerabilities and additional insights from field incidents.

“Energy storage system safety testing requires unique laboratory facilities, and continually enhancing the way the tests are safely and appropriately conducted is a focus for the technical community,” says Boyce.

Testing equipment and Inside the Battery & Energy Storage Technology Test Center at DNV

36 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021

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CHEMISTRY

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Are solid-state batteries a viable chemistry?

Advances in solid-state batteries often make promising headlines but the recurring question usually applies: are they scalable? Hillary Christie reports.

When Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Science researchers announced their design for a long-lasting, stable, solid-state lithium battery on May 12, it was hailed by many as a solution to a 40-year problem in battery chemistry.

Solid-state lithium batteries hold much more energy in the same volume and charge in a fraction of the time needed by traditional lithium-ion batteries; but poor stability due to dendrite growth has prevented them from achieving commercial success.

The team at Harvard claim they have designed a lithium SSB that can be charged and discharged at least 10,000 times at a high density, potentially solving longstanding issues with performance and stability that have curbed their potential. Watch this space.

Despite this success, most companies are stuck in the pre-production phase while engineers work out how to take single-cell technology and apply it to large-scale production.

Lithium batteries that use a solid electrolyte instead of liquid or polymer gel are particularly valuable to the EV industry because as well as safety, the liquid metal anode has higher gravimetric energy density than the poor capacity graphite alternative.

In the 1990s, Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the US developed a new solid-state electrolyte that was used in a thin-film lithium-ion battery and by 2012 both Toyota and Volkswagen

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began conducting research into solidstate’s applications in the auto industry.

The ultimate dream

“Solid state lithium batteries which use a solid electrolyte instead of a liquid or polymer gel electrolyte is the ultimate dream of the energy world, particularly for the EV industry,” says Mahdokht Shaibani, a researcher in materials synthesis, engineering and scale-up for next-generation energy storage systems at Monash University in Australia.

“Eradicating the use of the highly flammable liquid electrolyte, it promises ultimate safety. It allows the safe use of a lithium metal anode (the ultimate anode material) instead of the poor capacity graphite, so it promises high gravimetric energy density.

“It doesn’t require sophisticated packaging to hold the liquid electrolyte so it removes some additional materials that do not contribute to the cell performance, improving both the volumetric and gravimetric energy densities.

“Recycling should be considerably easier, and cost is potentially less, given that the liquid electrolyte salt is expensive.

“Progress over the past few years has been unexpectedly outstanding, even at the R&F level, and yet much needs to be discovered and scaled.

“The main challenges are maintaining a compatible and intimate inter-

face between the solid electrolyte and the electrodes over long-term cycling, as well as having high ion mobility throughout the cell at room temperature (and of course scale up).”

In September 2020, former Tesla engineer Gene Berdichevsky, now head of Sila Nanotechnologies, released a white paper dismissing SSBs as a ‘false hope’.

The paper outlined multiple technical difficulties facing the technology, including dendrite formation, issues with investment and the cost of scaling up manufacturing processes.

It also mentioned temperature and pressure sensitivity issues.

SSBs with ceramic electrolytes, for example, require high pressure to maintain contact with electrodes, and those with ceramic separators are prone to break from mechanical stress.

Some critics question claims that SSBs may prevent dendrite growth, a big problem for lithium-ion batteries.

Scalability remains, as always with new technology, a challenge. All current factories manufacturing lithiumion batteries may require different machinery, speciality equipment and operational procedures, meaning the cost could become prohibitive in large scale consumer-based applications.

In 2013, researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder announced they had developed a solid-state lithium battery with a solid composite cathode based on iron-sulfur chemistry.

The research team was eventu-

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021 • 37

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ally spun off to create Solid Power, a company now receiving millions in investment: in May, BMW and Source announced that, along with Volta Technologies, they were investing $130 million in Solid Power’s bid to create the first commercially successful solid-state battery.

The company’s chemistry is exclusively sulfide solid electrolytes which, says head of marketing Will Mckenna, should be as recyclable as today’s Liion batteries.

Greater energy density

“Solid Power has shown stable cycling near room temperature with both our high-content silicon all-solid-state cells and our lithium metal all-solid-state cells. Our silicon cells have demonstrated functionality down to -10°C.” Although its primary focus is on batteries for electric vehicles, the company says it is exploring the ESS market.

Solid Power claims that by combining its cathode with a lithium metal anode, its SSBs can deliver more than 50% more energy density compared to the best available rechargeable batteries.

“Solid Power has two vehicle integration programmes with BMW and Ford,” says McKenna. “We anticipate entering the formal automotive qualification phase in 2022 with a 100Ah all-solid-state cell.

“We anticipate a cell start of production in 2025, with a vehicle start of production in 2026.”

On June 15, 2021, materials technology company Umicore announced an equity investment following Solid Power’s move to become a publicly listed company.

The listing was enabled by Solid Power’s merger with Decarbonization Plus Acquisition Corporation III, and brings the company’s pro forma implied enterprise value to an estimated $1.2 billion.

“We believe that the battery of the future will be enabled by sulfide-based solid electrolyte materials and cell designs enabled by these electrolyte materials,” says Mckenna. “We expect solid-state batteries to initially start displacing conventional Li-ion in applications where mass and volume reduction are paramount, but the cost and safety advantages will also be attractive in market such as large-scale storage longer term.”

In 2018, Volkswagen invested $100 million in San Jose-based QuantumScape, a company producing data showing a battery that can charge to 80% capacity in 15 minutes, with

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EV manufacturers take on solid-state The EV market could be the first step in the chemistry’s transition to other sectors, but manufacturers are under pressure to push past the initial stages of research and present technology that can be applied commercially.

Several big names including Toyota, BMW, Honda and Nissan all hold SSB-related patents, and Volkwagen’s $100 million investment in 2018 made it the largest stakeholder alongside investor Bill Gates.

Toyota plans to unveil a prototype EV in 2021 powered by SSBs. It leads global patents in SSBs with more than 1,000, and plans to be the first company to have sold an SSB-powered EV in the early 2020s. The company has already revealed a production version of the nearly double the energy density of top commercial li-ion cells. The company claims the battery could retain more than 80% of capacity after 800 cycles, and, crucially, won’t catch fire.

QuantumScape’s results are based on a single cell and would need an engineering breakthrough to integrate multiple cells: however investors appear to be confident in the company’s potential, with Volkswagen announcing the second and final closing of investment, bringing the total to $200 million.

One of QuantumScape’s breakthroughs was finding a flexible ceramic separator that can act as a solid electrolyte. The lithium ions travel

world’s first fuel cell sports sedan and plans to adapt its e-TNGA platform to produce a prototype SUV with an SSB. Former Ford CEO and president Mark Fields is an investor and part of the advisory board of Massachusetts-based start-up Factorial Energy. The company claims to be at the manufacturing stage, but offers little else in terms of information on their technology other than to say their 40Ah cell allows for a 20-50% improvement on regular batteries.

Not all are continuing with the technology. American EV automaker Fisker claimed its SSB technology would be ready for production in 2023, but announced on February 26, 2021 it was completely dropping the endeavour. from the cathode and form a flat layer on the separator creating a temporary lithium anode, flowing back again as the battery discharges.

This means all the lithium is contributing to storing energy and boosting density.

In a joint venture with Volkswagen Group of America, QuantumScape has planned an SSB pilot-line facility.

Dubbed QS-1, the initial 1GWh of battery cell production is planned to expand by 20GWh. Solid Power anticipates entering a formal automotive qualification process by early 2022, and QuantumScape has scheduled mass production to begin in the second half of 2024.

Snapshot — two leading players • Hitachi Zosen Boasting one of the highest capacities in the industry at 1,000 mAh, and claiming the ability to operate under a larger range of temperatures, Japan’s Hitachi Zosen unveiled its battery tech at an exhibition in March 2021. It claims to have already begun production of a prototype and plans to double the cell’s capacity by 2025. In February 2021, the company announced an agreement with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to test the SSBs in powering camera equipment aboard the International Space Station.

• Samsung SDI In joint development projects with Samsung Advanced Institute of Tech and Samsung R&D Institute Japan, among others, South Korea’s Samsung SDI has been presenting SSB technology at exhibitions since 2013.

Research in March 2021 showed data supporting an SSB that can be charged and discharged more than 1,000 times with 800km of mileage on a single charge. The company acknowledges the obstacles in scaling up their results and says it is still at an early stage of development.

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The logic behind an LNMO cathode strategy The debate over what metals will be found in future generations of lithium battery cathodes continues given the constraints on availability and price. Research house IDTechEx gives its thoughts on what one carmaker is thinking about the future.

One interesting point during Volkswagen’s recent Power Day referred to its longterm strategy of employing high-manganese cathodes for their ‘volume segment’: a prominent role for a chemistry not currently in widespread use.

Improvements to energy density are unlikely using high-manganese cathodes, with motivation for developing these materials instead stemming from a desire to reduce cost and eliminate cobalt consumption.

But what does ‘high-manganese’ refer to, and how do they compare to other cathode materials?

‘High-manganese’ cathodes could refer to several different materials, and so it is unclear as to the specific material Volkswagen was referring to.

The options for highmanganese cathodes include LMO (lithium-manganese oxide), LNMO (lithiumnickel-manganese oxide), LiMn-rich (also abbreviated as LMR-NMC), and LMP

(lithium manganese phosphate) or LMFP (lithiummanganese-iron phosphate).

A comparison between NMC 811 and three highmanganese cathodes (LMFP, Li-Mn-rich, LNMO) shows that trade-offs in performance are always involved.

Delving deeper into each option can help provide some insight into what specific material might be being developed for use.

LMO (LiMn2O4): Firstly, commercially available high-manganese cathodes already exist in the form of the lithium-manganese oxide spinel, which was used for the first generation Nissan Leaf cars.

However, it suffers from accelerated degradation at elevated temperatures, which leads to poor cycle life, hence the replacement of LMO with NMC in subsequent Nissan Leaf generations.

With a theoretical capacity of only 148 mAh/g and an average discharge voltage of approximately 4.0-4.1V, l

Comparison between NMC 811 and three high-manganese cathodes (LMFP, Li-Mn-rich, LNMO).

Source: IDTechEx

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this cathode would lead to lower energy densities compared to cells using current state-of-the-art NMC or NCA layered oxides.

LMP (LiMnPO4) and LMFP (LiMnxFe1-xPO4): LMP shares the same olivine crystal structure as LFP but operates at a more positive voltage, increasing energy density.

Cycle life tends to be low, due to the high manganese content, while the material has poor electronic and ionic conductivity, meaning that reasonable capacities are generally only measured at low charge/discharge rates.

The addition of Fe to form LMFP can improve conductivity and cycle life but lowers the average voltage.

LMFP may bridge the gap between LFP and NMC/ NCA but the reversible capacities of LMP and LMFP are too low to reach the celllevel energy densities of cells using NMC/NCA. l

Li-Mn-rich (xLi2MnO3·(1where M = Ni, Mn, Co): The lithium-manganese rich, layered-oxide cathode is one of only a few options, alongside conversion type cathodes, that offer a capacity improvement over current state-of-the-art NMC and NCA materials.

However, stability and cycle life are poor and require considerable improvement before commercialization can be expected. BASF’s l

x)LiMO3

high manganese cathode, NCM 217, may refer to a Li-Mn-rich type material.

This leaves LNMO as the most likely cathode VW was referring to. The high-voltage LNMO spinel (LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4) operates at a voltage of approximately 4.7V vs Li/Li+ and also holds potential as a high-power cathode due to its three-dimensional structure (improving Li diffusion pathways).

However, its theoretical specific capacity is only 147 mAh/g, meaning it will not offer any advantage to specific energy or energy density over high-Ni NMC or NCA cathodes.

Furthermore, key issues with LNMO revolve around its low cycle life and poor stability, especially at elevated temperatures, while its high voltage also necessitates developments to electrolytes. As outlined

by Volkswagen itself, the use of high-manganese cathodes represents a long-term strategy.

Nevertheless, there is some commercial development of LNMO from the likes of Haldor Topsoe, NEI Corporation, and Targray.

The potential for cost reduction that the material holds, without significantly reducing energy density, added to the possibility of eliminating cobalt consumption, suggests there is a future for this chemistry.

Both nickel and cobalt intensity can be reduced by high manganese cathodes such as LNMO, offering a path to lower Li-ion battery costs.

Given the trade-off between cost and different performance metrics from different Li-ion cathodes, a range of cathode materials will have to be employed by the Li-ion industry. l

Further detail and analysis of Li-ion technology trends, and their impact on battery material demand forecasts, can be explored in IDTechEx’s reports Li-ion Batteries 2020-2030 and Materials for Electric Vehicle Battery Cells and Packs 2021-2031.

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021 • 39

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FORTHCOMING EVENTS

Disruption to the events programme As the summer conference season approached for the battery and energy storage industry, hosts and organizers were struggling to decide whether to go ahead with events that have been in the diary for months, if not years.

As this issue was released, and with the situation changing on an hourly basis, a variety of energy conferences and meetings had been postponed. While we have taken every effort to ensure these details are correct, please contact the conference organizers with any queries, or check websites throughout the listings.

PlugVolt Battery Seminar July 13 – 15 Plymouth, Michigan, US Rescheduled for Oct 5-7, 2021 NEW INFO See new date listing for full details

Intersolar North America July 13 – 16 Long Beach, California, US Rescheduled for Jan 13-15, 2022 NEW INFO See new date listing for full details

Battery Cells & Systems Expo and Conference July 7 – 8 Birmingham, UK Rescheduled for June 29-30, 2022 NEW INFO See new date listing for full details

International Flow Battery Forum July 7 – 9 V Virtual Symposium The International Flow Battery Forum summer symposium will cover all aspects of flow battery research, development, technology, manufacturing and commercialization.

The purpose of the International Flow Battery Forum is to raise the profile of flow batteries as a crucial technology within the electrical energy storage sector.

Electricity storage technologies are attracting increasing levels of interest, both from those who manage the world’s power systems and from those who invest in plant and equipment, manufacturing, project development and asset operation as well as those

who are end consumers of electrical power. There has been a notable growth in electrical energy storage, especially for battery-based systems. However, with a variety of battery technology types on offer to the market, it is vital to ensure that the benefits of flow battery systems are recognised and understood; and that purchasers and users of battery-based electrical energy storage technologies make wise choices in the market place.

We are pleased to offer a mix of topics ranging from the latest commercial developments in flow battery projects, supply of raw materials and components as well as the latest research from around the world for discussion in the conference. We have presentations on a range of chemistries and configurations, current and future applications as well as holding discussions on commercialisation and research and development priorities.

The Flow Batteries Association and FLORES project consortium will also join the IFBF. Contact Swanbarton Aud Heyden E: aud@swanbarton.com Tel: +44 1666 84 09 48 www.swanbarton.com

ees Europe + Power2drive July 21 – 23 Munich, Germany Rescheduled for Oct 6-8, 2021 NEW INFO See new date listing for full details

All Energy & Dcarbonise Summit August 18 – 19 Glasgow, Scotland Rescheduled for May 11-12, 2022 NEW INFO See new date listing for full details

Shanghai International Lithium Battery industry Fair — CNIBF August 25 – 27 Shanghai, China The Shanghai International Lithium Battery Industry Fair will be held at the Shanghai New International Expo Center, China. Exhibitions of new energy vehicles, super capacitors, charging equipment and energy storage will be held at the same time.

The show area is estimated to be 30,000 square metres, filled with more than 600 exhibitors from the whole industry chain showing their latest products and technology.

More than 100 visitor groups and 35,000 people are epected to visit the site with the purpose of buying, exchanging or communicating, as well as promoting industrial innovation and development.

Contact www.cnibf.net

Stay in, but stay informed: Many events are still being successfully hosted online.

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Shanghai, China

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021 • 41

FORTHCOMING EVENTS Intersolar Mexico September 7 – 9 Mexico City, Mexico After a successful debut in 2019, Intersolar Mexico now serves as the industry’s go-to source for invaluable technology trends and premier B2B contacts in the promising Mexican solar market.

Intersolar Mexico sits at the crosssection of photovoltaics, solar heating & cooling technologies and energy storage. Together, the two events will be the largest gathering of professionals in Mexico for international manufacturers and distributors looking to meet regional buyers in the fields of solar, renewable energy and cleantech.

More than 250 exhibitors and 13,000 visitors from more than 35 countries are expected to participate in this year’s events.

Contact Solar Promotion www.intersolar.mx/en/home.html

Mexico City

The Battery Show North America

International Congress for Battery Recycling — ICBR

September 14 – 16 Novi, Michigan, USA

September 22 – 24

The Battery Show connects you with more than 8,000 engineers and executives and more than 600 leading suppliers across the advanced battery supply chain.

A powerful, end-to-end showcase, this leading global industry event covers today’s emerging advanced battery technology for the automotive, portable electronics, medical technology, military and telecommunications, and utility and renewable energy support sectors.

Explore the full spectrum of cuttingedge solutions you need to make faster, smarter, and more cost-effective products at the most comprehensive industry event in North America.

Contact Informa Markets www.thebatteryshow.com

V Virtual Event ICBR is the international platform for presenting the latest developments and discussing the challenges faced by the battery recycling industry.

The 26th edition of ICBR will bring together many experts and decisionmakers of the battery recycling value chain such as battery manufacturers, battery recyclers, OEMs from the electronic and e-mobility industry, collection schemes operators, service and transport companies, policymakers and many more.

Contact ICM AG Susann Schmid www.icm.ch

Solar Power International — Smart Energy Week September 20 – 23 V Virtual Event + onsite SPI, ESI & North America Smart Energy Week is the largest event in North America for the renewable energy industry, including solar, storage, smart energy, wind, hydrogen & fuel cells, geothermal, and EV infrastructure.

Contact Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) www.solarpowerinternational.com

42 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021

Batteries Event September 29 – October 1 Lyon, France The Batteries Event was one of the only battery on-site events in the world in 2020. Batteries Event 2021 will again likely be one of the only opportunities to meet all the battery industry players: raw material suppliers, car manufacturers and cell manufacturers as well as the historical players will be in Lyon to explain their strategy and detail their roadmap.

The Batteries Event will cover all aspects of the circular economy value chain, starting from the production of the battery through raw materials, cell manufacturing, use and safety, management and applications, going through market trends, research and development, new technologies and finally closing the loop with a focus on recycling, second life and regulations.

International battery industry key players such as OEM, cell and pack manufacturers, end users, experts, researchers and recyclers will come together to discuss and exchange on new chemistries, manufacturing process, battery components, battery second life, recycling, regulation, future expectations and innovations..

Contact AVICENNE Energy www.batteriesevent.com

Lyon, France

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FORTHCOMING EVENTS PlugVolt Battery Seminar

ees South America

October 5 - 7 NEW DATE Plymouth, Michigan, US

October 18-20 São Paulo, Brazil

PlugVolt will be hosting Battery Seminar 2021 in Plymouth, MI (USA) featuring an entire day of in-depth technical tutorials presented by world renowned professors from top 50 US universities on Day 1, followed by Days 2 and 3 with industry subject matter experts presenting on automotive and stationary storage applications.

Attendees will also get an exclusive opportunity to tour A123 Systems’ new Novi, Michigan (USA) facility

With three parallel energy exhibitions, The Smarter=E South America is LATAM’s innovation hub for the new energy world. It takes a comprehensive approach to the topics of the energy system transformation by presenting cross-sector energy solutions and technologies.

The Smarter E South America creates opportunities to address all key areas along the value chain. Focusing on the generation, storage, distribution and use of energy and the ways in which these aspects interact and can be intelligently combined, The smarter E South America brings together international stakeholders of the energy future from across the world’s most influential markets.

Contact PlugVolt - JC Soman E: juratesoman@plugvolt.com www.bateryseminars.com

ees Europe + Power2drive October 6 - 8 NEW DATE Munich, Germany Discover future-ready solutions for renewable energy storage and advanced battery technology at ees Europe.

Europe’s largest, most international and most visited exhibition for batteries and energy storage systems is the industry hotspot for suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and users of stationary electrical energy storage solutions as well as battery systems.

In 2021, more than 450 suppliers of products for energy storage technology and systems will be present at ees Europe and the parallel exhibitions of the Smarter E Europe taking place in Munich.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a two-day energy storage conference where leading experts delve into current questions of this industry.

Contact Solar Promotion www.ees-europe.com/en/home

Battery Tech Expo October 17 – 19 Northampton, UK The battery industry is on the cusp of a power revolution with big technology companies investing heavily in the next generation of battery development and energy storage.

The event will provide a unique opportunity to showcase the latest products, technologies and services covering battery management systems, EV batteries, battery storage, battery development/ discovery, commercial and mobile power device sectors.

Contact 10FourMedia David Reeks E: david.reeks@10fourmedia.co.uk www.batterytechexpo.co.uk

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Contact Solar Promotion www.ees-southamerica.com/en/home

The Battery Technology Show October 26 – 27 Coventry, UK The Battery Technology Show will showcase the incredible developments happening across the battery and energy storage markets. If you are looking to keep up with the latest news in breakthrough technologies, gain invaluable insight from Key Players in the market, and discover the emerging technologies which are at the frontier of the energy revolution, this is the event for you.

Contact Evolve Media Group www.batterytechnologyshow.com

Asian Battery Conference — 19ABC November 2-5 V Virtual Event Designed for battery industry executives, customers, marketers, academia, researchers, sales teams, reseller networks and suppliers.

The Asian Battery Conference has a long and proud history of bringing together the world’s leading battery industry C-Level executives, marketers, technical staff and sales teams biennially to remain updated on new and emerging technologies, understand future directions, meet new suppliers, conduct business and network with industry peers.

An integral feature of the Asian Battery Conference is the exhibition.

A true international opportunity, the exhibition sees the world’s major battery companies come together to showcase their capabilities and leverage off the considerable business development and direct sales opportunities the Conference provides.

The Asian Battery Conference has seen tremendous growth since its inception in 1986, not only in terms of the size of the event but more importantly its ability to act as an educator and business development tool for all of the worlds key battery industry executives.

The importance of the Asian Battery Conference to the global battery industry can be best demonstrated by the successes of the past four Conferences.

Contact Conference Works E: events@conferenceworks.com.au www.asianbatteryconference.com

Battcon November 2 - 5 Hollywood, Florida. USA Now in it’s 24th year, Battcon is a high-energy mix of industry specific presentations, panels, seminars and workshops, plus a trade show.

More than 600 stationary battery users meet at Battcon for three days of professional development and networking with industry experts and peers. It’s a forum focusing on design, selection, application and maintenance for those in the data center, telecom and utility industries can learn from and network with industry experts.

Contact Vertiv Group E: Events@Battcon.com www.battcon.com

Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2021 • 43

FORTHCOMING EVENTS Advanced Automotive Battery Conference USA — AABC USA December 7 – 9 V Virtual Event + onsite

The Energy Management Exhibition — EMEX November 24 – 25 London, UK EMEX is the UK’s must-attend energy event for everyone wanting to increase their organization’s energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions Energy is a cost to most organizations that has grown as a proportion of overall expenditure in recent years.

And yet, there is considerable potential within most organizations to make large energy cost and carbon emission savings through the installation of energy efficiency measures.

EMEX connects all commercial energy consumers with leading experts, policy makers and suppliers. EMEX is more than just an event. It’s a platform where practitioners and experts from various backgrounds and sectors are coming together to share their knowledge and experiences from successful implementations of energy efficiency strategies.

Whatever the size of your business there is an opportunity to find more efficiency in your energy use.

Connect in-person and virtually with a global audience of battery technologists from leading automotive OEMs and their key suppliers for a must-attend three days exploring development trends and breakthrough technologies.

Contact Cambridge Enertech David Mello E: dmello@cambridgeinnovationinstitute.com www.advancedautobat.com/us/

The Smarter E India — ees India & Power2Drive December 14 - 16 Mumbai, India With three parallel energy exhibitions, The Smarter E India is India’s innovation hub for the new energy world.

It presents cross-sector energy solutions and technologies and reflects the interaction of the solar, energy storage and electric mobility industry.

The Smarter E India addresses all the key areas along the value chain and brings together local experts and international stakeholders in the energy future.

Contact Solar Promotion www.thesmartere.in/en/ees-india

Contact E: rr@emexlondon.com www.emexlondon.com

Intersolar North America

The Battery Show Europe

Intersolar North America and Energy Storage North America come together for the first time January 13 - 15, 2022, connecting installers, developers, utilities, technology providers, policy makers, and key stakeholders from around the world to advance the clean energy future.

As the first major solar + storage event of the year in North America, Intersolar North America highlights the latest energy technologies, services, companies, and organizations striving

November 30 – December 2 Stuttgart, Germany The Battery Show Europe, co-located with Electric & Hybrid Vehicle Technology Expo Europe, is the industry’s largest and fastest-growing trade fair for advanced battery and H/ EV technology.

400+ suppliers from across the battery supply chain, such as A123 Systems, CATL, Leclanché, Voltabox and Bosch Rexroth will display thousands of design, production and manufacturing solutions, including battery management systems, battery pack assemblers/ integrators, materials, components, research, testing and recycling.

This free trade fair is an opportunity to source the latest energy storage solutions to reduce costs and improve the performance of battery applications.

Contact Informa Markets E: thebatteryshowcs@informa.com www.thebatteryshow.eu

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January 13 - 15, 2022 NEW DATE Long Beach, California, US

to create positive impact on climate change and support our planet’s transition into a more sustainable energy future.

Contact Diversified Communications www.intersolar.us

All Energy & Dcarbonise Summit May 11 - 12, 2022 NEW DATE Glasgow, Scotland All-Energy takes pride in being the UK’s largest low carbon energy and full supply chain renewables event for private and public sector energy end users. Each year, we connect suppliers of renewable and low carbon energy solutions and policy makers to developers, investors and buyers from around the world to discuss new technologies, and blow us in the right direction to tackle the biggest challenges of our time.

Contact Reed Exhibitions E: EnquiryREC@reedexpo.co.uk www.all-energy.co.uk

Battery Cells & Systems Expo and Conference June 29 - 30, 2022 Birmingham, UK

NEW DATE

Battery Cells & Systems Expo will bring together automotive manufacturers, electric utilities, battery system integrators, cell manufacturers and the entire manufacturing supply chain. A truly unique showcase, companies from around the world will use the show to launch products and demonstrate their technology to an audience of over 4,000 professionals.

Co-located with Vehicle Electrification Expo and The Advanced Materials Show, this will be a highly concentrated two days of networking, lead generation and education featuring the leaders and innovators responsible for shaping the future of this industry.

Contact Event Partners www.batterysystemsexpo.com

Birmingham, UK

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