Batteries International issue 108 by hamptonhalls

Issue 108

Summer 2018

The next revolution

A new generation of female leadership gets set to emerge Meet Brian Wilson: Troubleshooter extraordinaire for the lead industry

Virtual power plants: the new nexus of renewables, grids, energy storage

Bringing the industry together

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CONTENTS COVER STORY

A CELEBRATION OF WOMEN IN OUR INDUSTRY The role of women in the lead battery business has changed extensively. Relics of a male-dominated industry may remain, but it’s time now to welcome the next generation of leadership — a younger one, and a more female one.

Virginia Archibald — When a condescending conversation speaks volumes Claire Sereiko, Pam O’Brien — New generation redressing the balance Dianne Dickey — “Still learning, still challenged … but loving it” Lisa Dry — Why an even-handed approach works Mary Hendriks — Women, it’s time to speak up and own your ideas! Hiroko Kawai —Being a woman was just the second obstacle to hurdle Carole Lainé — Lead battery industry isn’t so sexy Claudia Lorenzini — Commitment to the essentials: work and family Julie McClure — From English teacher to MAC president Sally Miksiewicz — The creation of a well grounded CEO Donna Snyder —Industry leadership key to diversity Tammy Stankey — Viewpoint Jan Zogmaister —The changing landscape of industrial employment

EDITORIAL 4 Editor Vs Publisher PEOPLE NEWS

MAC Engineering make series of management changes • East Penn appoints Weeber as new chief financial officer • Johnson Controls elects new board member Jean Blackwell • Brazilian World Cup star Neymar re-emerges as face of Heliar Battery • TBS celebrates opening new facility on 50th anniversary • DBS Leoch appoints new head of renewable energy storage • Digatron joins ALABC • Aqua Metals appoints Frank Knuettel as CFO • Digatron appoints Mohajer head of US West Coast sales • Alex Fossemò takes sabbatical break from Sovema and battery business

Weeber: new East Penn CFO

NEWS 13 Exide Industries moves into lithium with Leclanché in a joint venture • ArcActive partners to provide carbon fibre for East Penn’s battery electrodes • EnerSys launches wireless forklift • Lead REACH Consortium slams ECHA for backward, inconsistent approach to batteries • UK industry leader calls urgent meeting, attacks ‘fudged’ battery recycling figures • Gridtential wins BCI innovation award • Exide aims to cement motive power position with Aker Wade buy out • Amara Raja, Gravita sign recycling deal • RSR and East Penn sign three-year extension to R&D agreement with Argonne • Lead recycling plants for Nigeria look for boom in coming years • Lead acid mini-grids the way forward for Africa • ALABC joins European energy storage group NEWS VIEWPOINTS

• ‘Countless piles of dead batteries littering Africa?’ Ridiculous says recycling expert — Brian Wilson • BCI says California energy and environmental policy should boost innovation, not hinder it — Kevin Moran, BCI • The rise and rise of utility storage — Jim Greenberger, NAATBatt

27 29

ENERGY STORAGE NEWS

World’s first large-scale LAES plant to test grid-scale abilities in the UK • UK first as hydro paired with BESS for grid services • Ørsted to develop 800MW wind farm and 55MW/110MWh storage • Nevada utility announces biggest deployment of ESSs to date • California ratifies SDGE plans for 88MW • Viridity signs deal for 40MW ESS • Flood of energy storage projects as Australia takes world leader position

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Moran: Californian policyheading in wrong direction

Greenberger: debate opens up over lithium vs flow batteries 29

Batteries International • Summer 2018 • 1

CONTENTS ENERGY STORAGE NEWS VIEWPOINT Education key to boosting deployment of ESS in US — Ani Backa Battery storage will be insufficient to meet low carbon future — Nigel Holmes, SFCHA FLOW BATTERY NEWS Redflow batteries chosen over lead and lithium to power Fiji’s digital TV rollout • Name change signals vertical integration goal after VRFB buy out • Next phase of Pacific Northwest National Lab’s VRFB electrolyte trials starts after initial success Virtual power plants: the nexus of renewables and the grid 90

36 38 40

FINANCE NEWS 41 World’s first large-scale storage investment fund opens in UK • Leclanché secures possible $125m to boost global market ambitions • Sonnen closes $71m funding round led by Shell Ventures • Sembcorp Industries acquisition paves way for 120MW energy storage portfolio • BP/Lightsource partnership moves into smart home market, acquires Ubiworx PROFILE: BRIAN WILSON 70 For the past 20 years Brian Wilson has criss-crossed the developing world advising and helping battery manufacturers and recyclers manage lead batteries in an environmentally sustainable way

Brian Wilson — troubleshooter extraordinarire for lead 70

MONETIZING ENERGY STORAGE

VIRTUAL POWER PLANTS The next generation of electricity delivery — theoretically without power plants — is just round the corner Coming soon to a grid near you… Artificial intelligence— the next weapon in the smart grid armoury Changing information from data … to power

90 99 104

EVENT REVIEWS EUROBAT • All Energy 2018 • The Battery Show Europe • The Smarter E Events reviews 105

105

EVENTS 112 Our comprehensive listing of industry events BATTERY HEROES, CRAIG BOREIKO Toxicology and the art of the possible

The Great BCI Hand-Over 128

122

THE LAST WORD 126 ‘I only agreed to the promotion if they let me go to BCI one last time’ • What’s in a job title? • Best present of the show • Vienna or bust! • From Russia with love • “It’s a tough life but someone’s got to go to Bali”• Roadrunner rools? Meep Meep! • Join us for a hearty intellectual debate … • Always good to have an expert at hand • Women? Can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em

Publisher Karen Hampton, karen@batteriesinternational.com, +44 7792 852 337

Business development manager June Moultrie june@batteriesinternational.com +44 7775 710 290

Editor: Michael Halls, editor@batteriesinternational.com, +44 1 243 782 275

Reception Tel: +44 1 243 782 275 Fax: +44 1787 329 730

Advertising executive: Jade Beevor jade@energystoragejournal.com +44 1243 792 467

Subscriptions, admin manager: Claire Ronnie, subscriptions@batteriesinternational.com admin@batteriesinternational.com +44 1 243 782 275

Supplements editor: Wyn Jenkins, wyn.jenkins@serenglobalmedia.com, +44 1792 293 222

Asia editor Debbie Mason debbie@batteriesinternational.com

Staff reporters: Philip Moorcroft, Jim Smith Production/design: Antony Parselle, aparselledesign@me.com +44 1727 811 842 International advertising representation: advertising@batteriesinternational.com The contents of this publication are protected by copyright. No unauthorized translation or reproduction is permitted. ISSN 1462-6322 (c) 2018 Mustard Seed Publishing, UK company no: 5976361. Printed in the UK via ThisismethodUK

Disclaimer: Although we believe in the accuracy and completeness of the information contained in this magazine, Mustard Seed Publishing makes no warranties or representation about this. Nor should anything contained within it should be construed as constituting an offer to buy or sell securities, or constitute advice in relation to the buying or selling of investments.

2 • Batteries International • Summer 2018

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EDITORIAL Mike Halls • editor@batteriesinternational.com

A silent but welcome management revolution Question: How many feminists does it take to change a light-bulb?

Answer: One. And it’s NOT funny. The humour of the joke, which dates back to the early 70s, depends on the image of grim, stereotyped feminists as being too serious for their own good … they can’t even laugh at a light bulb joke. The trouble with this is that many women are still disadvantaged in industry in countless ways. And what really is so wrong about being serious about gender inequality? Although most of us think that this kind of discrimination is generally (nowadays) a thing of the past — and change may be slow but things are getting better.

And almost certainly the solution finders will be women not men. That seems to be the way it’s happened in the past with all kinds of people that have been discriminated — think apartheid or gay rights. Don’t think that I’m reneging on my responsibilities to behave in a fair and just way. As a company we won’t tolerate sexist behaviour in the workplace, nor would I dream about discriminating on pay or opportunities by gender. If support is needed I’ll give it to any and everyone. The upcoming generation of millennials — those born from the early 1980s onwards — will present the solution to gender disparities themselves. The younger women that I’m meeting now have ambitions far higher than those of my generation as a ‘baby boomer’.

But that isn’t quite the case.

Across Europe we’re seeing a generation of smarter, better education, better motivated people than men. Why should one recruit the less talented?

According to the OECD, an international organization that could hardly be accused of being left-of-centre pay equality is a long way off in the west.

We’re aware that some of the prejudices run deep. And this is where I believe where men in managerial roles can clearly help in ensuring that lines aren’t crossed.

It reckons that it could take up to 100 years for pay equality in the US and anywhere over a century for Germany or South Korea. (Coincidentally, three of the most important battery producers in the world!)

A previous employee of this publishing house once sent me an e-mail saying that he would never accept taking an order from a woman. This creates an unusual problem — you can get rid of an employee for being uncooperative with other staff, but you can’t fire them for simply being a sexist! Or just stupid. That said, you can tell them it’s unacceptable.

In the US, for example, a survey last year showed that the average male CEO earned $25,000 more each year than his female counterpart. For most men in business — I include myself here — we don’t approve of this situation. We’re reasonable, mostly rational, people and from a generation that understands that to look down on women is archaic and frankly rather stupid. So we understand that this is a form of injustice. But we do tend to look on it — and we don’t mean this nastily — as Someone Else’s Problem. And that means, of course, that Someone Else is going to have to solve it. 4 • Batteries International • Summer 2018

Part of the associated dilemma is that attitudes take time to change. And stereotypes have to change too. So I truly welcome the next generation of female leadership that is emerging. Some women believe that men and women are intellectually different. I don’t. To me it’s a myth that men are focused and women can multitask. As my partner at home will happily tell you, I’m perfectly capable of drinking beer and watching a TV football match … ALL at the same time.

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EDITORIAL Karen Hampton • publisher@batteriesinternational.com

Persistence, thick-skin and determination ... Question: How many men does it take to change a light-bulb?

Answer: We just don’t care. And while men find humour in that out dated joke, (yawn), we women have more important concerns. How do we run the world and continue to let men think they are? Seriously, men and many women, I’m told, think that the ‘natural order of things’ is men provide and women support, encourage and keep house. Well that wasn’t even true in my mother’s day. She bought the family home. She was the breadwinner. And she showed me what a women could and should be. Men may find that a challenge and in some cases downright frightening — but to my mind, that is the natural order of things. One ‘boss’ — that’s what he liked to be called — thought he was besmirching my character when he said ‘You’re like an Alpha male!” Well, someone has to be… I remember the day I passed my outlook on life, as a single woman, down to my daughter. I had a new dishwasher delivered and she couldn’t understand why I didn’t ‘get a man round to fit it in’. I couldn’t work out how to fix it to the drain but four hours later with my back breaking, I finally opened the dishwasher door and found all the connections I needed to fit it and the manual. And so one wise lesson was learnt. We didn’t have to ‘get a man in’ for everything. And I learned a most valuable lesson — RTFM — Read The Flipping Manual! There have been many times in my professional life when men have tried to dismiss, disregard and demoralize me — I assume, solely because of my gender. www.batteriesinternational.com

But there have also been just as many men who have tried to help and push me in the right direction, too. One such man, Gary Pryor, manager and mentor, once told me “as a women you’ll have to work twice as hard to get half as much recognition”. Thirty years on, it’s still true. The flip side? One employer replaced me, introducing him as ‘the new Karen, all we did was put a brain in there and cut the ‘chesticles’ off’. More fool him. Similarly, a good friend of mine at a conference was being ignored by a smarmy male, who directed all his comments to the man next to her. ‘Don’t interrupt,” he said to her. “I need to talk to the person who signs the cheques.” She coughed. Lesson not learned that day was, don’t ignore the president of the company — yes she signed the cheques. Whether they try to hold you back or try to help push you forward, we are still thought of as different. And thank goodness for that! We wouldn’t have it any other way. I disagree with Mike when he says that pay inequality isn’t a man’s problem; it’s like saying homelessness should be solved by the homeless and starvation can only be solved by the hungry. If you contributed to the problem you better be part of the solution. The ladies in our cover story have the answer — they have worked their way up and are now at the top of their game. And while I don’t agree that we should promote women just for being a woman — I do think that each and every one should be given a level playing field to start with. Explaining this editorial to my 11-year-old granddaughter, I told Gracie it was about pay inequality and her question is “Why? Why do we get paid less than men? Do we do less work?” Out of the mouths of babes …. Batteries International • Summer 2018 • 5

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PEOPLE NEWS

MAC Engineering make series of management changes Battery equipment maker MAC Engineering has announced a raft of management changes that will take effect on September 1. Current president Julie McClure will become chairman after 25 years

with the company, she takes over from Mike Tole who is retiring. McClure will oversee all aspects of the company, Douglas Bornas, who is executive vice president, becomes president. He has been

with MAC since 1997, mainly running the sales department and coordinating the firm’s sales offices around the world. Vice president of operations Daniel Duffield will become executive vice president. He has been

with the company even longer than McClure and Bornas, joining in 1984 and working in engineering, field service, sales and operations. He will oversee all daily aspects of the plant and engineering groups. Director of sales Thomas Isbrecht has been promoted to senior director of sales. He is the most recent arrival at MAC, joining in 2014.

New positions: (from left to right): Julie McClure, chairman. Douglas Bornas, president. Daniel Duffield, executive president. Thomas Isbrecht: senior director of sales

East Penn appoints Weeber as new chief financial officer East Penn promoted Christy Weeber as chief financial officer on June 1. Weeber, who was previously senior vice president of finance, will oversee all financial aspects of the company, the company said. “She has been instrumental in supporting and sustaining the company’s financial structure as well as developing new ways to bring efficiencies to its operations,” a statement said. Weeber joined East Penn in 2011

as manager of internal audit after 11 years with KPMG as audit senior manager. This is the third senior appointment this year. In March, Norbert Maleschitz joined as senior vice president of technology and innovation. In January, Chris Pruitt was appointed CEO when Dan Langdon retired after 32 years with the firm. Pruitt became CFO at the firm in 1999.

Brazilian World Cup star Neymar re-emerges as face of Heliar Battery Nothing was immune to the hype around the World Cup this June, including batteries — with Brazilian

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footballer Neymar being plugged once more as the face of the Heliar brand ahead of the matches. Heliar is made by Johnson Controls and was the first lead-acid automotive battery produced in Brazil. The 26-year-old forward, whose full name is Neymar da Silva Santos Junior, has been the Brazilian battery brand’s ambassador since 2012. “Heliar is a very traditional brand

in Brazil, it was the first battery in Brazil and is almost 90 years old,” said Kari Pfisterer, director of external communications at Johnson Controls Power Solutions. “Heliar has a complete portfolio with automotive, motorcycle and heavy duty batteries. Neymar Junior’s personality very much aligns with the brand personality, which has the slogan ‘Way beyond the start’ – start also means ‘game’ in Portuguese.”

Batteries International • Summer 2018 • 9

PEOPLE NEWS

Johnson Controls elects new board member Jean Blackwell

Battery giant Johnson Controls elected Jean Blackwell (pictured above), the former CEO of Cummins Foundation, on to the board of directors on June 13. The foundation is the charity wing of the power company Cummins. Blackwell was also executive vice

president of corporate responsibility with the foundation. She joined Cummins in 1997, where she worked in various senior positions, including that of chief financial officer. Before that she was a partner with the law firm Bose McKinney & Evans. Chairman and CEO of JCI George Oliver said Blackwell’s experience in global functions would enable her to provide strong leadership on the board of directors. Blackwell is the third director to move on to the board in the last six months. She joins Simone Menne, former chief financial officer of Boehringer Ingelheim, and Gretchen Haggerty, former executive vice president and chief financial officer at United States Steel Corporation. Meanwhile, Johnson Controls has

TBS celebrates opening new facility on 50th anniversary TBS Engineering, the lead acid battery assembly and plate manufacturing equipment maker, celebrated its 50th anniversary by opening a £15 million ($20m) facility at its headquarters in Gloucestershire, UK on June 8. The 30,500m2 facility comprises 24,000 m2 of manufacturing space with the rest being offices. All of the machines, tooling and spare parts will be manufactured in the new facility from August 1, with the first begun last week, as the transition takes place across from the

existing facility. “The £15m investment in the new facility is testament to our confidence in the worldwide market for the lead battery, which is predicted to increase by 7.14% (CAGR) by 2020,” managing director David Longney told Batteries International. “It plays a vital role in powering everyday lives and will do for many years to come. As one of the most recycled products on the planet, it has sustainability credentials that other chemistries simply can’t achieve today – messages we look forward to promoting in our forthcoming ‘Positively Charged’ thought leadership campaign. “This marks the start of another exciting era for us developing the latest innovations in world leading lead acid battery assembly equipment for our customers.” TBS has operations in China, the US and Canada as well as the UK. It has an annual turnover of £50 million.

Tom Valvo, MiTek Industries chief Operating Officer cuts the ribbon at the opening From left to right: Viv Empson, TBS Group Finance and HR director, Tom Valvo, MiTek Industries chief operating officer, and David Longney, TBS Group managing director.

10 • Batteries International • Summer 2018

still not announced what it intends to do with its Power Solutions segment, the battery-manufacturing part of the group’s business. In March it confirmed it was “exploring strategic alternatives over the next few months”.

Aqua Metals appoints Frank Knuettel as CFO

For the record lead battery recycling firm Aqua Metals announced the appointment of Frank Knuettel as chief financial officer on April 12, to replace Thomas Murphy, who became interim CFO after the departure of Mark Weinswig in March. Knuettel joins the company full-time on April 16. Knuettel has held several CFO posts before, including his last one with intellectual property services group Marathon Patent Group. “Frank has exceptional financial and operational experience in growing businesses as well as investor relations and SEC expertise,” said Vincent Divito, independent director and chair of the audit committee. “I want to thank Thomas Murphy for stepping out of retirement and being our interim CFO.” Aqua Metals has been undergoing several management changes in recent weeks, with the most recent being the announcement on March 27 that CEO Steve Clarke was going to be ‘transitioned’.

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PEOPLE NEWS Digatron appoints Mohajer head of US West Coast sales Christopher Mohajer joined Digatron Power Electronics in April where to head West Coast Sales, USA in May. He will be located in California and have primary responsibility for all sales activities on the coast. He will also travel to his home state of Texas. He comes from Houston. Mohajer previously spent almost four and half years with the California Clean Energy Fund (CalCEF) as an associate where he held participated or managed a number of programs including the creation of the clean energy consortium CalCharge and then recruiting membership. “His knowledge of the advanced energy storage market in California and particularly the Bay Area includes cell designers, those building stationary storage, contract pack builders and now quickly the electric vehicle companies,” said vice president of US sales Nick Hennen.

DBS Leoch appoints new head of renewable energy storage

UK battery specialist DBS Leoch has appointed David Craig as head of renewable energy storage, on May 31. Craig has worked in the renewable energy storage sector for 16 years, for the past decade at Delta Electronics Europe, where he worked as a senior sales manager responsible for EV charging systems, battery storage systems and microgrids. “It’s pretty exciting stuff now with the market and with the new products out there and the potential in the UK is huge,” Craig told Batteries International. “We are working on behind-thewww.batteriesinternational.com

meter systems and renewables, soaking up the excess from wind and solar, as well as peak shaving and grid services. “With chemistries, there’s no one size fits all. We are certainly looking at lead, but lithium is increasingly going to take a share because of the power demands on the batteries that are needed. “There is a desire to grow fairly rapidly.” DBS Leoch changed its name in January from DBS Energy, after it received a large amount of investment from the Chinese batterymaking giant Leoch, which makes all categories of lead batteries for all kinds of applications. DBS Leoch managing director Henry James said there was huge potential from renewables and energy storage markets.

Digatron joins ALABC Digatron Power Electronics has joined the Advanced Lead Acid Battery Consortium. Digatron manufactures and develops computer controlled test and formation equipment for a wide range of batteries. It is headquartered in Germany but has offices in the US, China and India. The ALABC is an international pre-competitive research and development grouping charged with exploring the capabilities of the lead acid battery to ensure its competitiveness in various energy storage markets. “This continues the excellent member sign up for our current program, with our membership now comprising more than 90 members globally,” said an ALABC spokesperson. The ALABC is managed by the International Lead Association.

Alistair Davidson, ALABC; Andy Bush, ILA; Kevin Campbell, CEO Digatron; and Boris Monahov, ALABC.

Alex Fossemò takes sabbatical break from Sovema and battery business

Sovema Group has announced that Alessandro Fossemò, general manager of Sovema Global Services (SGS), stepped down from his position at the end of May to take a one-year sabbatical break from the business. With Fossemò’s departure Sovema Group has decided to manage the North American market with a reinforced team, tailored to its specific needs, which includes Terry Hartman, who will take responsibility for managing the sales of all brands, Cindy Gravley, sales back office, and three sales area managers of proven experience and competence in each specific brand: Michele Dorigotti for Sovema (leadacid battery equipment), Michele Bonizzato for Solith (lihium-ion cell and battery equipment), and Roberto Vecchia for Sovel (power electronics equipment). “On behalf of Sovema Group, I would like to thank Fossemò for his work during his tenure with the company and wish him all the best for his future career. At the same time, I’d like to stress the strategic importance of the North American market for our business and the key role that SGS plays in it,” said Marcello Fantoni, sales director of Sovema Group. “We’ve moved beyond simply offering lead-acid battery manufacturing equipment to propose — in addition to it — our lithium-ion product range and power electronics solutions branded, respectively, Solith and Sovel,” “I’ve had a fabulous time with the company and together we’ve done great things. Sovema Group is a world-class company and I am honoured to have worked with them,” said Fossemò.

Batteries International • Summer 2018 • 11

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NEWS

Exide Industries moves into lithium with Leclanché in a joint venture India’s largest lead battery maker, Exide Industries, signed a joint venture with the Swiss lithium ion battery maker Leclanché on June 28 in a move that will add the battery chemistry to the Indian firm’s portfolio. The JV, which will be 75% under Exide’s control, will enable lithium cells, modules and battery packs to be manufactured in the state of Gujarat by the second quarter of 2019. A Li-ion cell production plant will begin operating mid 2020, the firms said. Gautam Chatterjee, managing director and CEO of Exide Industries (pictured signing, right) said the firm was responding to Indian government policies. “Since the government is focusing on the electric vehicle industry we thought to stay relevant we should go into this,” he told Batteries International.

“We were looking for a company to help develop this and chose Leclanché to work with. Initially it will be limited to buses and two and three wheelers, but gradually this will expand and include all kinds of cars.” “The JV will focus on e-transport, stationary energy storage systems and speciality storage markets. In e-transport, the target segment is fleet vehicles including e-buses, e-wheelers and e-rickshaws.” The JV will also provide energy storage systems for India’s EV market and gridbased applications. “This ideally complements 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,” said

Chatterjee. Leclanché CEO Anil Srivastava (pictured signing, left) said India was expected to be one of the world’s largest and fastest growing markets for EVs. “The JV will provide Leclanché with giga-scale procurement volumes, which will help reduce costs and increase recurring annuity revenues, generat-

German research group partners Exide Technologies on additive testing Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute in Bavaria, Germany are working in partnership with Exide Technologies’ German arm on new additives for leadacid batteries, the group announced on May 14. Prompted by new German energy policy, which is making fresh demands on electrochemical storage systems, the group has identified four key areas in which to make improvements: sustainable production, changing behaviour, life time and power density. Named the AddESun project, a consortium from industry and research has been formed and one of them, the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research, has been assigned the task

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of focusing on additives and their effects on battery properties. Information obtained will synthesize new materials or optimize old ones in a systematic approach intended to improve service life and augment energy density by up to 30%, the researchers said.

“Our task within the AddEsun project is to investigate the correlation between the chemical and physical structure of the additives and to understand what part they play within a battery,” said project leader Jochen Settelein. “Special attention will be paid to the effect of ad-

ing recurring stable revenue growth for the company,” he said. India is the fifth largest car market in the world, and is expected to enter the top three in the very near future, with 600 million vehicles likely to hit the streets by 2030 — some 40% of these are likely to be electric, according to some analysts. ditives on a battery’s mechanical stability, conductivity and on the porosity of the active mass.” The €3.4 million ($3.9 million) project has been 60% funded by the German government (Federal Ministry of Education and Research) and will continue for three years. Other partners in the project include Evonik Resource Efficiency, Penox and SGL Carbon.

Exide Industries buys Exide Technologies’ Tudor India At the end of June, Exide signed an agreement to buy a closed-down factory belonging to lead acid battery manufacturer Tudor India, the Indian arm of the US company Exide Technologies. This May, the Indian firm settled an argument with Exide Technologies

over the use of the Exide trademark in India. After 19 years of legal battles, the US firm finally gave up its claim to the trademark — and the sale of the factory marks the end of Exide’s production in India. Exide Technologies director of corporate communications Melissa

Floyd told Batteries International: “Exide Technologies has been in the process of winding down its manufacturing operations in India for some time. The sale of assets in India is a result of the company’s decision to cease direct production in India.”

Batteries International • Summer 2018 • 13

NEWS

ArcActive partners East Penn to provide carbon fibre for new battery electrodes East Penn Manufacturing has entered into a partnership with the carbon fibre technology company ArcActive to produce batteries with new electrodes that could mean world-leading levels of dynamic charge acceptance, the firms announced on May 10. ArcActive managing director Stuart McKenzie told Batteries International on May 22 that the deal could change the future of lead batteries and not just in automotive applications. This is because increased DCA means batteries would be able to operate in partial state of charge without resulting degradation, making them perfect for renewable energy storage. ArcActive, based in Christchurch, New Zealand, has been working on its carbon fibre electrode technology for seven years. McKenzie said the firm had been talking to East Penn about it since 2012 before the partnership was officially agreed a couple of months ago.

Now the deal has been struck, ArcActive will supply East Penn with carbon fibre that will be added to East Penn’s battery electrodes. “Lead batteries have always had the issue of low DCA and we have been working to help car companies improve fuel efficiency and CO2 emissions,” he said. “It has been incredibly hard to improve DCA without causing problems in other areas — for example water consumption — but now we have made these big improvements and it’s not just going to mean opportunities for automotive, it’s going to open up opportunities for any partial state of charge application. “There is a trade-off, however — the electrodes can’t be made with traditional processes. “It has taken seven years to develop a process for getting the paste on to the fabric, but it can be done quickly and smoothly now. “I can’t see an argument that says lithium would make more sense than lead

in these applications. “I don’t think we have appreciated how valuable lead capacity actually is, and lead has now got these amazing opportunities.” East Penn chief operations officer Bob Flicker said the agreement would allow East Penn to scale up the manufacture and testing of batteries with the electrodes. “New applications require better cycling performance and charge efficiency from their batteries. As time progresses, these functional demands will continue to increase. Integrating the ArcActive electrode into an existing lead battery technology has the potential to significantly increase the efficiency of the battery’s cycling capabilities,” he said. “This will be especially beneficial to applications that require the battery to perform while partially

charged, such as hybrid electric vehicles, renewable energy generation, energy storage and motive power equipment. “Lead battery technology has so many advantages when it comes to its recyclability, affordability and safety; and we are continually seeing advancements on the efficiency of its charging, or Dynamic Charge Acceptance (DCA). “By improving a lead battery’s DCA with ArcActive technology, you can even further expand its role as applications continue to evolve and demand more efficient cycling at a partial state of charge. “The innovative way this electrode could be combined with other advanced battery designs could result in a new type of lead battery with substantially increased performance.”

The agreement would allow East Penn to scale up the manufacture and testing of batteries with the electrodes

EnerSys launches wireless forklift Battery maker EnerSys has launched a wireless monitoring device that helps forklift truck operators reduce costs, the firm said on July 3. The Wi-iQ3 is the latest in the firm’s series of battery monitoring devices for motive power batteries, which enable electric warehouse vehicles to optimize battery management, reduce the number of battery recharges or changes and maximize each truck’s uptime and productivity. “While retaining all these benefits, the new Wi-iQ3, in combination with the Xinx cloud-based battery operations management system,

has evolved from a monitoring device into an active IoT gateway that gives users a deeper insight into their battery fleet and its status,” a company spokesperson said. This step change has been facilitated partly by the latest sensor, communications and computer technology, but also by analytics software that presents real-time data to both truck drivers and managers in an easily understood and actionable form. “Warehouse managers could reduce their battery fleet’s total cost of ownership if only they had adequate and timely information. This can facilitate

14 • Batteries International • Summer 2018

smarter and more effective utilization of battery fleets, less down-time for trucks, less time spent on battery changes and better asset management,” said Orjan Eriksson, commercial application manager for monitoring and solutions, EnerSys EMEA. “With its Bluetooth wireless networking capabilities, four times the memory capacity of Wi-iQ2 and our new Wi-iQ report suite software, the Wi-iQ3 delivers this information by making better use of available data,” he said. The software interprets and presents the data which, in combination with the

Xinx cloud-based battery operations management system, provide actionable recommendations for entire fleets or single batteries in more detail. The Wi-iQ3 can also become an active part of a fleet management system both through CANBUS or the Xinx EnerSys cloud-based battery operations management system, enabling users to obtain enhanced information remotely. An optional TruckiQ device will show real time data for battery status, alarms, remaining autonomy and action required, all presented in a familiar smartphone format.

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NEWS

Lead REACH Consortium slams ECHA for backward, inconsistent approach to batteries A consortium of battery makers, lead producers and lead recyclers has criticized the European Chemicals Agency’s June 27 decision to put lead on its Candidate List of Substances of Very High Concern. The Lead REACH Consortium, under the ILA and led by Lisa Allen, says the move is a backwards step and inconsistent with the EU Commission’s mobility and decarbonization plans. “Less than a month after the Commission launched a plan to create a competitive and sustainable battery manufacturing industry in Europe, another part of the organization is moving to ban a key substance in battery manufacturing — one that is already subject to stringent EU legislation

governing its use and one that is not accessible to consumers as batteries are sealed units,” said Lisa Allen, head of the consortium. “By doing this the regulators are effectively shortcircuiting the EC’s battery action plan.” “The ECHA has an obligation to regularly prioritize substances included in the Candidate List,” said a spokesperson with the ECHA. “The potential priority of lead will be for the first time assessed in the context of the ECHA’s 10th Recommendation, which will start in the latter part of 2019. “The next step will be that ECHA will recommend the prioritized substances to be added to the actual REACH authorization list.

“In the last step of the authorization process, if the EC agrees to amend the legislation and include the substance in the authorization list, then a sunset date will be given to each substance after which continued use in EU will require an authorization.” The decision echoes authorities in California, who laid out a work plan in December to explore whether they should add lead to their list of ‘Priority Products’, a move that would mean similar implications for companies using the metal. A decision as to whether lead will be added will be made by the end of 2020. “We urgently need a more coherent plan to prevent this kind of disjointed policy-making. It is dam-

aging for industry and its damaging for consumers. It also makes attempts to decarbonize the economy and boost electrification that much more difficult,” said Allen. “Some member states involved in the decision to add lead metal to the candidate list are rightly questioning whether future REACH authorization of lead metal is proportionate when considering the plethora of existing and longstanding EU regulation that already exists to control exposure and use of lead. “The EC must urgently find a more appropriate mechanism to address any residual exposure concerns because REACH authorization is clearly counterproductive.”

UK industry leader calls urgent meeting, attacks ‘fudged’ battery recycling figures Greg Clementson, managing director of used battery collection firm G&P Batteries (part of Ecobat), on June 20 called for an urgent meeting of stakeholders to discuss the ‘fudging’ of portable battery recycling figures in the UK. His calls come after the UK missed its EU directive target for the second year running. And although this was by less than 1%, the true figure could be much worse, he says. Figures from the Environment Agency’s National Packaging Waste Database show that in 2017, 39,471 tonnes of portable batteries were placed on the market,

with compliance schemes reporting the collection of 17,427 tonnes — 44.15%. The UK’s target is 45%. A 2016 EU directive changed the weight threshold of portable lead batteries to be less than 4kg from the previous 10kg — which should have meant that even fewer lead batteries were included in the mix. Yet this is not what the Environment Agency’s figures show. They claim that 9,520 tonnes of lead batteries were collected in 2017, with 1,701 placed on the market — a collection rate of more than 560%. “And this has been the story for the past five or six

years, which is incredible,” said Clementson. “G&P believes that this is creating a false impression of the UK’s portable battery recycling track record. “We are the biggest player in the market, but we are not seeing these figures. We collect 50%-60% of the UK’s used batteries, and perhaps 20% of that is lead batteries.” The collection of other battery chemistries, which the directive had aimed to address, had actually dropped by 3%, he said. “The legislation was designed to encourage greater recycling of all battery

“The reality is that this country is clearly under performing when it comes to waste battery collection and is sidestepping its obligations by apparently fudging the figures” Greg Clementson, managing director, G&P Batteries 16 • Batteries International • Summer 2018

types and the Environment Agency figures clearly demonstrate that we are actually collecting fewer batteries of other chemistries rather than more. “The reality is that this country is clearly underperforming when it comes to waste battery collection and is side-stepping its obligations by apparently fudging the figures.” Clementson says he has called an urgent meeting of stakeholders, including Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), the Environment Agency, battery compliance organizations and approved battery treatment operators, to thrash out what is going on. “It’s the industry that’s got to solve this,” he said. Clementson said the UK was the only country in which this situation had arisen.

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NEWS

Gridtential wins BCI innovation award Bipolar technology firm Gridtential won the 2018 Sally Breidegam Miksiewicz Innovation Award for its silicon joule technology at this year’s BCI convention in Tucson, Arizona on April 30. The technology replaces the lead grids used as current collectors in traditional lead-acid monoblocs with silicon wafers. The associated boost in performance and reduced need for lead means that silicon joule enabled batteries can compete with lithium in emerging 48V automotive and other applications, the company says. Gridtential chairman Ray Kubis told Batteries International after the conference that the most important thing about winning the award was recognition for the technology in the industry, which gave commercialization a real possibility. Gridtential is working with partners Crown Battery, East Penn Manufacturing and Leoch as licensees to the technology with a view to them producing it on their own manufacturing lines. Distribution company Power-Sonic is also a partner. Apart from this insertion of the silicon wafers, the rest of the manufacturing process is unaffected, meaning that this technology can be slotted into existing battery manufacturing lines. “It’s in pilot production, it’s not yet for commercial consumption,” said Kubis, who admitted that progress had not been as swift as the company had initially hoped. “With some of these new technologies it’s two steps forward and one back,” he said. “Last year we had some issues with temperatures and performance, and

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there’s no question this has taken longer than we would have liked, but we now have industry recognition that this is one of the most important developments in advanced lead batteries.” Kubis said that where the technology would be particularly capable was the 48V range of hybrid vehicles. “Realistically it will be difficult to compete with electric vehicles, but this technology will come into its own with hybrids and low-speed vehicles,” he said. For each of the four partners there would inevitably be different focuses, said Kubis. “With East Penn it’s likely to be autos and mobility; with Leoch, more likely to be back-up applications in cloud computing; Crown is a mid-segment player, and Power-Sonic is a distributor, so it’s slightly different. “But each of these major manufacturers will be able to test distinct applications that require particular expertise. “They bring what they

know to the party, and the licensing model means that they can take the technology and deploy it to let them cement their positions in the various market segments. “We’re not going to build a battery factory — we can’t compete with these players. Some companies raise money and build factories and claim to be the be-all and end-all, but customers want to buy batteries from someone with a balance sheet that stands by their warranties. They can

do the high-speed manufacturing, and we can provide the advice.” Kubis said that by late 2019 the existing pilot production would have shifted to commercial production. “Looking at the schedules you are going to see products on the market later in 2019. It might not be a high volume, and it is likely to be in the US and China first, but we are already moving out of the R&D stage towards commercialization,” he said. The other entries for the innovation awards, which were launched in memory of the late East Penn CEO Sally Breidegam Miksiewicz, were Daramic, for its coated separator technology; GMB Industrial Power, for its TENSOR batteries; Abertax, for its one-valve battery lid; HighWater Innovations, for its GoBattery; Terrapure, for its socalled LI Detector; UNISEG Products, for its battery transport and storage container; and UK PowerTech, for its improvement to the formation part of the manufacturing process.

Asparagus machine maker switches to AGM from flooded, mulls lithium Dutch machinery manufacturer Engels Machines has opted for AGM batteries for its asparagus harvesting machines as replacements for the previous flooded lead acid batteries it was using, owner Chris Engels said on July 3. Batteries are used in 10,000 AspergeSpinnen machines — asparagus harvesters — across Europe, boosting production by 250% compared with harvesting by hand. But now some of the machines have been fitted with Varta AGM batteries from Johnson Controls, instead

of flooded batteries. While the company is focusing on AGM batteries because of cost, some machines are also being fitted with lithium batteries, Engels told Batteries International. “Lithium is a good possibility for the future, because the weight of the battery is the main thing. If over 10 years it is more cost effective to buy the more expensive lithium batteries that is what we will do.” The company first fitted lithium batteries last season, and each of the machines that contained them were

fitted with one 24V battery pack, which the company said was very reliable. The pack has a weight reduction of 62% and a volume reduction of 50%, can be charged in two hours and should last 10 asparagus seasons, the firm says. AGM batteries were fitted this year as standard — with two 12V deep cycle batteries per pack. The advantages of AGM include the 80% DOD capability, lack of need for topping up, and above all, cost. However AGM batteries are predicted to last just five seasons, said Engels.

Batteries International • Summer 2018 • 17

NEWS

Exide aims to cement position inmotive power through buy out of Aker Wade Exide Technologies has bought Aker Wade Power Technologies, the designer and manufacturer of advanced charging systems for industrial forklifts, the lead battery maker and recycler announced on May 21. “The purchase will cement Exide’s position in the motive power segment of the

industry,” said an industry observer. The move ties up with the launch of LiFTFORCE LPX lithium battery in April, which can fast charge in just 15 minutes. Vic Koelsch, CEO of the firm, said the purchase would mean Exide could now offer a complete energy storage,

fast charging, battery modelling and monitoring system for forklifts, “delivering operational efficiencies and increasing profitability for our customers”. “Aker Wade has built a solid reputation as the expert for opportunity and fast charger systems in the material handling industry over

the past two decades,” said Koelsch. Aker Wade, which was founded in 2000 and is based in Charlottesville, Virginia, will become Exide’s GNB Industrial Power global centre for research and development in charging technology. GNB Industrial Power is Exide’s motive power arm.

Exide says contamination around Vernon was fault of others Exide Technologies has responded to complaints about a delay in the cleanup of contaminated land surrounding its former lead battery recycling plant in Vernon, California with claims that the primary source of lead in some areas was not its plant. On May 8, the company also criticized the Department for Toxic Substances Control for not releasing the results of its soil sampling around the Vernon site ‘for months’ until Exide served it with a California Public Records Act request for the information. “Exide believes that rigorous scientific analysis of all available data, including the recently produced data, is appropriate for identifying or excluding potential sources of residential soil contamination. “Exide is still evaluating the information posted on the DTSC’s website, but our preliminary review confirms our belief that the level of lead in the soil at the majority of properties has a much greater correlation to the age of houses and their proximity to major roadways than their proximity to the former facility,” an official with Exide said. “While fully committed to working with the state and the DTSC on a continued review of the issue, we stand by our position that other historical sources need to be examined as significant con-

tributing, if not the primary, sources for elevated lead levels in and around the southeast Los Angeles area.” While Exide has already paid for the initial clean-up, which covered 200 properties closest to the old facility, the DTSC told Batteries International it would continue to pursue the lead battery giant for the costs of investigation and clean-up while sampling and cleaning affected properties continues. “DTSC is committed to cleaning up residential properties, schools, parks, day care centers and child care facilities with the highest levels of lead in soil and greatest risk of exposure within roughly 1.7 miles of

the facility,” an official said. The National Engineering and Consulting Group had been appointed as a new partner in the clean-up process following delays with the former contractor. “NEC will accelerate its clean-up of lead-contaminated properties in the area surround the facility as DTSC prepares to award a larger clean-up contract for the area,” said the official. “NEC will clean up 215 properties in the area starting this month.” Soil sampling data from 8,500 properties in the area has been made public together with data tables and maps to show where the areas of greatest concern are.

In October 2017 the DTSC approved Exide’s closure implementation plan, which included blood lead testing in the area. But a later article in the newspaper Los Angeles Times said residents were dissatisfied with the slow rate of clean-up, which officially began two years ago but hasn’t reached some homes that still have 1,000 ppm of lead in their soil — the safe level is considered to be under 80 ppm. The number of residents in the contaminated area is in the tens of thousands. According to the newspaper, the DTSC blames the delays on contractors and environmental requirements.

Metair confirms $354m offer to buy Slovenian battery maker Automotive and energy storage components supplier Metair confirmed to Batteries International on June 6 it had made a €300 million ($354 million) offer to buy the Slovenian battery maker Tovarna Akumulatorskih Baterij. If successful, the transaction will complete in the last quarter of 2018, the South African headquartered company said, and help Metair’s target of producing 15 million automotive batteries and two million industrial cells a year. The company’s objectives, stated in the cautionary

18 • Batteries International • Summer 2018

statement, include developing new technologies such as lithium-ion batteries and electric vehicles; balancing its automotive and industrial segments; and expanding its brand across the world using TAB’s locations. TAB has facilities in Slovenia and Macedonia, with an after-market automotive battery distribution network throughout Europe and a global industrial battery and energy storage business. In 2017, Metair bought for almost $8.5 million a 25.1% stake in Akkumulatorenfabrik Moll, the German battery maker and

supplier, which through its shareholding in the Chinese battery company Chaowei Holdings gives the company a foothold in Asia, the firm said. It is in the process of setting up a new R&D centre in Germany in partnership with Moll and Chaowei, to accelerate its production of lithium batteries for the European market. Founded in 1945, Moll supplies European car manufacturers, including Audi, Daimler, Porsche, Skoda, Lamborghini and Volkswagen. The company has a distribution network across Europe and Asia.

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NEWS

Amara Raja, Gravita sign recycling deal One of India’s largest lead manufacturers and exporters, Gravita India, has signed a deal with Amara Raja, one of the country’s largest lead battery manufacturers, the company announced on

May 22. Gravita is to collect and buy lead acid battery scrap from designated Amara Raja sites, process the materials into lead and lead alloys and then supply them back to Amara Raja.

JCI signs up with JD.com to retail its Varta batteries in China Johnson Controls Power Solutions, JCI’s battery division, has partnered Chinese e-commerce mammoth JD.com to expand its retail delivery model across China, the Ireland-based battery manufacturing giant announced on April 24. The agreement means JCI’s Varta brand batteries will be offered to certain customers with a 30-minute express delivery time in more than 300 cities in China. Kari Pfisterer, director of external communications with JCI, says Varta batteries are already a major seller in China, with more than 50% of JD.com’s online battery sales comprising the brand, which is the number one in China as a whole. “Varta entered the JD.com

BDC (business-to-consumer) site when JD.com launched its auto part division in 2014,” said Pfisterer. “Over the three years, Varta sales have grown rapidly and become the top automotive battery brand on the JD platform. “Ecommerce platforms are playing a principal role in recent economic changes in China, driven by several government initiatives.” Pfisterer says Varta batteries, which include AGM batteries suitable for startstop technology, are expected to be installed in more than half of all new cars in China by 2020. As part of the agreement, JCI-made Energizer batteries will be provided to JD.Com’s aftermarket sales

Hoppecke in global projects to supply batteries for PV power German industrial battery company Hoppecke has installed two village lead battery power projects in the tiny African country of Togo, the company announced on April 21. Hoppecke’s Sun Power VL vented lead-acid batteries have been installed to store solar power in villages that are off grid and where electricity supply is at best unreliable. Technicians often have to travel long distances to make repairs or carry out maintenance, so the batteries, which have high cycle stability during partial state of charge due to their tubu-

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lar plate design and efficient charge current acceptance, are suitable for these conditions, the company says. They also have higher short circuit safety, and maximum energy efficiency with an optimized electrolyte. Hoppecke’s Sun Air electrolyte circulation system pumps ambient air into each battery cell. This causes air bubbles to rise through the electrolyte, ensuring a homogeneous electrolyte density distribution in each cell – increasing charge efficiency and lowering the corrosion rate. Because the movement

The two called the deal a ‘joint initiative towards environment protection and sustainability’. Gravita’s share price rose by 4% on the news. The contract says Gravita will aim to supply 8,000 channels, which include garages, workshops and car maintenance shops. “The cooperation between Johnson Controls and JD.com is a pioneering move in China’s automotive battery market,” said Kenneth Yeng, vice president and general manager of Johnson Controls Power Solutions in China. “Ecommerce plays an increasingly important role in helping Johnson Controls get access to consumers, workshops and retailers in China.” The announcement comes a month after JCI said it was considering selling its battery division, although in a recent interview with the USA Today’s Journal Sentinel, chairman and CEO George Oliver said investment was still being made in power solutions as well as the company’s buildings division. ensures there is no acid stratification, the battery life is extended, the firm says. Hoppecke says the system switches on and off automatically and is virtually maintenance free. Hoppecke has also partnered the Singaporean solar firm Sunseap to store energy for the largest tennis academy in Singapore, the Tanglin Academy, to reduce the centre’s reliance on the diesel generator used to back up energy from its solar panels. Hoppecke’s batteries are used in many applications including trains, and in the UK they can be found in around 50% of locomotives as well as around 75% of Siemens trains around the world.

tonnes of lead a year. Gravita says it has the capacity to recycle and process 50,000 tonnes of lead and aluminium a year. It also supplies lead recycling technology.

Exide signs $75m US Navy deal Exide Technologies has signed a new $75m contract to supply the US Navy with lead battery systems for its fleet of submarines, the battery manufacturer and recycler confirmed on June 7. The five-year contract continues an agreement made in 2005, which supports the navy’s transition from classic wet lead-acid technology to sealed valve-regulated AGM technology, the firm told Batteries International. The latest submarine valve regulated lead acid batteries are specifically designed for submarines because they fit the basic footprint of the battery wells and battery systems, which have not changed since submarine designs were forged in the 1970s. The new SVRLA batteries eliminate the need for periodic cell watering and air agitation, which is required for wet cells, the company said. “Since the battery wells are sealed there is basically no gassing, making the batteries almost maintenance free,” the company said. “By design, Exide’s Absolyte VRLA AGM technology is a good fit for submarine applications and are cost effective with proven performance.”

Batteries International • Summer 2018 • 19

NEWS

RSR and East Penn sign three-year extension to R&D agreement with Argonne RSR Technologies and East Penn Manufacturing renewed and extended their lead battery research agreement with the Argonne National Laboratory on July 16, which RSR Technologies’ president Tim Ellis said would result in major advances in lead battery technology. The three parties’ cooperative research and development agreement has been working on new ways to enhance the performance of lead and other materials in lead batteries, and that will be extended for another three years. Testing involves investigating the fundamental transport processes in lead batteries using high-energy X-ray techniques and 3D imaging, with a view to im-

proving lead battery performance. “We have been very pleased with the work accomplished since we entered into the CRADA (cooperative research and development agreement) with Argonne in 2016,” said Ellis. ”We not only have learned a great deal about the performance of lead, but have come to realize that much more work can be done.” Bob Flicker, COO at East Penn, said: “We are looking forward to further work, in partnership with Argonne, to achieve an even deeper understanding of this essential battery technology.” Under the extended CRADA, RSR and East Penn will pay Argonne to use the research laboratory’s

technical facilities and scientific expertise through its programme ACCESS — Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science — a collaboration of scientists and engineers that works on a range of battery chemistries and technologies. “The lead battery has had

a significant impact in various applications over the past 100 years,” said Venkat Srinivasan, director of ACCESS. “We’re excited to leverage our state-of-the-art scientific tools to make this battery technology even more valuable to consumers.”

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NEWS VIEWPOINT

“Countless piles of dead batteries littering Africa?” Ridiculous, says Brian Wilson, recycling expert Battery recycling consultant Brian Wilson has cast doubt on recent media reports about ‘countless piles of dead batteries’ littering African countries, telling Batteries International the situation is more likely to be quite the reverse. “Depending on the size of the used lead battery, the scrap value can be between $10-$20 or more for some of the large solar storage lead batteries. So why would people leave them lying on rubbish dumps or put them there in the first place? “You only need to visit rubbish dumps across Africa to see this isn’t happening. I would be surprised if you ever see piles of used batteries just left lying around. The battery cases themselves can also be recycled into battery cases or other polypropylene moulded products and so it is hard to come to terms with accounts of “piles of ULABs.” Moreover, although the reports claimed there were ‘countless piles’ of used lead batteries in Africa, it did not specify in which country, nor did it include any photographs, so it makes it difficult to confirm the report. “There are 52 countries in Africa and I haven’t been to all of them, but I am in the process of doing a survey of the ULAB recycling status in all of them,” said Wilson. “It is possible that the report might refer to used batteries that are about to be dismantled in Africa and then shipped to another country where there is a shortage of lead, but it is difficult to say without any more details.” “Trojan Battery is a huge advocate of recycling old lead acid batteries for several reasons, with the most important being to avoid contaminating the environment with toxic waste. “Not only are there many options for individuals and businesses to safely and responsibly recycle their used batteries, they can also get paid by local recycling companies when they turn in their batteries for recycling,” says Michael Grundke, general manager, EMEA for Trojan Battery. “The lead plates, along with 98% of the entire battery, are recyclable. Aside

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Wilson: I would be surprised if you ever see piles of used batteries just left lying around.

from the environmental benefits the value of the “spent” battery can help feed families and add to the economy.” Paula Berning is the corporate sustainability manager for Mobisol, a solar panel company based in Berlin that has partnered local battery manufacturers and recyclers in Kenya and is aiming to do the same in Rwanda and Tanzania, that is, to offer decentralized solar systems based on lead batteries rather than lithium batteries, because there are no recycling plants for lithium batteries in Africa. Associated Battery Manufacturers in Kenya, for instance, takes used solar batteries from Mobisol customers and recycles them in their environmentally sound and licensed lead smelter. Mobisol has been working with ABM since 2013, to secure an environmentally sound recycling solution for the original systems’ batteries when they reach the end of their useful life and the company found a closed loop solution with ABM. “I can only speak for Mobisol but I would say there is a certain responsibility to a distributor to take care of their product when it is sold into the

market, but it is understandable with the infrastructure in some of these areas that it won’t always be an easy thing to do, particularly in emerging economies in Africa,” Berning told Batteries International. “Public and private sector collection mechanisms do need to be in place for recyclables, and as well as a foundation from governments, with the necessary regulations, there does need to be better infrastructure and partners that you can work with.” Brian Wilson has worked on several ULAB recycling projects, including advising on affordable and sustainable recycling plants in Africa. One issue not in dispute is that the standard of used lead battery recycling in certain African countries is inconsistent with the Basel Convention Technical Guidelines for the engine start module of ULABs. At a UNEA meeting in Nairobi in December last year a resolution was adopted that mandated UNEP to raise the HSE performance of the ULAB recycling industry in emerging nations and eliminate improper and unsound recycling operations.

Batteries International • Summer 2018 • 21

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NEWS

Lead recycling plants for Nigeria look for boom in coming years The CEO of a Nigeria-based research centre told Batteries International on June 5 that the country was seeking official lead battery recycling plants for the expected influx of batteries that will be needed for the 100,000 mini-grids slated for installation by 2023. Ifeoma Malo is the cofounder of the Clean Technology Hub, an energy consultancy that she set up in 2015, which aims to provide Nigerians with sustainable power. In 2016, Malo was asked to head up the Nigerian branch of Power For All, a global movement that aims to deliver access to energy for people in rural areas that do not have access to reliable power. Malo says in Nigeria there are 93 million people without such access. “There is going to be a huge amount of batteries coming into the country for these mini-grid installations,” said Malo. “In seven to 10 years’ time these will be reaching their end of life and we don’t have systems in place to deal with them. “We are working with the government and the ministry of the environment to create a framework for battery disposal to create some sort of regulatory framework. “But there is only one official lead battery recycling plant in Nigeria, which is why just 13% of the country’s used lead-acid batteries are recycled properly – the rest are either shipped abroad or recycled in unofficial backyard recycling plants.” In the study Soil Contamination from Lead Battery Manufacturing and Recycling in Seven African Countries, which was co-authored by the US-

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based NGO Occupational Knowledge International, 21 soil samples from lead battery recycling sites were tested and found to contain up to 140,000 parts per million inside the sites and 29,000 ppm of lead outside. The US Environmental Agency reckons the safe limit for children is below 80ppm. “We need to see whether we can get more credible battery recycling plants,” said Malo. “There is a lot of work being done to get energy providers in Nigeria to commit to certain standards when they start up projects. “So while the focus is on giving people electricity, it’s also about giving it to them in an environmentally clean way. We are trying to create a model that will suit our local situation.” The Clean Technology Hub works with stakeholders including the Recycling and Economic Development Initiative of Nigeria, an NGO that has been focusing on ULAB management

for the past four years. Terseer Ugboh, from REDIN, said the group had launched an extended producer responsibility programme, which had set a template for how renewable energy companies and battery importers and recyclers should manage used batteries. “It will work with international best practices using the standard benchmarks accepted globally,” he said. In other African countries, systems are in place. Trojan Battery, the USbased lead battery maker that has installed its Solar AGM range throughout countries in sub-Saharan Africa, has partners with African battery makers in Namibia, Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Botswana, and recyclers who collect and recycle the batteries they supply in closed loop systems that ensure the batteries are collected and re-used. The Center for Alternative Technologies in Kenya is one of them. “We sell batteries via

two channels – directly to end-users and through a network of resellers,” said Nawir Ibrahim, CEO at CAT. “For all our end users who need replacements, we offer a credit for their old batteries when they purchase a new set. The credit is based on the size of the battery and the distance it has to be transported to our warehouse in Nairobi. “Here, we keep all the returned used batteries until we have about 1,000 kilogrammes. We then ask a recycling company to come and collect them. “We collect most, if not all, of the batteries we sell to end users. It’s no secret that used batteries have a cash value. No one would send a dead battery to the dump.” In April, a workshop held by the Clean Technology Hub came up with a list of recommendations on dealing with ULABs in Nigeria, including working more closely with the government and companies in the sector towards greater regulation in the recycling sector.

Pakistan battery makers fined for consumer deception, allegations rebuffed Pakistani battery company Millat Batteries says it will appeal against the Competition Commission of Pakistan’s decision to impose fines on it and four other battery manufacturers for not showing important information about their products, CEO Ijaz Majeed told Batteries International on May 9. Atlas Battery (part of GS Yuasa), Exide Pakistan (of Exide Industries), Century Engineering Industries and Pakistan Accumulators were the other four companies. Each was fined Rs1 million ($8,500) “for

violating section 10 of the Competition Act 2010 by hiding important information about their products from consumers”, the CCP says. An enquiry in April 2017 found that information such as ampere capacity and recyclability was not printed on the body or packaging of the batteries, thus “the consumer is unaware of the capacity of battery it is acquiring, increasing the likelihood of consumer deception,” the report said. “The omission of this information may not only

result in the purchase of the incorrect battery, but the consumers may also be deceived into buying a battery that may not be suitable as per their requirement.” Majeed said Millat displays model numbers on its battery containers and capacity and other data can be traced from the firm’s printed brochures and website. “The practice of not mentioning the capacity was started by the big three battery manufacturers controlling about 80% of the market,” he said.

Batteries International • Summer 2018 • 23

NEWS

Lead acid mini-grids the way forward for Africa The potential for lead-acid batteries is huge in Africa as more and more communities install mini-grid systems, usually combining rooftop solar panels, says Jessica Stephens, the global coordinator of the newly formed Africa Mini-Grid Association, speaking to Batteries International in mid-May. “Based on anecdotal feedback from some of AMDA’s member companies, consumers are using lead acid batteries with a five to seven year lifetime depending on cycling. Some are also using lithium-ion. “As the sector continues to grow batteries will continue to be a major component of Solar PV mini-grids. We are looking forward to seeing continued efficiencies in battery performance.” AMDA, which comprises 18 member companies in Kenya, Tanzania and Nigeria with plans to expand to be pan-African, aims to help end energy poverty in Africa. AMDA began last year, said Nairobi-based Stephens, as an informal gathering of private utilities from Kenya and Tanzania aiming to work together with local governments and other stakeholders. “They realized quite quickly they were going to need something quite similar to represent the minigrid industry,” she said. “Mini-grids make the most sense in these communities. In sub-Saharan Africa there are 600 million people who don’t have access to electricity — and 80%-85% of these are in rural areas. “The International Energy Agency says that minigrid and other distributed renewables are the most

cost-effective way to deliver electricity to those people. “Centralized grids will play an important role too, but there has to be an integrated approach that includes mini-grids.” Capitalizing on these opportunities is Trojan Battery, the deep-cycle lead battery maker. The firm has developed a Solar AGM battery ideal for storing solar power generated on rooftops, and many have been installed in projects around the world, in the remote regions of Tanzania and Kenya as well as in the continents of South America and Asia, where there is similar need.

Stephens said some organizations — such as the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the International Energy Agency — are more actively supporting mini-grids with battery storage, however, access to more affordable finance and clearer national electrification plans is still needed before the industry can scale up. “Rural electrification efforts need modern regulatory frameworks for integrated energy systems and access to cheap capital. Without more transparent policy and regulatory frameworks, access to capital continues to be diffi-

cult,” she said. “AMDA is advocating governments and donors pursue the least-cost option for rural electrification and support rural electrification projects irrespective of whether private sector or parastatal utilities are developing the projects. “Private sector companies are better positioned to drive efficiency improvements, including in battery efficiency, in infrastructure costs and service delivery, both of which are essential to realizing universal access to energy. “Nigeria, Kenya and Tanzania have all taken some steps to put their own minigrid policy frameworks in place, and we will be working to make sure that best practices are adopted by other countries.”

German start-up announces plans to double production of hybrid lead and lithium units German start-up BOS — Balance of Storage Systems — says it intends to double the number of its hybrid lead and lithium battery units this year to reach a total of 20,000, chief technology manager Thomas Kündiger told Batteries International on July 3. The product, which includes a PV panel, use a 12V lead battery as backup and a smaller lithium battery to run most of the daily charging cycles so the lead battery does not have to be discharged so much — which prolongs its life. “We all knew off-grid systems quite well and saw so many lead acid battery systems failing by sulfation, since the owners didn’t charge the systems frequently,” Kündiger said. “First we developed an all-in-one charge controller, that managed both batteries, and PV. But for many customers’ requirements, this was not flexible enough. So we developed

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a modular and flexible lithium extension battery with in-built electronics and all protection features, which can be connected to any 12V lead battery. “When the lead battery gets charged, the charger will switch from constant current charge to constant voltage charge. Constant voltage charge means that there is more energy available than the lead acid battery can use. “Now our extension battery, connected in parallel to the lead acid battery, recognizes that there is constant voltage charge at the appropriate voltage level and charges the lithium battery with all the extra that the lead acid battery can’t take. “Once the sun goes down we first discharge the lithium battery, keeping the lead battery and loads around 13V. “There, the lead acid battery does not get discharged yet and this way

we keep it at a high SOC, while the lithium battery is doing most of the cycles.” Kündiger used his own home as an example to illustrate how the two batteries work together, with his 2 kWh lithium battery installed with a 10 kWh lead battery. “Since the lithium battery is used each night and lead acid is back-up for bad weather days and higher energy demands, there is something like 300 lithium and 50 lead acid charging cycles every year. “This is enough cycle life for eight to 10 years, while investment costs are significantly lower than a lithium battery.” BOS’s systems are used in mini-grid solar applications including one project in Nigeria, which runs 100 of the systems, a DC minigrid in India, and many are already placed with Hymer, the biggest caravan manufacturer in Germany, Kündiger said.

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NEWS

ALABC joins European energy storage group

THE FUTURE OF BATTERY TESTING SILICON CARBIDE & REGENERATIVE

The ALABC joined the European Association for the Storage of Energy, a membership organization that aims to promote energy storage across all applications, on July 16. EASE comprises suppliers, utilities and battery companies such as Exide Technologies, Johnson Controls, Maxwell Technologies and LG Chem. “We aim to ensure that the legislative framework at EU level is positive enough to ensure that technology can be deployed in Europe, and is not prevented for no reason,” said EASE policy officer Marine Delhommeau, who provides advice and information on the rules surrounding energy storage, helping potential investors in the technology.

“We facilitate and identify research and development priorities to work with the EU to make sure there’s enough funding for research.” EASE is technology agnostic, but Delhommeau said the ALABC would get a voice on lead battery technology now it had joined and could attend meetings and working groups. “They will help by writing reports and make their voices heard at EU level,” she said. ALABC director of communications Hywel Jarman said: “This will enable the ALABC to share with EASE members and European decision-makers the role of lead batteries in energy storage now, and the opportunities for lead battery technology in the future.”

Skeleton Technologies moves manufacturing to Dresden, Germany Ultracapacitor maker Skeleton Technologies has shifted manufacturing from Tallinn, Estonia to the plant it set up in Dresden, Germany last year, the firm said on July 19. “The rest of our machinery was moved there to have all the production’s processes together in one place,” vice president marketing and communications Sylvia Kleimann told Batteries International. She says the annual capacity of the plant is four million cells. “Part of our team has been relocated to the manufacturing side in Germany, but our module development team stays in Tallinn and will be added to with further employees,” she said. “We have a close relationship with

the university in Tallinn and very good experience with the engineering and technician competence in Estonia, and this is why the development of the modules will stay there.” Skeleton Technologies is known for its ‘Skel’ range of ultracapacitor-based energy storage systems, which it says can be used in all kinds of applications. “Our carbon-based ultracapacitors have four times the power density of competitive products and also a much lower ESR (equivalent series resistance),” says Kleimann. “Our orders are coming from different industries, including automotive, logistics, aerospace, heavy machinery, materials handling and many more.”

EnerSys signs four year agreement to supply Navistar with thin plate pure lead truck batteries 6V/ 2A, 5A, 10A, 300A 18V/ 10A, 20A, 40A 20V / 150A 60V / 50A 100V / 500A 800V / 300A 1000V / 200A

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26 • Batteries International • Summer 2018

Battery manufacturer EnerSys has signed a four-year agreement with truck maker Navistar to supply it with Odyssey thin plate pure lead AGM batteries, the company confirmed on July 19. The batteries will be supplied to Navistar’s International truck brand and all makes of aftermarket replacement batteries. “We have been working closely with Navistar over the past few years with respect to Odyssey, our premium TPPL AGM batteries

— for their engine start, auxiliary power and lift gate applications on their class 6 to 8 vehicles predominately,” said Dave McMullen, senior director of reserve power marketing Americas. “The Odyssey product is enabling Navistar to extend to their customer base an enhanced ROI over the life of their vehicles through fewer battery failures, reduced change out/ replacements, reduced downtime and an improved warranty over conventional battery products.”

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NEWS VIEWPOINT Kevin Moran, executive vice president of Battery Council International, spoke to Batteries International on his thoughts about the implications of possible changes to Californian state law in labelling lead batteries a ‘Priority Product’ requiring potentially restrictive and prohibitive regulation.

BCI says California energy and environmental policy should boost innovation — not hinder it California is recognized as a leader in setting energy policies to address climate change challenges and reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by fossil fuels. So is there a perfect choice to replace fossil fuels? Not yet. There are limitations and risks with all new technologies. Wind power threatens birds and displaces wildlife; solar panels and batteries contain hazardous chemicals; and hydropower impacts fragile ecosystems around rivers and streams. But each of these alternative sources of energy is in the midst of an innovation revolution, on a path towards building more energy capacity, creating new functionalities and developing sustainable technologies. The question for California is whether alternative energy technologies will be given the chance to continue to evolve and contribute to the transition to a clean energy economy. Advanced lead batteries are one example of a technology that can be part of the long-term solution if given the chance to continue evolving as a safe and clean power source for California. That evolution will be stymied if the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) lists lead batteries as a Priority Product under the Safer Consumer Products Program, a part of the state’s green chemistry initiative. The DTSC program is designed principally to reduce consumer exposure to harmful chemicals in common products. One of the DTSC’s questions to manufacturers is if it is necessary to use potentially harmful materials in the manufacture of the product. In the case of lead batteries, the answer is an unequivocal yes. Even the greenest energy sources

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depend upon materials that the state deems hazardous when not properly handled — lead, cobalt, cadmium, lithium, nickel, silicon, and the like — there is very rarely a zero-risk alternative. That is why the use of any technology should be based on the adequacy of the regulatory systems in place to protect the public and the environment. Inherent in the green chemistry program is the notion that Priority Products should be those that the public use on a regular basis — jewellry, cosmetics, cleaning products, toys and other household items – the things people handle every day. By any practical interpretation, lead batteries are not a typical consumer product — the average consumer never comes into contact with a lead battery. Even the increasingly rare do-it-yourselfer is protected from exposure to lead and other battery components because they are sealed within the battery case. Another key aspect of the law is the need to properly manage chemicals of concern in consumer products at end-of-life. Here lead batteries have a clear advantage over every other battery chemistry. Consumers understand the lead battery recycling system and are motivated by a deposit-refund incentive, participating at a rate of nearly 100%. Every component part of a lead battery is recyclable, and more than 80% of new lead batteries are manufactured from recycled materials because of the closed loop nature of the industries’ infrastructure. No other battery chemistry even comes close to this level of sustainability. Public health concerns about lead batteries relate primarily to emissions and residual contamination from for-

mer lead battery recycling operations. The legacy sites in California date back to a time when many industrial operations were not well controlled. For the battery industry, these are historical problems, not continuing problems. Lead battery manufacturing and recycling facilities in California are subject to the most stringent emissions standards in the world and California created a new fund in 2016 (AB 2153, C. Garcia) to cover the cost of cleaning up sites with legacy contamination related to historical battery recycling operations. Today, every aspect of the lead battery life cycle is subject to mature, stringent regulatory requirements designed to minimize potential risks to human health and the environment. So what would be the result of listing lead batteries as a Priority Product? The state would direct its limited regulatory resources to a product that does not pose a significant risk to the public or to the environment. DTSC stated in its 2018-2020 Priority Products Work Plan (May 1, 2018) that it would “only consider a Priority Product listing if it would meaningfully enhance the protection of public health or the environment.” Lead batteries clearly do not meet this test. The transition to carbon-free energy has to be rooted in products that work for the public. California has successful programs that should allow lead batteries to play an important role in the state’s energy portfolio, both now and in the future. With proper regulation and the opportunity for scientific innovation, lead batteries and other technologies will address the climate challenge.

Batteries International • Summer 2018 • 27

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NEWS VIEWPOINT Jim Greenberger, head of NAATBatt, was recently interviewed by ees Magazine. Here he reveals his thoughts on how the utility market will develop, as well as the imminent technological tussle between lithium ion and flow batteries.

The rise and rise of utility storage This year will be remembered as the first time that we really saw some movement on the utility side of the meter. It has a much larger volume than the consumer side of the meter ever had, but utilities are notoriously conservative and are slow adopters of new technologies. We’re just beginning to see some real indication that major utilities in the country are looking at major storage projects to compete with gas powered peaker plants. If this trend continues, it is probably going to considerably enhance the market for storage going forward, perhaps at a faster pace than any of us had originally anticipated. The big technology question in storage is whether lithium-ion has effectively captured the market and is going to lock out all competing technologies through the near future, particularly flow batteries, among others. It has always been assumed that because of its cost structure, lithiumion technology would be the battery of choice for applications requiring storage of four hours or less. For storage projects that require four hours or more, flow batteries and other types of technologies would be able to compete because of their inherent lower cost at scale. In 2017, it was a real surprise that lithium-ion seemed to be the technology of choice for four-plus hour storage projects and that is really due to two things: the rapid decline in cost for lithium-ion batteries, and the fact that people are just getting comfortable with this technology. If flow batteries can achieve some sort of traction in the marketplace, there may well be a longer-term, viable economic alternative to lithiumion batteries on large storage projects, although that depends on new technologies getting a good footprint in the market in the next couple of years.

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If they’re not able to do that, I think you’re going to be seeing almost all electrochemical energy storage devices used for storing electricity on the grid based in lithium-ion rather than other chemistries. Now, what happens longer term? What are the technologies that will eventually supplant lithium-ion? There are the new technologies coming down the pike that will deliver higher energy and power density than current lithium-ion. Solid state batteries and eventually lithium-sulfur batteries are still a few years away. You might also see some zinc, sodium and sulfur batteries starting to get some play. But for the foreseeable future I expect this to be a battle in the marketplace between lithium-ion technology and flow battery technology. The real question is whether or not lithium-ion is able to close out the other technology competitors in the marketplace over the next of couple years, and that’s going to be a very interesting story to follow.

The big technology question in storage is whether lithium-ion has effectively captured the market and is going to lock out all competing technologies through the near future, particularly flow batteries, among others.

Xcel Energy recently received bids that had a median cost for solar-plusstorage at $36/MWh, which has or will make other utilities take notice. By comparison, I think the current cost of operating a gas peaker plant is generally assumed to be close to $87/ MWh. If Xcel is able to build solar-plusstorage projects at less than half the cost of the assumed price of generating electricity through gas peaker plants, that’s really going to start getting the attention of utilities around the country. Jurisdictions such as Colorado, Arizona and California have an abundance of solar as well as wind in some in cases, making them natural first

I think that is the challenge for some of the flow batteries manufacturers in the market right now, just because there haven’t been enough deployments for people to get that kind of confidence. We’ll have to see over the next few years whether or not enough flow batteries will enter the marketplace such that buyers will begin to get that confidence. Right now, we appear to have passed that critical stage, where lithium-ion is seen as a mature technology that is reliable in the field. Moving forward, technologies will compete primarily on cost and, to a lesser extent, the long-term reliability of the technology itself.

Utilities and storage

adopters. Adoption will be slower in areas where renewables are less prevalent, but I think that the positive economics of solar-plus-storage are now catching the attention of the most sceptical folks in the utility sector. Cost is really the bottom line for buyers. When it comes to technology, sales teams need to understand that any customer buying a long-term asset is going to be very concerned about reliability, and will look towards proven technologies that are likely to perform over a decade or more.

Batteries International • Summer 2018 • 29

ENERGY STORAGE NEWS

World’s first large-scale LAES plant to test grid-scale abilities in the UK London firm Highview Power switched on the world’s first grid-scale liquid air energy storage system on June 5 at a plant at the Pilsworth landfill gas site in Bury, England. The 5MW/15MWh plant is the first operational demonstration of LAES technology at grid scale, and will be used to demonstrate how the technology can provide a number of reserve, grid balancing and regulation services. The system, which has a life span estimated at 30 to 40 years, was designed and built by Highview in partnership with renewable energy company Viridor and

enabled in part by more than £8 million ($11 million) in funding from the UK government. Demand response aggregator KiWi Power will draw energy from the plant to power around 5,000 homes for around three hours. Gareth Brett, CEO at Highview Power, said utilities from around the world had been assessing the technology and were now using the operating data to assess its grid-scale abilities. He said: “The adoption of LAES technology is now under way, and discussions are progressing with utilities around the world who

see the opportunity for LAES to support the transition to a low-carbon world. “We are therefore already in detailed negotiations to build plants 10 times the size of this one for utility customers of several nationalities and for various different applications.” The technology has the potential to be scaled up to hundreds of megawatts, with Highview claiming it could store enough power from wind farms to power around 100,000 homes for many days. The system works by cooling air down to -196°C (-320˚F) until it turns to liquid, where it is stored in

insulated, low-pressure vessels. To access the power, the liquid is exposed to ambient temperatures that cause its rapid re-gasification and the energy from the 700fold expansion in volume is used to drive a turbine and create power. Yoav Zingher, CEO at KiWi Power, said: “By drawing energy from a diverse range of low-carbon storage assets, companies can not only balance the grid but they can also help to meet rising energy demand and respond to changing patterns of consumption on a local and national level.”

UK first as hydro paired with BESS for grid services Hydropower company Barn Energy announced in March that it had commissioned two projects in the UK that combine hydroelectric and lithium ion battery storage to perform grid-scale services. The firm worked with its sister company Eelpower to deliver the two schemes, each with a capacity of more than 1.2MWh, using batteries supplied by China’s BYD and installed by UK cleantech firm Anesco. The batteries will be remotely controlled using UK company Limejump’s virtual power plant technology. The projects are already delivering on a two-year, Firm Frequency Response service contract with UK transmission firm National Grid. The systems could also potentially relieve costs during TRIAD days — part of a charge-setting process that takes readings from the three half-hours of highest demand on Great Britain’s electricity transmission system between November and February.

When performing gridbalancing services, 60-70% of the battery’s consumption will be provided by hydropower with the rest coming from the grid. The low-head river hydro projects have been deployed at: Thrybergh, on the Rover Don near Rotherham, and at Knottingley, on the River Aire near Wakefield. Barn Energy plans to istall

a third battery storage unit at its 500kW Kirkthorpe hydro scheme on the River Calder. When not performing FFR or TRIAD services, the batteries will be used for load shifting and for trading to maximize the revenues at each site. Mark Simon, chief executive of Barn Energy and Eelpower, told Batteries

International: “We have deployed the system because we have a lot of experience with battery installations on a solar farm and have seen that they make a significant impression on one’s ability to export energy. “The only difference with a hydro plant is it is more expensive to build and so the returns are going to be more modest.”

EDF Group sets 10GW storage goal by 2035 Energy distribution firm EDF Energy, a wholly owned company of French state-owned Électricité de France, announced at the end of March it planned to invest €8 billion ($10 billion) in deploying 10GW of storage globally by 2035. This is on top of the 5GW of storage already operated by the group, which has interests in storage technology applications including batteries and pumped-storage

30 • Batteries International • Summer 2018

hydroelectricity. The EDF Group is also doubling investment in research and development into storage for the power system to €70 million ($82m) up to 2020. The group also announced Nouveaux Business — the innovation and competition services company it created last September — will be allocating a third of its investments, around €15 million ($1.75m), in the next two years to

projects and start-ups linked to electricity storage and flexibility. The group aims to become the leader in the residential storage sector in France and Europe, with a range of self-consumption power services incorporating batteries. It is also prioritizing Africa, with the goal of developing a portfolio of 1.2 million off-grid customers by 2035 through local partnerships.

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ENERGY STORAGE NEWS

Ørsted to develop 800MW wind farm and 55MW/110MWh storage Danish power company Ørsted (formally known as Dong Energy) and US transmission company Eversource Energy — which formed the Bay State Wind initiative in December 2016 — announced in March they had entered into a Letter of Intent to develop a 800MW wind and 55MW/110MWh energy storage project. The pair will work with

Massachusetts, US-based NEC Energy Solutions — the business division created by Japanese firm NEC after it bought lithium ion ESS maker A123 Systems Solutions for $100 million in 2014 — to develop an energy storage solution for the Bay State Wind project. When completed, the project in the South Coast region of Massachusetts will be the world’s biggest

wind-paired ESS developed for commercial-scale energy management. Taiwan will deploy its first ESS, with Ørsted announcing in February it would invest in a 1MW lithium ion pilot project on the island to test how an ESS can support the grid, and how it could support the country’s renewable energy transition.

GE re-enters ESS market with launch of 4MWh scalable ESS US conglomerate General Electric announced in March it was rejoining the battery storage industry with the launch of its modular AC and DC-coupled lithium ion Reservoir ESS. The system is designed to be used along the power chain, from renewables generation to distribution in centralized grid systems, by offering services including frequency regulation, peak shifting and black start, as well microgrid capabilities for remote appli-

cations. The first reservoir platform is a 1.2MW/4MWh unit, with the company stating it has already secured a 20MW/80MWh pre-launch commitment. Russell Stokes, president and chief executive officer of GE Power, said: “The energy landscape is undergoing an unprecedented paradigm shift as the growth of renewables, decentralization of power and digitization create new challenges and opportuni-

New Jersey seeks 2GW by 2030 Energy storage is at the heart of a bill passed by the New Jersey House and Senate on April 12 that will require utilities in the US state to generate at least half of its power from renewables by 2030. The bill A3723 compels the state to investigate how energy storage will affect the power supply and end users, the type of technologies being implemented in the state, and determine the amount of energy storage required. The bill also requires the Board of Public Utilities to implement a plan to introduce 600MW of energy storage by 2021 and 2GW

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of energy storage by 2030. Energy storage will allow utilities to manage the fluctuation of renewable generated power onto its grid as it aims to meet its energy target, one of the US’ most aggressive — only Hawaii’s 100% renewable energy mix by 2045 and Vermont’s 75% by 2032 are higher, and matches targets set by California and New York. The bill also compels power utilities in the state to implement measures to reduce electricity or natural gas usage by 2% of the previous three years’ average energy usage within five years of the start of the programme.

ties in how power is generated, transmitted and distributed.” Utility-scale energy storage is a market that one of GE’s main competitors, Siemens, is also pursuing. Last year, Siemens joined with AES to create a global energy storage technology and services company called Fluence. In February, energy storage start-up Arenko announced it had chosen General Electric to deliver a 41MW lithium ion energy storage system to ensure security of supply to 100,000 UK homes

Enel JV to enter German ESS market with 22MW project Enel announced on February 20 it would build and manage a 22MW lithiumion battery storage plant in Germany in a joint venture with the country’s wind energy company Enertrag and Swiss energy storage firm Leclanché. Situated in the German state of Brandenburg, the project will cost around €17 million ($21 million). It will be the first energy storage system Enel, through its renewables subsidiary Enel Green Power Germany, has delivered in the country. The first 2MW section of the Cremzow plant began providing primary frequency services to the country’s Primary Control Reserve market this spring. The entire plant is scheduled to come online at the end of this year, to eventually be integrated with Enertrag’s wind farms. Antonio Cammisecra, head of Enel’s Global Renewable Energies division, said the project was an important milestone for the company after similar successes in Italy and Chile.

166MW ESS plan in California after emergency concerns Californian utility San Diego Gas & Electric announced plans on February 28 to add 166MW of storage in San Diego County to ensure the region’s power supply is secure in the case of a major emergency. The seven proposed projects will ensure security of supply to publicsector facilities including fire and police stations, emergency operation centres and emergency

evacuation sites in the rural and urban areas of the county. If approved by the California Public Utilities Commission, the projects would be added in phases with all ready for operation by 2024. The company expects to develop or interconnect more than 330MW of energy storage by 2030 as it targets 43% renewable power generation in the future.

Batteries International • Summer 2018 • 31

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ENERGY STORAGE NEWS

Nevada utility announces biggest deployment of ESSs to date Nevada utility NV Energy, owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, filed a resource plan with the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada on June 1 to buy 1,000MW of solar energy and build 100MW/400MWh of energy storage systems. If the commission approves the 25-year electricity purchase contracts

the utility will build three energy storage systems to balance supply and demand from six solar projects — three in northern Nevada and three in southern Nevada. The projects include 25MW ESS at the Battle Mountain Solar Project, which includes 101MW solar photovoltaic near Battle Mountain, Nevada.

Viridity signs deal for 40MW ESS

There will also be a 50MW ESS at the Dodge Flat Solar Energy Center, a 200MW solar photovoltaic project east of Reno. The Fish Springs Ranch Solar Energy Center will integrate 25MW of storage with 100MW PV north of Reno. All projects should be operational by the end of 2021.

California ratifies SDGE plans for 88MW US utility San Diego Gas & Electric announced on June 4 it has five lithium ion energy storage projects totalling more than 80MW, and one demand response program equalling 4.5MW, approved by the California Public Utilities Commission. The six projects will improve grid reliability and integrate more renewables in the San Diego and south

Orange counties of California. The largest will be built by Fluence in Fallbrook. The 40MW/160MWh battery facility is due to be completed by March 2021. The second largest will be a 30MW/120MWh storage facility in San Diego by Renewable Energy Systems. The project should be online by December 2019. The other projects are a 4MW/16MWh system in

Lithium Werks acquires China manufacturing plants from A123 Lithium Werks, the Dutch battery and energy group, announced on March 27 it had acquired the manufacturing plants of A123 Systems. The transaction, financed through the working capital of Lithium Werks, positions the company as one of the leading lithium iron phosphate cell, module and system firms in the world. A123 Systems, a subsidiary of Chinese Wanxiang Group, manufactured the first cylindrical nanophosphate cells in Changzhou. Marc Kohler, Lithium Werks’ commercial director, told Batteries International: “Wanxiang Group still owns A123 Systems, focusing on prismatic cell production for the automotive sector.

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“Lithium Werks now owns the cylindrical cell factory and will focus on industrial markets.” The merger includes Lithium Werks taking over the US-headquartered company’s Chinese, European and US customers as well as the operations, staff and product designs associated with the plants. The deal allows A123 to focus on automotive applications ranging from mild-hybrids to fully electric vehicles, said Jeff Kessen, A123 Systems’ VP of corporate strategy. In February Lithium Werks announced it had acquired substantially all the assets of Valence Technology, including the proprietary LiFePO4 intellectual property, trademarks, and inventory.

San Juan Capistrano by Advanced Microgrid Solutions to be completed by December 2019 and Powin Energy’s 6.5MW/26MWh facility in Escondido by June 2021. The only non-US firm to be contracted in the projects is Italy’s Enel Green Power, which will build a 3MW/12MWh facility in Poway by December 2021. OhmConnect is providing the demand response programme, which requires customers to conserve energy during heavy peak periods to limit demand on the grid. By 2030, the utility expects to develop or interconnect more than 330MW of energy storage.

Two energy storage projects totalling 40MW/40MWh are to be installed in New Jersey, US, after a master supplier agreement was signed between energy storage firm Dynapower and Viridity Energy Solutions, a wholly owned subsidiary of geothermal firm Ormat Technologies, both companies announced mid-April. Viridity, a battery storage and energy management firm, will design, finance, build, own and operate the two 20MW/20MWh infront-of-the-meter ESSs in Plumsted Township and Alpha. Dynapower will supply its CPS-2200 inverters and fully integrated IPS-2200 ESSs for the projects, which should be operational in the last quarter of this year. LG Chem will supply the lithium-ion battery modules. Viridity will use its VPower software to provide the optimization, economic value stacking and automated control. The ESSs will generate around an estimated $8 million in 2019 mainly through ancillary services to assist transmission organization and PJM Interconnection in balancing the grid, as well as being available as a capacity asset.

Hawaiian Electric plans 120MW of storage to secure power supply US utility Hawaiian Electric announced on May 2 it is planning to build 120MW of lithium ion grid-scale energy storage. If approved by the Public Utilities Commission, the projects will be operated by the utility. The first project will include a 100MW/100MWh system at Hawaiian Electric’s Campbell Industrial Park Generating Station. It is due to begin provid-

ing services by October 2020 at an estimated cost of $104 million. The second project, a 20MW/80MWh, $43 million system, will support the 20MW West Loch Solar system under construction at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, West Loch Annex. If agreed, the company hopes to start construction by October 2019 with the system in service by February 2020.

Batteries International • Summer 2018 • 33

ENERGY STORAGE NEWS

Flood of energy storage projects as Australia takes world leader position A flood of actual and planned energy storage projects has emerged from Australia this past year. Perhaps the largest headline project was the one announced in March, when the state of South Australia unveiled plans to support the world’s biggest lithium ion ESS — again. And this one is 20MW bigger than last year’s record-breaking Tesla project. South Australia said it would assist in building a 120MW/140MWh energy storage project by Simec Zen Energy with a loan of A$10 million ($8 million) from the state’s Renewable Technology Fund. Construction starts this year at Port Augusta, and will support a 200MW solar farm installed for the Whyalla Steelworks. Last year South Australia made headlines across the globe, when Tesla delivered the biggest lithium ion ESS in the world with the Hornsdale Power Reserve’s 100MW/129MWh system, the first project to be delivered under South Australia’s Renewable Technology Fund. Simec Zen Energy was formed last year after international business group GFG Alliance took a majority stake in Australiabased ZEN Energy. Simec Zen Energy is the result of a joint venture between GFG’s energy division Simec Energy and Zen. Elsewhere in South Australia, the local utility SA Water announced in April it intended to install 35MWh of energy storage coupled with 152MW of solar in the next two years as it moves towards its goal of achieving zero net power costs by 2020. The company, which spent A$55 million ($42 million) on 220GWh of power in 2016-17, has

been trialling storage technologies alongside PV arrays during two projects — 50kWh of lead battery storage from Ecoult at its Crystal Brook workshop and a 128kWh flywheel by South Australian company Greenfields Energy at its Hope Valley Reservoir site. In the adjoining state of Victoria, wind power company Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy — created in April 2017 from a merger between Gamesa Corporación Tecnológica and Siemens Wind Power — started the construction of a wind farm in April, incorporating a 20MW/34MWh lithium-ion battery. Commissioning is set for August 2019. The company has been awarded an engineering, procurement and construction contract for the entire project — known as the Bulgana Green Energy Hub — that will encompass 56 turbines with the battery in Stawell, Victoria. Siemens Gamesa will

build and maintain the project for 25 years under the terms of the contract with the French renewable energy firm Neoen, the company that owns the South Australia Hornsdale wind farm, which uses Tesla’s 100MW lithium ion system. The complex has secured two power purchase agreements: one for 15 years with the state’s government, the other with the Australian agribusiness Nectar Farms up to 2028. In March, Australia-wide energy retailer EnergyAustralia announced it had signed agreements worth around A$50 million ($37 million) to operate two lithium ion, utility-scale energy storage systems totalling 55MW/80MWh, also in the state of Victoria. Tesla is due to deliver a 25MW/50MWh lithium ion system at the Gannawarra Energy Storage System near the 50MW Gannawarra Solar Farm. Fluence (the joint venture between Siemens and AES

Corporation) will build a 30MW/30 MWh gridconnected battery at the Ballarat terminal station. EnergyAustralia will hold the rights to charge and discharge energy from the ESSs into the National Electricity Market until 2030 and 2033 respectively. The two consortia-led projects, by Edify Energy, will be delivered with joint investment from Wirsol Energy and Spotless Sustainability Services and are part of the Victorian Government Energy Storage Initiative. The state and national governments will each provide up to A$25 million ($18m) in funding. Victoria is also set to trial virtual power plant technology and install a 4.3MWh lithium ion micro-grid. The A$10.5 million ($7.8m) microgrid will supply wholesale market energy needs and feed surplus power into the broader grid for peak shaving services.

Western Australia switches on biggest industrial battery system Australian utility Alinta Energy announced on April 12 it had switched on the country’s biggest industrial application lithium ion battery at its Newman Power Station in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The 30MW/11.4MWh battery is capable of operating as a stand-alone system or can supply power if one or all of the station’s gas turbine generators fail or while a standby gas turbine starts and takes up load. The lithium batteries were supplied by Korea’s Kokam, which teamed with ABB Australia to

34 • Batteries International • Summer 2018

form an integrated microgrid. As a stand-alone system, the ESS will provide grid services including frequency control, voltage regulation, synthetic inertia, short circuit current and load control to the high voltage network. The ESS can also operate in a grid forming mode in an islanded system and power a 220 kV high-voltage power system (overhead transmission lines, substations and an iron ore mine) with up to 30MW of load, without support from any other generation source.

Alinta Energy CEO Jeff Dimery said the system would demonstrate how renewable generation and other technologies can help tackle the three main issues of the future power supply: security of supply, cost and tackling climate control concerns. The battery supports the 178MW open cycle gas turbine at the power station by emulating a 30MW gas turbine and providing spinning reserve. It also delivers frequency control, voltage regulation and reduces peak demand on the gas turbine at the Newman Power Station.

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ENERGY STORAGE NEWS VIEWPOINT Sonnen’s Ani Backa talks about the transformative nature of storage, the growth of VPPs and the legislative hurdles the markets need to navigate going forward.

Education key to boosting deployment of ESS in US US regulators and legislators must be educated on the benefits of energy storage if the country is to establish the best practices that will one day inform the laws and regulatory policy to boost deployment, says Ani Backa, the new US director of regulatory strategy and utility initiatives of energy storage firm Sonnen. Sonnen recently hired Backa to work directly with regulatory bodies and utilities across the US to promote the implementation and expansion of the Germany headquartered company’s sonnenCommunity model, and help drive innovative electricity services that connect clean, decentralized energy. Backa, the former attorney and government affairs manager for Xcel Energy, said proper encouragement from companies such as Sonnen, as well as from legislative and regulatory policies, would enable utilities to bridge the gap between small-scale storage and the provision of services. Legislators in the US began their push for renewable generation integration on May 9, when California became the first US state to mandate solar be built on new homes and apartments from 1 January 2020. The unanimous approval by policy and planning agency California Energy Commission could possibly pave the way for similar regulations on storage to follow. While some states and utilities are open to the integration of renewable energy resources and residential battery storage, Backa said other states lag far behind. You say grid modernization is key to a sustainable energy future. What does this entail? For example, will every home one day have storage and PV, or will it be the introduction of VPP to neighbourhoods connecting residential, commercial and EVs? Sonnen believes that having a more modernized, reliable energy grid is the only way to ensure a sustainable energy future. This is where energy

36 • Batteries International • Summer 2018

storage has the ability to play a transformative role. Smart energy storage systems are able to manage renewable energy with intelligent and intuitive software that knows when to store excess energy locally, when demand is low, and when to discharge local energy to meet high demand. Ultimately, this model can save homeowners money and simultaneously take the strain off the energy grid by assisting utilities in optimizing the lifecycle of their transmission and distribution infrastructure, T&D deferral, greater grid utilization and ancillary grid energy services. Sonnen’s hope is to deploy more residential energy storage systems and connect them to create virtual power plants in neighbourhoods around the country to bolster grid infrastructure. This has been a successful and vastly deployed model in Germany and, in partnership with our stakeholders, Sonnen is ready to adapt this model to fit the US utility landscape. In the US, widespread integration of solar + storage solutions cannot be achieved without involving local utilities, installers and of course the end-users themselves. What are the biggest legislative hurdles the energy storage industry must cross in the US (and wider, if possible) in the next 10 years? The legislative landscape is varied and complex. Some states and utilities are open to the integration of renewable energy resources and residential battery storage, while others lag far behind. While residential energy storage is no longer a nascent technology, we are still seeing a lack of understanding of its role in some states, by legislators and utilities, as well as scepticism towards the technology and outspoken reluctance to embrace wider adoption. And while many within the industry see the long-term value in residential battery storage, we need to further educate our regulators and legislators

on the indisputable benefits of residential battery storage so that we can establish best practices that facilitate law-making and regulatory policy. Utility leaders want to bridge the gap between small-scale residential battery storage and services provided to their residential customers, but they need the proper encouragement from companies like Sonnen, as well as from legislative and regulatory policies. What do you mean by grid integration? Grid integration refers to the process of using battery storage and the VPP model to facilitate the introduction of residential renewable and distributed energy resources to a local utility grid. Depending on the location, utility landscape and energy regulations, implementation of this process will vary. Given our experience in Germany and our recent implementation of distributed, community micro-grids in Puerto Rico, Sonnen is poised to help utilities and end users understand the options available to them, customize the approach, and execute on the integration process. How do you see the rise of renewables in the energy mix affecting the grid, and what innovations do you foresee will aid the transition from fossil fuels? We live in exciting times, with widespread penetration of renewable energy resources and adoption of these technologies by markets and utilities. However, renewables such as wind and solar are intermittent and sometimes unpredictable as energy is available and collected via solar panels and turbines. When these bursts of availability occur, the surplus of energy is often generated during low-demand times of the day or shoved into an energy grid that isn’t equipped to handle the influx. These bursts can cause traffic jams or congestion on energy highways or transmission lines and can lead to outages or higher utility bills for customers. To address this issue, Sonnen is leading the transition towards a cleaner, smarter and more resilient grid by introducing storage as the missing link in integrating renewables.

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FLOW BATTERY NEWS

Redflow batteries chosen over lead and lithium to power Fiji’s digital TV rollout Australian energy storage company Redflow announced in early July it had shipped zinc-bromine flow batteries made at its new factory in Thailand to fulfil its largest ever order for use in a digital television network in Fiji. New Zealand-based telecommunications infrastructure specialist Hitech Solutions last year chose Redflow’s ZBM2 batteries to provide energy storage for Fiji’s new digital television network, which it is deploying for the Fiji government throughout the Pacific nation, including remote islands. Hitech Solutions ordered $1.2 million of ZBM2 batteries to store and supply renewable energy to power the TV network. The company, which has operated a five-battery trial site in Fiji over the past year, intends to scale up its deployment of solar panels and Redflow batteries during the next six months. Hitech will install up to 60 ZBM2 batteries at more than 10 sites in Fiji, many of which are on hills with

no access to the country’s electricity grid. Hitech Solutions said it selected Redflow’s zincbromine flow batteries for the challenging project because of their robustness, long life, safety, temperature tolerance and straightforward recycling process. Hitech Solutions chief technology officer Derek Gaeth said Redflow batteries offered many benefits for the Fijian deployment: “The primary need was for a robust design with a long service life. “We considered lithium and lead-acid based batteries, but many sites are in remote locations with difficult access. Lead acid has too short a service life and is very bulky in the limited space we have. “We saved 40 tonnes of battery weight by choosing Redflow batteries over lead-acid batteries — the typical choice for telecommunication network energy storage. “Lithium performance degrades over time and would struggle with the heat and our desire to run

Protean uses Korean grant for WA trial of vanadium battery Storage firm Protean Energy announced on April 11 it is to use a A$120,000 ($90,000) grant from the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning to test vanadium redox flow battery technology in Western Australia. The Australian firm and its Korean affiliate Korid Energy will use the cash to test its co-owned V-Kor technology. The 25kW/100kWh battery is due to be installed this month. Protean chairman Bevan Tarratt said: “This trial is the first major step for the the company and V-KOR

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to capitalize on the growing energy storage sector in Australia. The vanadium flow battery has the potential to play a crucial role in revolutionizing the new energy sector.” The trial follows the VKOR technology being selected as a superior emerging technology by Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. In addition to the Australian trial, test laboratory Korea Conformity Laboratories are analyzing two 25kW stacks as part of a solar PV and VRFB-ESS combination.

batteries without any cooling, even on days that are hotter than 30°C. Redflow batteries can use unfiltered air for cooling, even where it is likely to have a high salt content, without experiencing corrosion. They also present no fire risk through ‘thermal runaway’. “In addition, we believe there are still questions about the safe disposal and recycling of lithium batteries at their end of life, which could be a particular issue in the Pacific Islands where recycling costs can be very high. “Zinc-bromine flow batteries are made of components that are easily recycled or reused, which means this is not a problem. “Redflow batteries come with a 10-year warranty and when required, they’ll tolerate 100% depth of discharge — that is, being completely run flat and left flat — without damaging the battery. “A key benefit of Redflow batteries is their ability for sites to self-reboot from zero per cent state of charge

and come back online when solar energy becomes available. ZBM2 batteries cannot be overcharged and can be charged and turned off for long periods of time with no self-discharge. “Another advantage is the size of ZBM2 batteries — which weigh in at about 240 kilograms — because it is a deterrent to theft. “Redflow offers tight integration with Victron inverter-chargers and Fronius photovoltaic solar inverters while its Internet-enabled battery management system makes them easy to support remotely.” Separately Redflow announced in June that its new manufacturing plant in Thailand was up and running and can consistently produce 90 ZBM2 batteries per month. Redflow CEO Tim Harris said manufacturing complete batteries in the factory marked an important milestone for the company. Redflow’s 10kWh batteries are marketed as ZBM2 and ZCell. They can scale from a single battery installation through to grid–scale deployments.

US firm delivers first iron flow batteries order to Europe ESS, the long duration energy storage maker, announced on March 13 it is to enter the German market after securing a deal to supply two of its trademarked Energy Warehouse iron redox flow battery systems. The Oregon, US firm, founded in 2011, will supply two 50kW/400kWh to chemical company BASF, which made a significant investment in ESS last year, marking the company’s first foray into Europe.

Last December Batteries International reported how ESS had secured $13 million in series ‘B’ funding to expand the annual production of its product to 900MWh, automate its manufacturing process and promote its product. The funding round includes investors led by BASF, cleantech investment firm Cycle Capital Management and investment management companies Presidio Partners and InfraPartners Management.

Batteries International • Summer 2018 • 37

ENERGY STORAGE NEWS VIEWPOINT Electrochemical storage will have a vital role to play in the future low carbon economy in behind the meter and renewable energy integration applications, but it won’t be enough.

Battery storage will be insufficient to meet low carbon future demands Electrochemical storage technology’s fast response and cycling capabilities will secure its future in megawatt-scale applications, but Nigel Holmes, CEO of the Scottish Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association, warns it will fail to meet the terawatt-scale demands of a low carbon power and heat network. This is especially true as the UK positions its infrastructure to meet a Paris Agreement promise that requires 35% of its electricity to come from renewable generators by 2020. Holmes believes fuel-sourced power such as hydrogen will be required if the UK is to reach its goal of an 80% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050 (below 1990 levels), and a 26% reduction by 2020. He told Batteries International on the sidelines of the All-Energy event in Glasgow, Scotland on May 3: “Comparing all the technology available, the classic comparison I’m getting is between energy storage and hydrogen. “And if asked which will be the winner, the answer is it depends, because looking at residential PV and battery storage in houses you can store all the output on a daily basis and use that, and the system will return energy 365 days a year. “That for me is a good solution at that scale. The bit we are trying to understand is going bigger in terms of energy storage and big in terms of duration and demand. Scaling up with batteries in a linear way from kWh to MWh is not quite as simple because it is 1,000 times bigger. “With hydrogen there are potentially very large economies of scale storing hydrogen in salt caverns. That’s happening in Texas.” So would the UK be able to add enough electrochemical storage capacity to meet growing renewables integration to balance supply and demand over longer timeframes? His response was simple: “At present my answer is no. “I struggle to envisage a situation where the UK battery storage capacity

38 • Batteries International • Summer 2018

could economically satisfy the interseasonal demand for energy when you consider scenarios where we begin to significantly decarbonize heat. “To meet the inter-seasonal energy demands for low carbon heat we will need many, many TWhs of energy storage. “I can see a key role for battery storage in behind the meter (with PV for instance), and for local grid balancing at MW scale. But I struggle to see the case for TWh scale battery storage. The economics won’t stack up.” The issue revolves around system operators balancing the weekly, monthly and seasonal heat demands as well as growing electrical and transportation demands, such as electric vehicle charging. Grant Wilson, teaching and research fellow at Sheffield University, says electrochemical storage would, however, still play a crucial role in managing renewable integration at a sub-daily level, and day-to-day level. He said: “Perhaps with time it may even help with balancing up to a week and beyond. “However, when the sheer scale of balancing heat demands as well as electrical and transport demands over weeks to months to seasons is considered, electrochemical storage simply seems to be the wrong technology choice. “Basically, if a system is looking to store TWhs (this is energy not power) of energy over longer periods of time — then it is very hard to see this being accomplished without the use of a fuel, and hydrogen has potential to fill this role.” Last December the UK Renewable Energy Association and an interest group made up of members of the

House of Lords and House of Commons released a paper that suggested the UK would reach 8GW of battery storage by 2021 in a medium deployment scenario — up from 60MW today. Putting this in perspective, if this had four hours of energy associated with this storage, it would be equivalent to 32GWh of stored energy. On March 1 this year the gas demand in the local area was nearly 3,500GWh; meaning 32GWh would be equivalent to less than 1% of local gas demand. A best-case scenario, requiring major policy support and a rollout of all the policies contained in the UK government’s July 2017 smart systems and flexibility plan, would give Britain a 12GW battery market by 2021. Transmission operator National Grid suggested that up to 40% of the UK’s electricity demand could be supplied by gas-fired generation in its Future Energy Scenarios report. The report noted that, in 2017, daily transmission fed gas-fired generation demand fluctuated between 990GW and 792GW. Wilson said there is broadly about 3,800GWh of natural gas in the high pressure transmission gas lines, of which on a daily basis, the change in pressure allows the energy in the pipes to fluctuate by anywhere up to 450GWh over a day (but on average it fluctuates by just over 100GWh per day). He said: “This fluctuation can be considered to be energy storage — as the amount of energy in the pipes can be changed to accommodate changes in demand further downstream in the gas network — this fluctuation itself is typically termed ‘linepack’.”

“Basically, if a system is looking to store TWhs of energy over longer periods of time, not power, then it is very hard to see this being accomplished without the use of a fuel, and hydrogen has potential to fill this role” www.batteriesinternational.com

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FLOW BATTERY NEWS

Name change signals vertical integration goal after VRFB buy out Battery materials and electrolyte producer Stina Resources announced on May 1 it had completed the purchase of all the outstanding assets of vanadium redox flow battery maker Gildemeister Energy Storage, including its CellCube technology and energy storage business. Little more than two weeks later, the Canada headquartered firm announced it was changing its name to Cellcube Energy Storage Systems. The buy-out and name change reflects the company’s focus on becoming a vertically integrated vanadium firm — from materials to energy storage systems — within the storage

sector. German firm Gildemeister’s assets and business were bought for €5 million ($6 million), and were fully paid for with proceeds from recent private placements. The sale was made through Stina’s newly established, wholly owned Austrian subsidiary Enerox, which focuses on researching, developing, manufacturing and distributing vanadium flow batteries. Enerox says it expects to release the next generation of the CellCube flow battery modules product soon. Besides the CellCube battery technology the sale included capital asset equipment used in manufacturing, major assets includ-

ing all inventory on-hand, software, IP including patents and trademarks, office equipment, its customer base and goodwill. On May 2, Stina announced a strategic relationship with and $2 million investment in US e-commerce platform company Bragga-

watt Energy. The investment was made to allow Enerox to capitalize on expanding markets. This March, Stina appointed four members of Gildemeister onto its staff, including the former company’s head of technical sales Stefan Schauss.

Next phase of Pacific Northwest National Lab’s VRFB electrolyte trials starts after initial success The second phase of a vanadium redox flow battery trial is to begin following the satisfactory results of phase one tests of a vanadium electrolyte developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Golden Share Resources Corporation, a Canadian mineral exploration company that licensed the material, a June announcement said. The trial looked at the compatibility of the electrolyte, licensed by the Canadian minerals firm and China’s Hunan Vanadium Valley New Energy Technology, in a bid to develop a custom-built VRFB. The initial trial was conducted under a letter of intent over a two-month period that began this March. The second phase will happen over the summer. The next phase will test the technology’s operational ability under a wider temperature range — particularly higher temperatures,

which should prove higher reliability — as the companies look to boost overall battery performance. The first phase involved

more than 100 full cycles of the technology, following the February letter of intent. Golden Share announced on April 17 it intended to

make its energy storage business a new public entity, with the company retaining its mineral exploration business.

South Africa mining firm installs zinc bromide ESS South African mining company Anglo American Platinum announced on April 23 that US startup Primus Power would provide 1MWh of its zinc bromide flow battery energy storage systems for use at their Amandelbult mine, in the Limpopo province of the country. The eight zinc bromide EnergyPod ESSs will provide 200kW/1MWh of power to the mine by charging during low demand times and discharging during peak times to reduce costs and improve the site’s security of supply. The deal deepens the relationship between the two firms. Anglo Ameri-

40 • Batteries International • Summer 2018

can Platinum is a strategic investor in Primus — through the Platinum Group Metals Development Fund in 2014 — and a supplier of metals used as a catalyst on the EnergyPod’s titanium electrodes. Last September, the US Trade and Development Agency awarded a grant to utility-scale solar power plant firm SolAfrica Energy for a pilot project demonstrating the EnergyPod technology. The project, which includes Anglo American Platinum, aims to demonstrate the technology’s performance, reliability and durability at Eskom,

the national utility of South Africa. The pilot will include a series of assessments to determine applications where long-duration energy storage has the greatest value on the country’s power grid and will inform an implementation plan for the deployment of ESSs. Large-scale deployments of energy storage on South Africa’s electric grid will increase the capacity of the grid, support further integration of renewable energy resources, and offset the use of diesel fuel for peaking power and backup power generation.

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FINANCE NEWS

World’s first large-scale storage investment fund opens in UK UK-based private equity group Gore Street Capital has raised £30.6 million ($43 million) in May through what it says is the world’s first stock exchange-listed fund focused solely on energy storage. The fund — floated on the London Stock Exchange — had aimed to raise £100 million ($132m) for largescale storage projects in the UK, and possibly North America and Western Europe. Although the firm said it was chemistry agnostic, system operators have turned to lithium ion storage as a solution to maintaining the grid at 50MHz, while integrating more and more wind and solar gener-

ated power. Patrick Cox, chairman of the Gore Street Energy Storage Fund, said: “Given the increasing penetration of renewable power in international energy consumption and the move away from fossil fuel generation, we believe that investment in energy storage projects will deliver strong returns.” The fund’s established seed portfolio includes a 6MW project in Yorkshire, Britain, which uses NEC supplied batteries, and a 4MW system in Swansea, Wales using cells from Tesla. Both behind-the-meter projects use lithium ion cells to provide capacity market and frequency response services. A third 10MW project

Sonnen closes $71m funding round led by Shell Ventures German energy storage firm Sonnen announced on May 23 it had secured €60 million ($71 million) in its latest financing round, led by Shell Ventures — the corporate venture capital arm of Royal Dutch Shell — and supported by existing investors. Alongside the investment, Sonnen and Shell’s New Energies division launched a strategic cooperation agreement. The firms will work on integrated energy propositions, enhanced EV charging solutions and the provision of grid services based on Sonnen’s virtual battery pool. The investment will enable Sonnen to expand further into the US and Australia. The company expanded its presence in North America, when it opened an innovation centre in Atlanta, Georgia, in February 2017 and a North America HQ in California the year before. This February, the company announced plans for a factory in Adelaide, South

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Australia. The company will assemble its residential storage systems at the factory, set to open in Q4 of this year. Sonnen first launched the sonnenCommunity — a variation of a virtual power plant where end users share renewable energy — in 2016 in Germany. The next year it was introduced in Australia, followed by the first US-based sonnenCommunity in Jasper, Arizona.

in Essex, Britain, is in the planning stages. A Gore Street official told Batteries International: “We are technology agnostic, but we find lithium ion to be the most productive financially and it has service merits, but if we come across better technologies we will acquire those as well. It really depends on the services the

technology is able to offer and the costs.” Last July, the UK government announced £246 million of funding through its Faraday Battery Challenge. The investment includes £80 million earmarked for the development of a stateof-the-art automotive battery development facility, in West Midlands, and a £45 million Battery Institute competition to establish a centre for battery research.

Leclanché secures possible $125m to boost global market ambitions Energy storage system firm Leclanché announced on June 5 it had secured Sfr75 million ($76 million) in corporate funding and a conditional Sfr50 million funding facility for acquisitions and joint ventures from its largest shareholder FEFAM, a collection of various investment funds. It follows the Switzerlandbased firm’s announcement last month it had signed a non-binding term sheet with a strategic investor to increase corporate funding to between Sfr100 millionSfr125 million. Completion of the deal is towards the end of the year. The acquisitions and JV facility will operate on the basis of a Right-of-FirstOffer for FEFAM. Anil Srivastava, CEO of Leclanché, said the facility

would be used for margin accretive acquisitions, and to grow its market share in Europe, Asia and North America in both the stationary grid-based storage and e-Transport markets. Leclanché is in the process of buying an unnamed US energy management software company, and completing a JV agreement with an electric vehicle company in India. On May 3 Leclanché forecast the company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization would be positive by 2020. The firm says it has an order book of more than 50MWh (contributing Sfr40 million to Sfr50 million of revenue in 2018), and expects to have 100MWh of ESSs in operation by 2018.

Confidence grows in energy storage as VC funding hits $299 million in Q1 Investment in battery storage companies rose more than 400% in the first quarter of the year compared to the same time last year, says clean energy communications and consulting firm Mercom Capital Group’s Q1 2018 Battery Storage, Smart Grid and Efficiency Funding and M&A report published on April 20. The report focuses on funding and mergers and

acquisitions activity for the battery storage, smart grid and energy sectors over the first three months of 2018. The report found that venture capital funding in battery storage companies reached $299 million in 12 deals compared to $58 million raised in eight deals during Q1 of last year. $151 million was raised in five deals during the last three months of 2017.

US AI and virtual power plant firm Stem was the top five VC funded company, raising $80 million through investment from Activate Capital, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, and Temasek. An indicator of which direction battery technology is going in, at least according to VCs, was the $65 million invested in solid-state battery company Ionic Materials.

Batteries International • Summer 2018 • 41

FINANCE NEWS

Sembcorp Industries acquisition paves way for 120MW energy storage portfolio UK Power Reserve, the gas-fired energy firm, announced plans for a 120MW battery storage portfolio on June 12, less than two weeks after it was bought for £216 million ($288 million) by Singaporean energy group Sembcorp Industries. The Solihull-based firm has partnered with energy storage technology compa-

ny Fluence — the joint venture between Siemens and the AES Corporation — to deliver 60MW of storage for the first phase of the plans. Fluence will provide three 20MW ESSs using its Advancion technology platform. All three sites should be operational this winter. The mini-gas powered plant operator, previously

BP/Lightsource partnership moves into smart home market, acquires Ubiworx Utility-scale PV firm Lightsource BP — a strategic partnership between Lightsource and international petroleum and gas firm BP — announced on May 8 it had bought into the smart home market with the buy-out of Internet-of-Things software developer Ubiworx. The platform connects solar panels to residential energy storage — which stores power for use during low generation periods or sold to the grid — using a smart management system, allowing the consumer to become a prosumer. The sale adds machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms, small footprint embedded software and smart control systems to Lightsource BP’s portfolio of energy technologies. Lightsource BP was formed last December when the British gas and oil company announced it was to invest $200 million in Lightsource over three years in exchange for a 43% stake in the company. The acquisition comes after a two-year working relationship where the Irish firm Ubiworx’s platform become one of the core technologies deployed by Lightsource BP’s in-house innovation

arm, Lightsource Labs. Karen Boutonnat, group chief operating officer for Lightsource BP, said: “We cannot underestimate the power of the home and its vital role in shaping this new energy future.” In June 2016, Lightsource teamed with French power company EDF Energy to launch its Sunplug system — which came in the Sunplug Complete and Sunplug Battery formats — that combines PV, storage and a management platform. This January, BP Ventures, the company’s venture capitalist arm, announced it had invested $5 million in Freewire Technologies, a US company that makes mobile EV charging systems. The systems are due to be installed in BP retail sites across Europe. BP recently released a report, Advancing the Energy Transition, which sets out goals to meet zero net emissions growth; generate sustainable reductions of 3.5 million tonnes of annual CO2 equivalent greenhouse gas emissions throughout its businesses by 2025; and invest in carbon offsetting projects and the introduction of a group-wide accreditation programme, Advancing Low Carbon.

42 • Batteries International • Summer 2018

owned by private equity groups Inflexion and Equistone, successfully bid for 200MW of gas-fired power capacity in the UK’s February T4-Capacity Market auction for delivery by October 2021. The T4 auction took UK-

PR’s portfolio beyond the gigawatt scale. Tim Emrich, who cofounded the company, stepped down following the buy-out. Sam Wither, the company’s former chief commercial officer, succeeds him.

RedT Energy raises £3.85m from share sale Vanadium flow battery maker RedT Energy announced on April 13 it had raised £3.85 million ($5.2 million) from the sale of around 10% of the UK company’s shares at 5.9 pence each. Proceeds will be used to grow the business, including the development of new product generations to satisfy orders and the pipeline of customer interest. Andrew Raca, a joint broker at VSA Capital, told ESJ: “It’s an important step in the development of the company as far as investor support is concerned.”

On March 30 the company announced it had been chosen to supply a 600kW/3MWh system for a European Union-backed initiative for a large-scale tidal generation plant. However, the project remains subject to finance and formal contracts. On March 1 the company confirmed it had been awarded £750,000 ($995 million) by the UK government, which RedT is using to accelerate the research and development of its stacks, production automation and its vanadium electrolyte.

ION Energy acquires Freemens India-headquartered energy storage firm Ion Energy announced on February 4 it had bought French lithium ion battery management system firm Freemens in a cash and equity deal. Freemens’ engineering and sales employees will join the core team of Ion, with Alexandre Collet, founder and CEO of Free-

mens, becoming the Indian start-up’s vice president of engineering as part of the deal. Ion intends to grow its portfolio of customers in India, US and Europe, which includes Freemens’ 20-plus clients such as aerospace company Airbus Safran and electric vehicle firm CarWatt.

Wells Fargo to commit $100bn American bank Wells Fargo has pledged more than $100 billion to support clean technology and fund renewable projects, the company’s CEO Tim Sloan said on April 19 during his keynote address at a CEO Investor Forum in San Francisco, US. The money will be invested in businesses and

projects that support the transition to a low-carbon economy through to 2030. The move by Wells Fargo follows a $12 billion investment in sustainable businesses last year. In 2016 projects owned in whole or in part by the firm produced more than 9% of all wind and solar photovoltaic energy generated in the US.

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Bringing the industry together

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Meet the team

Mike Halls, Editor Mike, a former journalist with the UK newspaper the Financial Times, has been involved in journalism, publishing and print for three decades. “I’m particularly fond of writing about the batteries industry,” he says. “It’s an unusual mixture of being fast-paced but slow to change — and friendly too. What’s more there’s always something more to learn.”

Claire Ronnie, Office Manager and Subscriptions Claire’s our unflappable person — she’s the go-to girl for subscriptions or account enquiries. Go ahead and challenge her!

Karen Hampton, Publisher In her recent years of working within the battery business Karen has become a well known figure at conferences — not least as our social butterfly. “My job,” she says, “is to get the maximum benefit for our advertisers to make sure their name and brand is out there, while maintaining the integrity, fairness and excellence our publication is renowned for.”

Antony Parselle, Designer Better known in the office as ‘Ant’ he’s been working in magazine design and layout since the early 1990s. Not so good on showing his best side however

PUBLISHER Karen Hampton Tel: +44 (0) 7792 852 337 karen@batteriesinternational.com

June Moutrie, Business Development Manager She’s our accounting Wunderkind who deals with all things financial — a kind of mini Warren Buffett.

Jade Beevor, Advertising Manager Jade, who joined the team in early 2015, is already getting a feel for the industry. “This is an incredible business we’re in,” she says. “These people are literally changing the future of our lives — and the planet too!”

Jan Darasz, Cartoonist Jan has an international reputation as a cartoonist able to making anything — including an electrolyte! — funny. And as for LiCFePO4 ...

EDITOR Mike Halls +44 (0) 7977 016 918 editor@batteriesinternational.com

Wyn Jenkins, Supplements Editor Don’t let his boyish charm deceive, Wyn’s been a journalist and respected editor on major financial titles for some 20 years. When not heading his own publications firm, Seren Global Media, he looks after our supplements.

Kevin Desmond, Batteries Historian Actually more than just a historian on batteries as he’s written about many things. He’s the inspiration behind our Batteries Hero section.

DIGITAL MEDIA OPPORTUNITIES Jade Beevor +44 (0)1243 782 275 jade@energystoragejournal.com

Reception: +44 (0)1243 782 275 • www.batteriesinternational.com Mustard Seed Publishing Ltd, 10 Temple Bar Business Park, Strettington Lane, Strettington PO18 0TU, UK • Registered in England 5976361

COVER STORY: A CELEBRATION OF WOMEN IN OUR INDUSTRY

Creating a new landscape for battery industry management By Debbie Mason The term ‘glass ceiling’ was coined exactly 50 years ago. It’s the idea that certain groups — most notably women — could only get so far up the management ladder. ‘Ceiling’ because it was the upper limit of their aspirations and glass because they could see through it to what could, or more importantly should, eventually be theirs. In modern corporate life glass ceilings are gradually disappearing — and the lead battery industry, as this

feature shows, is one sector in which traditional barriers are dissolving rapidly. Yet undercurrents remain. This May Julie McClure, soon to be chairperson at MAC Engineering, pushed to have a special BCI conference drinks party that would only have women attendees. It was the first of its kind. And oddly enough it found as many enthusiasts from the men’s side as the women’s. “It’s a great idea,”

one delegate told Batteries International. “We all know that women shouldn’t be just an appendage of their husbands at these events — and we shouldn’t look on them that way. “We need to honour this next generation of leaders that are coming to the fore. You only have to think of some people — East Penn’s Sally Miksiewicz being a good example — where a female chief executive has to be ranked with the very best. She outshone huge ranks of people,

The role of women in the lead battery business has changed extensively. Relics of a male-dominated industry may remain, but it’s time now to welcome the next generation of leadership — a younger one, and a more female one.

44 • Batteries International • Summer 2018

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COVER STORY: A CELEBRATION OF WOMEN IN OUR INDUSTRY

“To be successful you have to believe in yourself, work hard, and be prepared to take risks. That is true regardless of age, gender, ethnicity or any other labels people define one another by.”

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Batteries International • Summer 2018 • 45

COVER STORY: A CELEBRATION OF WOMEN IN OUR INDUSTRY TECHNOLOGICAL BRAINS TOO …

Perhaps equally interestingly is that although science has been dominated by men, women are increasingly becoming features of the technological landscape. Some even superstars. Figures such as Jean Burbank in the 1950s onwards and Kathryn Bullock in the 1960s and later were the female technological superstars of their day. But a larger crowd is growing. Maria Skyllas-Kazacos has pioneered the vanadium redox flow battery and continues to be at the cutting edge of its development. almost entirely men but some women too, as a mover and shaker in our business. “Nowadays achievement is no longer about gender.” A generous comment for sure. But the battery industry is split on this issue, as our interviews with senior women show. “It is very rare to find direct chauvinism — even with some of the elder figures,” one chief executive told Batteries International. “But that still doesn’t explain our overall lack

Christina Lampe-Önnerud used her PhD and expertise in lithium ion to set up the huge commercial success that is Boston Power. Then there’s Anne-Marie Sastry, who has been the pioneering figure in taking lithium ion batteries to the next generational stage. Two up-and-coming stars are Clare Grey, who is using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to develop new electrode materials, and Maria Helena Braga who, working with John Goodenough, appears to have developed the first all-solid state battery cells. of representation at the top levels of management.” Dianne Dickey, vice president for business development at Chinese battery giant Leoch, for example, says she hasn’t encountered sexism in the battery industry, but does feel that in the wider world of work there are issues. “Here in corporate America there’s still a big issue with women in any kind of meaningful positions. That glass ceiling is still there,” she says. “Typically if you go on to a compa-

ny’s website, in their executive team the only positions you will see women in are either legal, maybe accounting or financing, or marketing. Not technical. “The joke at BCI is that you just see old, white men. That’s not derogatory, that’s just what you see. Maybe women not getting into the battery industry has more to do with it just not being on their radar — and maybe that’s the industry’s shortcoming, that we’re not out there recruiting and promoting, but that will change.” Oddly enough Smith Bucklin, the association management company that runs BCI, is a very different company and actually employs more women than men, BCI’s Claire Sereiko says her generation — the millennials (those born from the early 1980s to the late 1990s) — has a different mindset, which will help lead to change. “My generation is starting to redress the balance,” she says. “There are a lot more organizations trying to put programmes in place so that women feel they have resources and support if they’re interested in getting involved. “They want female engineers, they want to go down that route, whereas those programmes didn’t exist 20 or 30 years ago. Yet many of my friends are now engineers or accountants or doing more traditional male roles.” Her colleague Pam O’Brien agrees, saying that as a baby boomer (those born after the Second World War, to roughly the mid-60s) herself, she found at the beginning of her career she would often be the only female engineer in the room, whereas now a quarter or even a third of engineers might be. “I’ve come to the conclusion that part of it is generational,” says O’Brien. “In the battery industry, some of the senior folks are retiring, and the next generation that’s coming in has a different mindset in how they look at women and their role in industry.” Julie McClure, incoming chairperson at MAC Engineering, says a simi-

“In the battery industry, some of the senior folks are retiring, and the next generation that’s coming in has a different mindset in how they look at women and their role in industry” 46 • Batteries International • Summer 2018

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COVER STORY: A CELEBRATION OF WOMEN IN OUR INDUSTRY lar picture is emerging: “Women my age — 51 — weren’t encouraged to go into maths and sciences but I do think that’s changed. Having taught quite recently I have seen that, and the fact that at MAC we have a bunch of women engineers also tells me it’s changing.” But that doesn’t mean all should be treated the same regardless of gender, she says. “I don’t want to be treated like a man. I like being a woman. “We’ve tried to make men and women the same but why would we? Each of us has different strengths — we complement each other. “Women are more likely to consider things from all angles, they’re much more aware of what’s going on around them. Men don’t concentrate on the details of things like women do. We are better at relationships and communication. Understanding the effects of what we say on someone else.” Donna Synder, vice president of marketing and advertising with East Penn, sees something similar at work. “I do see a difference in work styles,” she says. “Women tend to ask more questions and be open to more sharing. Men are more direct. Neither one is better than the other, just different. In fact, it creates an advantageous balance in the workplace to the benefit of entire organizations.” Mary Hendriks, an industry executive with the Australian Energy Storage Alliance, takes this further, arguing that if you eliminate one demographic — the half of the world that are women — the whole of the industry will suffer. “A lot of women are suited to technical areas and don’t realize it. They’re suited to areas like design and engineering and they do well in management,” she says. “If you don’t have women in those areas it means you will have a lot of skills missing. Across the board people have skills, and if you take a demographic out of one industry you are eliminating the people with those skills. “If you remove women from an area such as energy storage, you are removing 50% of talented people. By women coming in, you are filling those gaps. “If you only have men in the industry then you’re going to get men across the board with a variety of skills, but you’re only going to get the skills of 50% of the population.” Part of the problem however is coexisting in what in many respects is

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Maggie Teliska, patent specialist at legal firm Caldwell : “One of the great things for me was joining the society of women engineers. They were a great resource for talking out problems. Men probably don’t need things like that because there are greater numbers of them. I don’t play golf, I can’t go to their locker rooms — and this is where they get the opportunities for networking discussions and where relationships can be forged.”

essentially a man’s world — a world of golf, of meetings where the loudest hold the floor and where brash behaviour can be accepted as the norm. “Men seem to have no problems at all with speaking up, making suggestions about things — even if it’s really dumb, they give the impression that of course everyone will want to hear what they’ve got to say,” says Surrette Battery chief financial officer Virginia Archibald. “I noticed this at a professional development course, where there were lots of senior people in companies and it was very male. I counted, and I think there were 10 women and 100 men in the room. “I said to my colleague that this would be a bunch of men talking about how awesome they are — the women might say one thing that will probably be worth hearing but it will be drowned out by men talking about their accomplishments — and it was.” Maggie Teliska, who spent many

years at Johnson Controls and has recently used her doctorate as an entry into the world of patent law, says she had to find other ways to get support. “One of the great things for me was joining the society of women engineers. They were a great resource for talking out problems,” she said. “Men probably don’t need things like that because there are greater numbers of them. I don’t play golf, I can’t go to their locker rooms — and this is where they get the opportunities for networking discussions and where relationships can be forged.” Hiroko Kawai, Johnson Controls’ director of program management, technology and innovation, said that as both a foreigner and a woman it took time to get used to some of these things. “I was lucky to have an accepting and challenging manager. I told him — just treat me like an American guy — and he sent me to Texas to learn about pick-up trucks. I was with Ford for six years.”

“I told him — just treat me like an American guy — and he sent me to Texas to learn about pick-up trucks” Batteries International • Summer 2018 • 47

COVER STORY: A CELEBRATION OF WOMEN IN OUR INDUSTRY LESS ABOUT GENDER — LET’S FOCUS MORE ON SKILLS, COMMITMENT, DRIVE ... AND PASSION

One thing that came out in so many interviews is that having the right skill set, the right commitment and the right drive are absolutely essential in the highly competitive world of international business. Only one of the interviewees endorsed the idea of a quota system to hire more women. “To be successful you have to believe in yourself, work hard, and be prepared to take risks. That is true regardless of age, gender, ethnicity or any other label people define one another by,” says Tammy Stankey, a director of communications at mining and recycling firm Doe Run. “I remember hearing the late Sally Miksiewicz of East Penn speak at BCI a few years ago. She had such passion for the industry and she wasn’t afraid to show it, nor to challenge the status quo. “Sally exemplified what a good leader is, smart, passionate and approachable. She was a role model for others in the industry, and a perfect example of why gender shouldn’t matter.” At East Penn, merit is what determines a member of staff’s

pathway, says Snyder. “Each individual is evaluated on his or her merit and performance,” she says. “We have several initiatives at the company to encourage professional development of both males and females. For women, we sponsor and attend a local ‘Women2Women’ conference and are looking at new ways to promote and support women in leadership positions at East Penn.” Claudia Lorenzini, sales director for separator manufacturer Microporous, is equally emphatic about the need for commitment. “If you want a career as a woman you have to sacrifice much more than a man; if you want a marriage, a family life and a career you may have to sacrifice one part of it. You have to pay for it. “When I had my sons I worked from home for 10 years. I worked until the day they were born, and I started my emails the day after. Not many women are prepared to do that, and I have seen companies lose women who were not able to combine their job and their family life.”

It was at Ford where she had to get over that first hurdle, making herself heard not only as a woman but in a foreign language. “I had some feedback once, after a meeting, and I was told I was too quiet. So I asked him how he would feel if his daughter went to Japan and had to speak in a meeting in her second language — could he imagine her ever doing that? “But I also told him he was wrong about me being quiet. I told him in such a male-dominated place, I could not have survived if I’d been too quiet. But I had to have confidence in myself, tenacity.” But the fact is that discrimination is still prevalent in some parts of the industry — and in ways that we would be shocked to think happened in the 21st century. Carole Lainé is the R&D director at Amer-Sil, the separator and gauntlet manufacturer. Although she hasn’t felt discriminated against since, she did find out in one of her first jobs that she hadn’t been a popular choice as a woman. “It wasn’t until two years after I’d been hired that I found out they thought I might go and get pregnant within two months,” she recalls. But discrimination takes many forms and patronizing women is just one of them. “No one has ever refused to work with me or anything but you do notice when people are talking down to you,” Archibald says. “I have tried to describe it to my colleagues and they don’t always see it but I’ve been doing it for long enough to know when it’s happening. “Sometimes it’s talking down to you, sometimes it’s more subtle; like when I’ve tried to meet with people and there’s been a lot more chitchat — questions about whether I’ve got kids and so on — and I do wonder if they would really expect to have this kind of conversation with a man.” But these are petty compared with

“Men seem to have no problems at all with speaking up, making suggestions about things — even if it’s really dumb, they give the impression that of course everyone will want to hear what they’ve got to say” 48 • Batteries International • Summer 2018

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COVER STORY: A CELEBRATION OF WOMEN IN OUR INDUSTRY

This May Julie McClure, soon to be chairperson at MAC Engineering, pushed to have a special BCI conference drinks party that would only have women attendees. The event looks set to be repeated annually.

GENDER DISCRIMINATION: THE LANGUAGE …

Glass escalator This is when men who join fields that had been traditionally occupied mainly by women — good examples of which might be nursing or teaching — are promoted more rapidly. They go straight to the top, as if they were on an escalator and women took the stairs.

The frozen middle This describes when a woman’s progress up the corporate ladder slows down in the ranks of middle management.

Sticky floor It complements the concept of a glass ceiling. It’s when women are less likely to start to climb the job ladder compared with men.

Concrete floor The minimum number or proportion of women necessary for a cabinet or board of directors to be perceived as legitimate.

50 • Batteries International • Summer 2018

Mommy track Women who disregard their careers and workplaces to satisfy the needs of their families.

the experience of Jan Zogmaister, who took over as president and CEO of the distributor National Battery Sales from her father when he fell ill. She found herself plucked from the heart of her life as a stay-at-home mother of four children to heading up the company. Arriving in a company not only as a woman but also as the boss’s daughter was always going to bring challenges. “I had to prove to the employees that I brought value to the company, that there was a reason for me to be there,” she says. “At the time I came into the company we had one location and we were doing mostly route delivery. I saw that as an opportunity to grow, so I started looking to acquire some of our customers along the route, so we had guaranteed stock along the way. “One of the first I acquired was about an hour away, and I wanted to keep the store manager and staff in place to see if we could make a smooth transition. He really tried me at every turn, and then it finally came out one day — he said look, I’m an older man and there’s no way I’m ever going to work for a woman. “We parted ways and I maintained all the other employees. He did everything he could to sabotage and make sure they understood I had no right to be there.”

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COVER STORY: A CELEBRATION OF WOMEN IN OUR INDUSTRY

The first BCI exclusive hour of cocktails for the next generation of the battery industry

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Batteries International • Summer 2018 • 51

COVER STORY: A CELEBRATION OF WOMEN IN OUR INDUSTRY

When a condescending conversation speaks volumes

Discrimination comes in various forms. It may be a patronizing manner, a conversation about trivial household matters, or drowning out of ideas. Surette Battery’s Virginia Archibald reckons it may be innocent, but she notices it. Accountancy and finance were the background to Virginia Archibald’s move into the world of batteries, and she admits it was the role and not the industry that drew her to Surrette Battery, the Nova Scotia, Canada-based deep-cycle lead-acid battery manufacturer. Surrette began life in 1935 and its branded Rolls batteries are used in renewable energy, marine, motive power and railway applications. When her father, Allan Archibald, passed away 15 years ago, his daughter seemed the obvious replacement as chief financial officer at Surrette Battery since she had been working there part-time while studying for her CPA and already knew the ropes. “I wouldn’t have chosen it — it’s a great industry, but it wasn’t on my radar at all,” she says. “I was given the job when I was 26, and although now there are people who are my age and younger, starting out it was definitely an industry of old dudes. Old, white dudes.”

52 • Batteries International • Summer 2018

Filling her father’s shoes did not appear to be a problem, nor did being a woman in such a male-dominated industry, but there were things she noticed. “No one has ever refused to work with me or anything but you do notice when people are talking down to you,” she says. “I have tried to describe it to my colleagues and they don’t always see it but I’ve been doing it for long enough to know when it’s happening. “Sometimes it’s talking down to you, sometimes it’s more subtle; like when I’ve tried to meet with people and there’s been a lot more chitchat —

questions about whether I’ve got kids and so on — and I do wonder if they would really expect to have this kind of conversation with a man. “Men seem to have no problems at all with speaking up, making suggestions about things — even if it’s really dumb, they give the impression that of course everyone will want to hear what they’ve got to say. “May we all have the confidence of a mediocre man! “I noticed this at a professional development course, where there were lots of senior people in companies and it was very male. I counted, and I think there were 10 women and 100 men in the room. I said to my colleague that this would be a bunch of men talking about how awesome they are — the women might say one thing that will probably be worth hearing but it will be drowned out by men talking about their accomplishments — and it was.” To get more women to enter industry, Archibald believes they should be brought into leadership and not be afraid to shut down unproductive conversations. She speaks in favour of quotas in hiring. “When we had our federal election in Canada, Trudeau made the cabinet gender equal, and people said ‘I guess that’s okay, as long as the women are qualified’. They wouldn’t have said that about men. “But with this industry we simply don’t get the women applying, so we wouldn’t have the numbers, and we’d never fill anything here in Nova Scotia if we did that.” The situation is changing anyway, Archibald feels. “The generation of women coming up is definitely getting the message that they can do all of this, but it is low key. We need to do more promotion. We are actively involved with universities but we need to open it out more, show them what’s here.”

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COVER STORY: A CELEBRATION OF WOMEN IN OUR INDUSTRY

New generation Redressing the balance

Claire Sereiko,

Pam O’Brien,

associate director of marketing, BCI

director of operations, BCI

Claire Sereiko and Pam O’Brien work for association management company Smith Bucklin, which provides services and expertise for companies in a whole range of industries – from real estate to demolition to aircraft traders – many of them traditionally male dominated. With BCI, O’Brien is the operations director, focusing on everyday matters and the annual convention. Sereiko is responsible for marketing options. Smith Bucklin not only deviates from the battery industry in counting more women than men in its ranks, it’s also a much younger company. For this reason, the company has begun a diversity and inclusion policy of its own – to find more men, and younger staff as well. As a millennial woman herself, Claire Sereiko says her generation is beginning to change mindsets. “If you look at other groups they are still male dominated, and there is still a lot of inequality, but with my generation we’re starting to redress the balance,” she says. “There are a lot more organizations trying to put programmes in place so that women feel they have resources and support if they’re interested in getting involved.

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“They want female engineers, they want to go down that route, whereas those programmes didn’t exist 20 or 30 years ago. It might have been much more difficult then to get into engineering. Yet many of my friends are now engineers or accountants or doing more traditional male roles.” O’Brien agrees, saying that as a ‘baby boomer’ herself, she found at the beginning of her career she would of-

ten be the only female engineer in the room, whereas now a quarter or even a third of engineers might be. “I’ve come to the conclusion that part of it is generational,” says O’Brien. “In the battery industry, some of the senior folks are retiring, and the next generation that’s coming in has a slightly different mindset in how they look at women and their role in industry. Once the millennials, like Claire, come up to that level of executive management, you’re going to see a different culture.” While O’Brien says most committee meetings held to discuss the BCI convention are predominantly men, they are nonetheless welcoming and supportive. “I have never felt disrespected or that my opinions don’t matter,” she says. At the convention itself, Sereiko says change is noticeable. “There’s now the women-in-batteries reception at BCI, and a lot of other associations are starting to do things like this, identifying the fact that we’re an industry that’s male dominated. We want to encourage more women to get into the industry, and start to have those conversations,” says Sereiko. “Universities and all different sorts of not-for-profits are starting to develop more specialized groups to get women involved.” Millennials are more likely to notice age than gender, says Sereiko, although in one particular project the subject did come up. “We were developing a video about recycling batteries and discussing the voice-over, whether it should be a female or male voice. We discussed whether it was more reassuring to have a woman talking about something or a man. “We ended up going with a male voice. We chose a younger sounding male – we wanted to have a younger feel with a softer approach. We thought of how the video would be perceived if it was done by a man or a woman, and decided if you’re old school and hear a woman talking about recycling you might not take it very seriously, although we didn’t think most people at BCI or the general public would have that view.”

“I’ve come to the conclusion that part of it is generational. In the battery industry, some of the senior folks are retiring, and the next generation that’s coming in has a slightly different mindset in how they look at women and their role in industry”

Batteries International • Summer 2018 • 53

FORMATION EQUIPMENT

Raise your performance

COVER STORY: A CELEBRATION OF WOMEN IN OUR INDUSTRY

“Still learning, still challenged … but loving it” Dianne Dickey, a VP for business development at Leoch, has spent more than 30 years in the battery business and is more than aware of its strengths and shortcomings. Dianne Dickey was stolen from the world of banking to join the sales team at lead-acid battery maker Power-Sonic in 1987, by a former colleague who saw an opening. “I said I didn’t know anything about sales and I didn’t know anything about batteries, but I was hired,” she says. She left Power-Sonic for personal reasons two years ago, and when he heard, Leoch president Dong Li snapped her up and made her vicepresident of business development for the Chinese battery giant. Like a lot of people in the lead battery industry, Dianne Dickey can’t say that joining the sector was a childhood dream. “When I was high school age I thought maybe I’d be an architect but I wasn’t very disciplined and didn’t have any specific job in mind. After about 20 years I looked back and asked whether I’d done the right thing, could I have done something different? And I couldn’t see myself doing anything else. Now after 30 years I still love it and I’m still learning and feeling challenged.” ‘Business development’ can mean a host of things, she says. “If you ask 10 people what it means you’ll get 10 different answers. But I’m in sales and territory development — pursuing customer applications, markets and the product lines we want to promote. “It’s carrying the torch for our mar-

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“I don’t think there is gender discrimination. Everyone would agree that we need an infusion of young blood – and nobody cares if they’re male or female” keting efforts and I have a deep cycle battery line that I launched this year, which I’ve worked with engineers on, from testing, competitor analysis, putting the final spec together, the marketing material and then launching it to our sales team.” Dickey has not encountered sexism in the battery industry, but does feel that in the wider world of work there are issues. “Here in corporate America there’s still a big issue with women in any kind of meaningful positions. That glass ceiling is still there,” she says. “Typically if you go on to a company’s website, in their executive team the only positions you will see women in are either legal, maybe accounting or financing, or marketing. Not technical. “The joke at BCI is that you just see old, white men. That’s not derogatory,

that’s just what you see. Maybe women not getting into the battery industry has more to do with it just not being on their radar — and maybe that’s the industry’s shortcoming, that we’re not out there recruiting and promoting, but that will change. “In our schools there’s a big emphasis on STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and that will open more doors. “In the last 10 years I’ve seen a lot of women entering the industry in sales positions, and in trade shows you see more in competitors’ booths. It’s not even a third compared to men but it is definitely a slow and steady increase. “I don’t think there is gender discrimination. Everyone would agree that we need an infusion of young blood – and nobody cares if they’re male or female.”

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COVER STORY: A CELEBRATION OF WOMEN IN OUR INDUSTRY “I’ve never thought that what I bring to the table has been met with any lack of enthusiasm. Quite the opposite”

Why an even-handed approach works Lisa Dry, BCI incoming director of strategic communications, has already got to grips with the huge task that she is involved with. But she reckons there is little to be gained by banging on about a difference in the sexes. Lisa Dry is no stranger to male-dominated industries, having worked in agriculture and farming for more than 20 years before joining BCI as the organization’s director of strategic communications last September. Being a woman in these industries has been neither a benefit nor a disadvantage, she says — and she applauds the welcome she has received from the lead battery industry. “I’ve really enjoyed working with a subset of our membership and they are very passionate about what they’re doing,” says Dry. “I’m the focal point, helping to pull together information and push it out, with their input and approval, and I feel like I’m on a kind of mission, that people are counting on me and I don’t want to disappoint them. “In my experience, you’re most successful in a job where you feel like you’re all in this together and you can make a difference.”

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And make a difference is what she intends to do — where policy on lead is concerned, anyway. “We are working with our communications firm, writing blog posts, making videos, preparing an information brief — all targeting the 1,500 policy makers we want to reach in DC and California,” she says. “We’re educating them, sending them information they may not be aware of to pique their interest so they learn more about lead batteries and the role they have. “Especially in California, where the governor has set very specific energy goals for the state to achieve to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. “We want them to know they can achieve those goals with a mix of battery chemistries; you don’t have to have all electric vehicles and they may not realize that almost all electric vehicles need a lead battery in them. “There’s still a lot of potential in lead

batteries, which have been around for 150 years — and we still don’t know all they can do.” Not bad for someone who did her best to avoid subjects like biology or science at school. Dry will not be drawn on whether these subjects are more popular with boys than girls. “I don’t want to make a broad statement that women in general avoid those subjects,” she says. “If it’s true that sciences are more popular with boys than with girls then I think we’re definitely seeing it changing. There is a lot of emphasis here on STEM programmes (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and a lot of encouragement for young girls and women in this area.” She cites America’s Top Young Scientist, 11-year-old Gitanjali Rao, who presented her research at April’s BCI convention. “She took your breath away with her poise, speaking in front of an audience of 600 primarily older men, and with her subject confidence. She may be an exception but I would like to think there are many other young women like her.” Dry believes that if in the past women had to prove themselves more than men of the same quality, the situation is not the same now. “It’s not something I’ve experienced, nor have there been any glass ceilings that I’ve noticed,” she says. “I’ve never thought that what I bring to the table has been met with any lack of enthusiasm. Quite the opposite. “When I started in GMOs I knew nothing, but I was fortunate enough to work with a couple of people who were very patient and happy to explain the issues. “If you approach someone and say you want to learn, people are happy to share their knowledge and they appreciate the interest. And that’s true if you are a man or a woman. “It is male dominated — I was at a meeting in Europe recently where I was the only woman in the room, and the host would courteously say, ‘gentlemen... and lady’ — but it’s changing.”

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COVER STORY: A CELEBRATION OF WOMEN IN OUR INDUSTRY

Women — speak up and own your ideas! Mary Hendriks is an industry executive with the Australian Energy Storage Alliance. With the founding of the AESA, Hendriks became involved with setting up conferences as gatherings for industry to come together, share ideas and collaborate. With a science degree and IT industry background, Mary Hendriks was well suited to the renewable energy industry, where she realized that solar was the key to a cleaner energy future and energy storage was key to its uptake. She has more than 10 years’ experience in renewable and clean energy, working with the Australian Solar Council and All-Energy Australia before she joined the AESA. “Very early on, women get a perception of themselves,” she says. “Mine was that I had an interest in science and the future, in space, flight and computers. The benefits of going into areas of technology are fantastic for women. “A lot of women are suited to technical areas and areas like design and engineering and don’t realize it. They also do well in management. If you don’t have women in these areas you will have a lot of skills missing. Across the board people have skills, and if you take a demographic out, you are eliminating the people with those skills. “If you look at people as a whole, a percentage of them will have management skills, some will have technical skills, some will have research skills. “If you remove women from an area

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“I’ve found most colleagues incredibly supportive, but it is sometimes difficult for a woman to be taken seriously until she’s achieved” such as energy storage, you are removing 50% of talented people. By women coming in, you are filling those gaps. If you only have men in the industry then you’re going to get men across the board with a variety of skills, but you’re only going to get the skills of 50% of the population.” Hendriks says her motivation has been the positive effects of social change brought about by IT. “I was excited by the IT industry, now I’m excited by energy change, the disruption in energy we’re having right now.” Hendriks is anxious to explore solar energy opportunities in Australia, where electricity is some of the most expensive in the world and the use of coal and gas still prevalent. She says she has not had a problem voicing her passion in these areas

— but that speaking up is something women need to do. “I’ve found most colleagues incredibly supportive, but it is sometimes difficult for a woman to be taken seriously until she’s achieved,” she says. “It’s not a problem getting into the industry, the problem is taking the next step.” A good way to move through the ranks is to become involved in industry associations, become active online, speak up, and demonstrate idea ownership, she says. “Women speaking up and proving their ownership of ideas helps them to move into management positions,” she says. “As more role models come into industry, this will help. It’s changing and this younger generation now has some wonderful young industry professionals — and a lot of these are women, possibly reaching 30%.” So what’s prompted the influx? “In the past the battery industry would have been considered something for people with strength, who were happy to work in an environment where it was difficult or hazardous — but the industry has developed to become one of mass production of sealed units, and environments that use modern tools, are cleaner, and that value smarter solutions. “So it’s not just perception, it’s the industry itself that’s changing — we need development of new battery management systems, we need to design batteries for particular sites, we need women to bring management and design skills to the team, and women to feature what energy storage can do and to become involved in sales. “Women do have a flair for design, they get a real satisfaction out of building something, We’re seeing more women architects and designers and this is part and parcel of what we’re doing in the battery industry.” Although Hendriks’ background is maths and physics, her work is more of an advisory nature, promoting the industry, arranging networking events and providing overviews of the Australian market. As part of the AESA annual conference, held in Adelaide this year, Hendriks took a busload of industry people to the Tesla Hornsdale power reserve, the largest lithium ion battery storage site in the world. “Energy storage is multiple things,” she says. “Being able to store power will change everything. I saw the computer industry change the world and I think energy storage will also change the world.”

Batteries International • Summer 2018 • 59

COVER STORY: A CELEBRATION OF WOMEN IN OUR INDUSTRY

Being a woman was just the second obstacle to hurdle Johnson Controls’ director of program management, technology and innovation Hiroko Kawai has faced more obstacles in the battery industry than being female. A native Japanese woman, overcoming the language barrier was the first barrier to get over — but get over it she certainly has. Chaucer, Thomas Hardy and Scott Fitzgerald don’t perhaps seem the most likely inspirations for someone who now works at the world’s largest battery manufacturer, for whom she identifies supply bases for lithium batteries to complement JCI capability. But English Literature was what Hiroko Kawai studied for her bachelor’s degree — “until I saw the light and realized I needed something marketable, so I did an MBA in the US,” she says. It worked, and Kawai soon landed herself a job that she might not have expected to land. “My parents always told me if you come from a good family you’ll never need to drive,” she says. “Then I got an interview with Ford Motor Company. “I didn’t know anything about American cars or pick-up trucks so my friends sent me to a driving school and while I was preparing for the interview I learned how to drive. That was in 1996. “I was lucky to have an accepting and challenging manager. I told him — just treat me like an American guy —

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so he sent me to Texas to learn about pick-up trucks. “I was with Ford for six years.” It was at Ford where she had to get over that first hurdle, making herself heard not only as a woman but in a foreign language. “I had some feedback once, after a meeting, and I was told I was too quiet. So I asked him how he would feel if his daughter went to Japan and had to speak in a meeting in her second language — could he imagine her ever doing that? “But I also told him he was wrong about me being quiet. I told him in such a male-dominated place, I could not have survived if I’d been too quiet. But I had to have confidence in myself, tenacity.” Kawai first encountered batteries at

her next job with Eaton Truck, where she learned the technical side of hybrid technology. From there she went to the Rocky Mountain Institute, a think-tank that worked with JCI, where she focused on battery efficiency. “Energy is different from water or planting trees — that’s conservation, environmental goodness. Pursuing the efficient use of batteries is for the future and people will need it more and more,” she says. Fast forward to Johnson Controls, where her knowledge of the Asian battery industry and heavy-duty trucks landed her the current job as director of program management, technology and innovation. “Everywhere I go there are more men than women but I didn’t used to pay any attention to that until someone asked me how I dealt with truck drivers,” she says. “If you go and visit a truck company and have a male colleague with you, even if he’s junior to you they will address their questions to him. “But if you have the confidence of knowing the content and what you have to offer, you can be optimistic. You have to be able to talk about the business with confidence, you have to have knowledge.” Kawai says it’s impossible to know everything — and that’s why colleagues’ support is vital. “I am not afraid to ask for help. I know when to look to my colleagues. This is difficult for men, especially if they have to ask a woman, but you should always gravitate towards people who can help you. Don’t wait for people to give you advice — go and get it from them. “There are more and more women coming into the industry. I don’t know why traditionally there weren’t as many, perhaps it’s not talked about in college, perhaps it’s the 19th century image of the industry. But the battery business has a fantastic future — with the mature lead industry, the future of lithium — it’s all relevant to survival issues and cleaner energy. “With all of that, batteries will play a bigger and bigger role and that should be attractive to women too.”

“I was lucky to have an accepting and challenging manager. I told him — just treat my like an American guy — so he sent me to Texas to learn about pick-up trucks”

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COVER STORY: A CELEBRATION OF WOMEN IN OUR INDUSTRY

Lead battery industry: It isn’t so sexy Carole Lainé is the R&D director at Amer-Sil, the Luxembourg-based lead acid battery separator manufacturer. She’s optimistic about the future for lead, but is less optimistic about the future number of women in the industry. From an early age, Carole Lainé found herself preferring fossils, play dough and chemistry to more ‘girlie’ things, so it was perhaps no surprise that she decided to study engineering and science, specializing in cables and plastic boxes. “I wanted to do technical things — polymer science really interested me, how to produce plastic bags,” she says.

Armed with her engineer’s degree in polymer and plastics engineering at the ECPM in Strasbourg — the European university of chemistry, polymers and materials — she moved to Porcher Industries, the textiles company, where she gained her PhD developing a low viscosity formulation for PVC plastisol coating for technical textiles.

Her first step into a R&D job came at Tarkett, a flooring company, where she was hired for her knowledge of PVC. “Women friends of mine wanted to work in cosmetics and packaging — they found it more appealing, more sexy — things like nail polish,” she says. “But I worked in PVC. It wasn’t until two years after I’d been hired that I discovered a lot of people in the hiring section hadn’t wanted me because I was a woman. “They thought I might go and get pregnant within two months!” Lainé’s been working in the industry for more than 10 years now, and with Amer-Sil since September 2009, where her projects relate to lead-acid battery membranes, separators and technical textiles for applications including motive power, reserve power, deep-cycle batteries and renewables. “I haven’t really come up against anything negative — as long as you have the technical background, and listen and learn from people, you can figure things out,” she says. “The only treatment that’s different is perhaps people offering to carry things — if I’m carrying a 20kg bag I might be offered help. Or being warned about chipping my nail polish. But I’m a chemist — I put gloves on! “Now I’m trying to develop longterm innovative products, and the day-to-day work is continuous improvements in separators, gauntlets and textile membranes. I’m optimistic about the future of lead batteries — I don’t think they will disappear within 10 years, or even longer. There’s a place for all technologies and lead will not be fully replaced by any of them. “But it’s true that the lead battery industry is not very sexy, and there’s no sign of it being made to seem more attractive. In high school, there were more boys than girls interested in the sciences. “At university a few more women did physics, maybe a few more women in chemistry, but still not the numbers of men. “Looking around my department I don’t see any great signs of that changing in the immediate future.”

“The only treatment that’s different is perhaps people offering to carry things — if I’m carrying a 20kg bag I might be offered help. Or being warned about chipping my nail polish. But I’m a chemist — I put gloves on!”

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Batteries International • Summer 2018 • 61

COVER STORY: A CELEBRATION OF WOMEN IN OUR INDUSTRY

Commitment to the essentials: Work and family Microporous’ Claudia Lorenzini reckons if you want a career as a woman you have to sacrifice much more than a man; if you want a marriage, a family life and a career you may have to sacrifice part of it. Not all, but some. Growing up with four brothers was the perfect rough-and-tumble training for Claudia Lorenzini’s career in the lead battery industry. She always used to say that three or four years in one job would be enough, but 22 years later she’s still in the sector, now as sales director, EMEA for separator manufacturer Microporous. She believes more women should enter the industry. Lorenzini began with Daramic in 1996 in what she calls the back office, before becoming sales manager. She spent 19 years selling separators before moving to Microporous, and as such attends the same conferences she’s attended since joining the industry. “I sometimes step back and can’t believe I’m still here,” she says. “When I started as a young women, most people in the battery industry were of a certain age — and wherever I went they took care of me, collecting me at the airport, taking me to the hotel, making sure I had enough to eat, that I was comfortable. “And I never had anyone approaching me in an inappropriate way. In all of these years I have never had this issue. “When I was starting people just helped me to understand, explained things — I learned a lot, and as a

result I have a very good technical knowledge. It’s not necessary to have a PhD to be able to discuss things from a sales perspective. “You have to be able to approach people with technical knowledge to convince people why they should buy your product. “It’s possible that being a woman has been a help to my success. A man will definitely behave in a different way if you are a woman. “But something I have never done is make the approach with a short skirt and more flesh on the outside than the inside — this is not going to form a

long-lasting relationship and you’re not going to be taken seriously in the long term in this way.” Lorenzini has encountered all sorts of reactions, including fear, she says. “I’m tall,” she says. “There was one occasion when the man on the other side of the table wasn’t so tall, and he actually pumped up his chair so he would be sitting higher than me. “You always have to understand the other side of the table, whether it’s a man or a woman. With a woman you have to be more careful because it’s more sensitive. What you must never do is get into competition with them.” In some countries it makes more sense to hire men, she says. “All of my team are women, but I did hire a male sales manager because I want him to go after the accounts I can’t go after. This is something that comes with age, but it’s also beneficial in Muslim countries, where if they can choose, they will choose to talk to a man. “Men are more eager to have a certain position on their business card without thinking of the implications. Even when I was with Daramic the question was always, are you willing to relocate? I would always say no, whereas a man is more likely to say yes without thinking about it.” When it comes to bringing more women into the industry, Lorenzini does not believe a quota system would work, even if the bigger companies were able to do it. “The pool of applicants isn’t there,” she says. “And if you want a career as a woman you have to sacrifice much more than a man; if you want a marriage, a family life and a career you may have to sacrifice one part of it. You have to pay for it. “When I had my sons I worked from home for 10 years. I worked until the day they were born, and I started my emails the day after. Not many women are prepared to do that, and I have seen companies lose women who were not able to combine their job and their family life. “If I ran a company I would do it completely differently.”

“I have seen companies lose women who were not able to combine their job and their family life. If I ran a company I would do it completely differently” 62 • Batteries International • Summer 2018

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COVER STORY: A CELEBRATION OF WOMEN IN OUR INDUSTRY

From English teacher to MAC president This magazine owes its thanks to Julie McClure for this cover story, as it was she who launched the first women’s networking event at this year’s BCI conference, giving us the inspiration to celebrate them. Julie McClure is president at MAC Engineering, the family business that makes battery-manufacturing equipment such as plate-making machines and drying ovens. She takes over as the firm’s chair this September. She began her working life as a high school teacher, teaching English literature, before being trained for the presidency of the company and taking her place in June 2015. So why did she organize the first ever women-only event at BCI this year? “First, it was nice to meet so many

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women in the industry who aren’t just spouses of men in the industry”, she says. “And it’s this perception that in-

“We’ve tried to make men and women the same but why would we? Each of us has different strengths — we complement each other”

spired me to launch the event. “I’ve worked in female-dominated industries and male-dominated industries and I’ve been to conventions and I thought it would be fun to get the women together — and so we did,” she says. “I was pleased with the turnout, and I hope more will continue to come.” Although the family business has been running since 1965, McClure’s recent involvement means she hasn’t been exposed to the industry for long enough to say how much it has changed. “When I started going to the conventions I thought, there’s an old guys’ breakfast — which isn’t limited to men, but as it’s for people who have been in the industry for 25 years, they tended to be men — that’s why I thought we would get the women together.” McClure accepts that being part of the family has meant her career as a woman has not perhaps been as tough as it could have been. “I wasn’t raised to keep my opinions to myself and never felt I had to but I know some people do,” she says. “So I always think it’s good to give everybody a voice and support. “Women my age — 51 — weren’t encouraged to go into the maths and sciences but I do think that’s changed. Having taught quite recently I have seen that, and the fact that at MAC we have a bunch of women engineers also tells me it’s changing.” But that doesn’t mean all should be treated the same regardless of gender, she says. “I don’t want to be treated like a man. I like being a woman. “We’ve tried to make men and women the same but why would we? Each of us has different strengths — we complement each other. “Women are more likely to consider things from all angles, they’re much more aware of what’s going on around them. Men don’t concentrate on the details of things like women do. “We are better at relationships and communication. Understanding the effects of what we say on someone else.” McClure has no immediate plans to change anything at MAC, although she’s open to possibilities. “We’re not seeking women out to balance numbers — we seek the best people no matter who they are, or what sex that they are! Why should the issue of gender matter to our industry nowadays?”

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COVER STORY: A CELEBRATION OF WOMEN IN OUR INDUSTRY

Sally Miksiewicz and the creation of an all-round CEO Sally Miksiewicz, chief executive officer of East Penn Manufacturing, died in June 2014. She was a much-loved, much-admired member of the energy storage industry and a model for battery business management. She was the inspiration behind the annual BCI award for innovation, which commemorates her by being named after her. Her life was a testimony to how hard graft, genuine ability and a good character can shape the leadership of any organization. The daughter of DeLight Breidegam, who founded East Penn, Sally started work at the family company in June 1984 after graduating with a BA in business management and sociology at Moravian College, Bethlehem, in Pennsylvania. She was around for the massive expansion of the company during the 1980s and 1990s, when East Penn rolled out warehouses across the US and Canada and branched out into other segments requiring battery power. “She made it her mission to make East Penn a good place for employees, and the company has been named one of the best places to work in the state for 14 consecutive years,” said Dan Langdon, who was president of East Penn at the time of her death. She would never take credit for that, but I’m here to say Sally Miksiewicz made it happen. She had an unselfish love for this business.” In the numerous tributes that Batteries International gathered for Sally, one of the most striking characteristics that everyone alluded to was the relationships she forged with everyone — high and low, East Penn customer or supplier — at a personal level. “Sally cared about people in a way you don’t often see,” says John Wood, chief executive of Ecoult. “Whenever we’d bring customers to East Penn she’d drop everything and show them around. And on these tours she seemed to know everyone by name.” Sally had many business accomplishments, but one that will be remembered is the way that she pushed for East Penn’s adoption and manufacture of the UltraBattery, a landmark that drastically improved lead acid battery

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performance, under partial state-ofcharge conditions. “In her most recent years, Sally bridged the gap between the leadership of her father and the challenges of this century,” according to Langdon. “She was the key figure in getting US Department of Energy support for a 3MW advanced battery frequency regulation project as we moved to redirect the company into new avenues of business.” Sally loved the East Penn family and saw herself as helping to lead the company forward and passing it on strong for generations to come. Sally would always say one of the reasons she loved East Penn is that the company embraces the concept of treating each other right and taking care of its customers and all of its surrounding communities. She was very proud of the company’s progress over the years as well as its

ability to adapt to change, but was always mindful of its core beliefs and values. Business acumen and a vision of the future are different things. “Sally had both,” a colleague at a supplier firm told Batteries International. “She saw that grid energy storage was going to be an important part of everyone’s future — renewables such as wind power and solar were going to change everyone’s lives.” Bob Galyen, chief technology officer at ATL, one of the largest lithium pouch manufacturers, says: “her commitment to a better environment was absolute. She wasn’t just mouthing words, I remember sharing a panel discussion with her and realizing that to her environmental responsibility was as much core to her thinking as it was to her business.” There is no question that Sally’s energy and enthusiasm was boundless. Others said that once you got behind the outgoing and fun person she was a very serious person. “She was absolutely committed to the company and the people within it,” one battery veteran said. “What was so surprising to those of us who knew how accomplished she was, was her modesty. It’s a rare quality to find in this day and age.” “Sally was the driving force and passion that helped carry out the legacy of the generation that came before her. She led with integrity advancing the company’s position while caring deeply about her fellow workers, the customer, community, and environment,” said Langdon. Sally’s death came as a complete shock. She was hit by a pickup truck early in the morning while jogging. She was just 52.

“She made it her mission to make East Penn a good place for employees, and the company has been named one of the best places to work in the state for 14 consecutive years”

Batteries International • Summer 2018 • 65

COVER STORY: A CELEBRATION OF WOMEN IN OUR INDUSTRY

Industry leadership has to be versatile, diverse East Penn’s Donna Snyder has seen the lead battery business go through a series of incarnations since she started in the 1980s. And not least the role of women in the industry. Donna Snyder is one of the bestknown women in the industry, joining East Penn Manufacturing in 1983 as a graphic designer and moving up the ranks from assistant marketing manager to vice-president of marketing and advertising today, where she leads the department to develop and implement marketing programmes and strategies. Snyder is certainly qualified to comment on whether the industry is changing in terms of the female popu-

lation within it and she says there has definitely been a shift. “The first women that I started seeing — not counting Sally Miksiewicz — were buyers for large Fortune 500 companies,” she says. “These organizations were more aware and open to giving key positions to women. Also, I see more women from the communication and marketing side. “I attribute the heavy male influence in this industry to personal interests. For example, males tend to be more in-

“Being a woman in a predominantly male field — especially 35 years ago when I started — has had its challenges and opportunities. The opportunity is that you stand out in the crowd; and this gives you the chance to be noticed and offer a unique perspective. The challenge is being heard”

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terested in cars and equipment, which influences their choice of careers. I do believe this is changing. Nowadays, we have women at East Penn in engineering, sales, management and our CFO is a woman, Christy Weeber. I’ve also seen women assume more of these roles in the overall industry. “Being a woman in a predominantly male field — especially 35 years ago when I started — has had its challenges and opportunities. The opportunity is that you stand out in the crowd; and this gives you the chance to be noticed and offer a unique perspective. The challenge is being heard.” Snyder says the most important thing is the work ethic, whatever gender you are. “Once you prove your value, as everyone male or female should, the opportunities are open. You can be very successful if you work hard and do your job well.” Snyder does see a difference in approach between men and women. “I do see a difference in work styles,” she says. “Women tend to ask more questions and be open to more sharing. Men are more direct. Neither one is better than the other, just different. In fact, it creates an advantageous balance in the workplace to the benefit of entire organizations.” At East Penn, merit is what determines a member of staff’s pathway, says Snyder. “Each individual is evaluated on his or her merit and performance,” she says. “We have several initiatives at the company to encourage professional development of both males and females. For women, we sponsor and attend a local ‘Women2Women’ conference and are looking at new ways to promote and support women in leadership positions at East Penn. “I would absolutely encourage young women to enter the energy storage sector. I have learned so much and have expanded my knowledge base by dedicating my career here. It’s been exciting and challenging, especially now with all the new development in advanced lead technology. “The opportunities continue to grow and expand for everyone. It’s also all about the people, too. The lead battery industry is a tight-knit group. I have met so many good people at East Penn and throughout the industry. “The industry needs men and women working together to continue to tell our positive story and to most effectively support the needs of all the customers we are proud to serve.”

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COVER STORY: A CELEBRATION OF WOMEN IN OUR INDUSTRY

Viewpoint: Doe Run’s Stankey Tammy Stankey is an integral part of the lead battery world — she’s not just a senior figure at mining and recycling firm Doe Run, but also the only woman serving on the executive board of the ALABC and a guiding figure on BCI’s Advancing Lead Battery Communications Initiative. As a communications professional I’ve had the opportunity to work directly for, or provide marketing and communications expertise to, a variety of professions, many of them traditionally male dominated including the hotel industry and HVAC (heating, ventilation air conditioning) trade industry. From the beginning of my career I always felt it was up to me to determine my career path and if there was a position or promotion that I felt I deserved it was my job to ask for it and make the business case for it. I’m happy to say that the further along in my career, the easier things became. I remember early on, in one interview, the CEO of a large architectural and construction firm flat-out asked me wasn’t I too young for the position I was applying for? I told him if I thought that, I wouldn’t have wasted my time coming to the interview. He hired me. My point is, to be successful you have to believe in yourself, work hard, and be prepared to take risks. That is true regardless of age, gender, ethnicity or any other label people define one another by. I remember hearing the late Sally Mickiewicz of East Penn speak at BCI a few years ago. She had such passion for the industry and she wasn’t afraid to show it, nor to challenge the status quo. Sally exemplified what a good leader is, smart, passionate and approachable. Anyone that knew Sally knew she loved sitting around after the day’s conference events were over, meeting people to share stories and ideas. Sally was a role model for others in the industry, and a perfect example of why gender shouldn’t matter.

68 • Batteries International • Summer 2018

“To be successful you must believe in yourself, work hard, and be prepared to take risks. That’s true regardless of age, gender, ethnicity or any other label” I’ve worked for Doe Run first as a consultant with a public relations firm and now eight years as an employee and I’ve found the company to be welcoming and open to new ideas. I’ve had the opportunity to learn so much from informal mentors within my company as well as the industry. I’m fortunate to be the only woman serving on the Executive Committee of the ALABC. I serve on BCI’s “Advancing Lead Battery Communications Initiative” core team, which provides direction for the communications initiative taking place in North America.

I serve under Donna Snyder of East Penn on the BCI Marketing Committee and am working on a subcommittee of that group led by Bruce Murray of RSR to help keep lithium batteries out of lead recyclers’ feed stream. I also serve on the ALABC Technical Communications Team. By serving on these committees I’ve met smart, articulate and warm individuals who have broadened my knowledge of the industry. I’ve met both women and men in the larger world of industry that have different approaches to their work. It is less about gender and more about how their brains function. Analytical people like to receive information differently than those that are creative. When we, as an industry, embrace people that have different perspectives it gives us a more complete view of a problem or an opportunity and gives us better tools to solve a problem. Since working full time at Doe Run I’ve noticed how many woman are entering the industry — not only at Doe Run where we have mine engineers, geologists, environmental managers, safety and occupational experts — but also in the industry. This past May at BCI I was encouraged by how many women — there were more than 30 of us — attended the conference as professionals (and not just spouses). I see similar progress at The Battery Show each fall in Novi, Michigan. I was also so pleased to see the 11-year-old scientist introduced at BCI. I had read about Gitanjali Rao through an online article and I suggested to BCI that they invite her to the conference and recognize her as an introduction to the Innovation awards. When they also provided her with a cheque to further her education I was thrilled. We need more opportunities to recognize young talent like this. This is a smart move because it also introduces her to our industry. At Doe Run we have a number of programs to help develop interest in our industry. To be successful, we recognize we need a diverse workforce. We define that in a variety of ways including gender, ethnicity, generational, thought process, viewpoint. Doe Run is an equal opportunity employer and we have affirmative action plans in place and strive to diversify our outreach efforts in our hiring and employment practices.

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COVER STORY: A CELEBRATION OF WOMEN IN OUR INDUSTRY

The changing landscape of industrial employment National Battery Sales’ Jan Zogmaister believes that male and female differences should complement each other but finds stereotyping unhelpful — some men and women find it easy to do the other sexes’ jobs. Others don’t. Jan Zogmaister wasn’t exactly trained for her job as president and CEO of National Battery Sales, which is one of the US state of Utah’s oldest battery specialists, distributing batteries and related products around three states since 1966. But when NBS co-founder and her father Karl Macfarlane became ill in 1987, Zogmaister found herself plucked from the heart of her life as a stay-athome mother of four children to heading up the company — and she hasn’t looked back. Jan Zogmaister was interested in business, which she studied, before becoming a mother – but she never intended to work in her father’s battery distribution company. She wanted to open a bookstore, and is thankful now that she didn’t, given the rise of digital technology and slide in the popularity of traditional reading. “But it was interesting to move into

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the industry and I have no regrets at all,” she says. “I am always one of the few women at any conference — it’s opened doors for other opportunities and allowed me to stay in touch with what’s happening. I’ve loved it and it’s been good for my family.” But arriving in a company not only as a woman but also as the boss’s daughter was always going to bring challenges. “I had to prove to the employees that I brought value to the company, that there was a reason for me to be there,” she says. “At the time I came into the

company we had one location and we were doing mostly route delivery. I saw that as an opportunity to grow, so I started looking to acquire some of our customers along the route, so we had guaranteed stock along the route. “One of the first I acquired was about an hour away, and I wanted to keep the store manager and staff in place to see if we could make a smooth transition. He really tried me at every turn, and then it finally came out one day — he said look, I’m an older man and there’s no way I’m ever going to work for a woman. “We parted ways and I maintained all the other employees. He did everything he could to sabotage and make sure they understood I had no right to be there.” Zogmaister’s circumstances as a woman have made her flexible with staff. “Men are taking more of a role with childcare and responsibilities at home, and we are very flexible with the leave they need,” she says. “If you’ve got a good employee and you help them out when they need it, they will be loyal.” There are differences between the sexes, she believes – but they should complement one another, not compete. “I have hired women to do some of the jobs that men do, some have done well, some not so well. I’ve tried to hire men for jobs that traditionally weren’t for men, like customer service, and they haven’t done so well. “You can’t label people and I don’t want to stereotype but I do think women are often taught to play games and use tools like that, but it doesn’t work well in the workplace and I tend to be very straightforward. With people who tell it like it is you can develop relationships and build trust. “I would never restrict a job for one or the other — I would hire on the quality of the candidate, and ‘best person for the job’ can also mean best woman. “Coming into this industry, I’m very respectful of men. All of my mentors have been men. These are the people I work with, from whom I learn, on whom I rely. But I’ve also hired some amazing women!”

“I wanted to keep the store manager and staff in place to see if we could make a smooth transition. He really tried me at every turn, and then it finally came out one day – he said look, I’m an older man and there’s no way I’m ever going to work for a woman”

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PROFILE: BRIAN WILSON

The trouble

70 • Batteries International • Summer 2018

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PROFILE: BRIAN WILSON

-shooter For the past 20 years Brian Wilson has criss-crossed the developing world advising and helping battery manufacturers and recyclers manage lead batteries in an environmentally sustainable way. Mike Halls reports

Meet Brian Wilson and you’d be hard pushed to think that this genial, modest figure is the stuff of heroes. Even to say this would cause him to blush. But there’s a truth to it. The fact is that the number of lives Brian has saved — and that’s not including those lives that would have been irretrievably damaged by lead poisoning — should probably not be counted in the hundreds, but the thousands. Or even more. Brian is, in essence, a global fixer — if a diffident one — for the lead battery business. His mission for the past 20 years has been a simple one: educate and reform the developing world and emerging economies to the hazards of manufacturing and recycling lead batteries. And that’s not an easy task as he has to show how battery recycling can be done in not only a cost-effective manner, but in an environmentally sound way. To that Wilson brings the knowledge gained from a lifetime of experience in the secondary lead business — 18 years for UK smelting giant Britannia Refined Metals, then part of MIM Holdings, the Australian mining firm which in turn is now a Glencore company — before the next 20 as a freelance consultant working around the world. Brian Wilson’s main job is probably best described as a roving trouble-shooter (again a term he’d rather prefer not to be called) across the developing world for the lead battery business. His remit is a simple one. To ensure that lead battery manufacture and

Wilson’s main job is probably best described as a roving troubleshooter (again a term he’d rather prefer not to be called) across the developing world for the lead battery business www.batteriesinternational.com

Batteries International • Summer 2018 • 71

PROFILE: BRIAN WILSON He quickly learned to understand the processes and procedures carried out by the operators he was working with, and by undertaking all the tasks gained their respect

2002: Wilson on his first day in the turmoil of Thiaroye sur Mer, Dakar

A UNEP delegation at the Gravita plant in Senegal

One of the early environmentally sound management workshops in India

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recycling are conducted in a safe and proper manner by both the formal and informal sector. The buzz letters that surround his job are ESM (environmentally sound management). In many developing nations — and in a more regulated way for advanced economies — the tendency is to ignore the existence of real problems in the drive to create profit. “Quite often this isn’t a deliberate policy but one of benign neglect or ignorance,” says Wilson. “Though of course, sometimes it might be deliberate. “Part of my work is also to show that ESM can be cost effective and that good working practices and efficient smelting can lead to greater productivity, and that means improved profitability.” Brian Wilson — who celebrated 70 years at Christmas and who has no intention of retiring any time soon — says that his first 18 years with Britannia Metals were the key to preparing his future career. But to go back to the beginning. His first work experience after finishing his chemistry course was in 1966 for the Castrol Oils customer service laboratory for what became Burmah Oil at Ellesmere Port in the north-west of England. He was eager to get on and switched to the training department, learning how to operate every piece of equipment in the refinery. He eventually halved the training schedule for operatives from three months to six weeks. He then transferred to industrial relations and the very difficult task of negotiating with the trades unions. This experience was marred as Burmah Oil slowly slid into near bankruptcy as a result of huge losses in the shipping business. In 1981 — two years before Burmah Oil finally collapsed — he joined Britannia as the industrial relations superintendent. But unlike most of the staff at the time, Wilson decided that he would spend the first few months

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PROFILE: BRIAN WILSON CASE STUDY: SENEGAL Wilson reckons his most challenging project was in 2008 in Senegal, where an informal lead battery recycling operation in Thiaroye sur Mer, a suburb of the capital, Dakar, had led to fatalities among some of the babies and children living close to the recycling site or with parents involved in the recycling operations. “One particularly heart-breaking story here was when I came across a mother who had lost three children with a high probability that this was through lead poisoning. She was part of a small lead smelting outfit that was trying to feed her family and eke a subsistence out of battery recycling. “I particularly remember that they were a warm, upright family — but all earning less than a dollar a day. It was very sad.” He said that four clear objectives were quickly identified in treating the problem. The first was the need to identify any child or person that might be suffering from elevated lead exposure and either treat them with medical on the shop floor learning the processes from an operator’s perspective. In one sense this was a rerun of his earlier days in Burmah. During this time, he worked in the primary refinery and the secondary lead smelter and performed every task undertaken by the operators, including truck driving. Equally importantly he quickly learned to understand the processes and procedures carried out by the operators he was working with, and by undertaking all the tasks gained their respect. During this time he noticed that there was clear discrimination going on between the blue collar workers and the rest of the firm. There were different canteens, no food available for night shift workers and even the plate sizes were smaller for the blue collar staff than those in use in the main staff canteen. Wilson, with typical vigour, campaigned for equality among all staff and quite quickly portion sizes, larger plates and meals for the night shift were instituted. But it was early in the first year that a situation developed that was to change Wilson’s life completely. One Sunday afternoon he received a phone call at his home in north

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intervention or remove them from any further exposure. This task was tackled by the University Hospital in Dakar in collaboration with the WHO. The second was to remediate the contaminated site of the battery recycling and nearby residences, schools and shops. The third was to find alternative safe employment for those displaced from the used lead battery recycling operations — there would be little purpose in closing the facility for the workers to restart it again through lack of work and money. The fourth was to secure a longterm solution that would lead to the environmentally sound recycling of lead batteries in Senegal. Wilson says that working with the WHO and the Basel Secretariat, and in partnership with Pure Earth (then known as the Blacksmith Institute), Gravita and the Government of Senegal, all four objectives were achieved. Since the end of the project, no more fatalities have been recorded. Furthermore, Gravita now

operates an environmentally friendly lead recycling plant that offers a sustainable recycling solution for batteries in Senegal. Gravita has since hosted a visit to the plant by international delegates at a UNEP workshop to demonstrate that lead batteries can be recycled in an environmentally sound manner in a developing African nation.

“It was a hard night’s work, but at the end of the shift the production schedule had been restored, 600 tonnes of lead was refined and ready to cast at 6am as planned and the operator’s bonus was secured” Wales — some 250 miles from the plant in Northfleet in the south-east of England — to be told by security that the shift foremen were going on strike and that he was the only management member they had been able to contact. Industrial action at that time was widespread, mobile phones didn’t exist and something needed to be done. Wilson rushed in — a difficult thing to do in a country with a train service that virtually seized up at the weekends — and got to the plant 10 minutes late for the night shift. He was greeted with a smiling shift foreman who told Wilson that he was going to log him in as late and that Wilson was in charge of a shift that was running four hours behind schedule. And to top that, management were expecting to cast 600 tonnes of refined lead at six in the morning.

Wilson recalls the situation. “I then met the shift operators, all of whom I had been working with just a week earlier. On this particular shift the senior shop steward told me that ahead of the walk-out by the shift foreman the operations had slipped behind schedule. “Although the situation was of no concern to the shift foreman, if the lead casting planned for the morning was delayed the operators would lose their weekly bonus. The issue was important to them at the time because they were paid weekly in cash and the production bonus was a significant proportion of their income. “I briefed the shift operators on how we would tackle the process for the night and informed them that as a chemist I was aware of alternative methods of lead refining and, provided the shift operators followed my precise instructions, we should be able

Batteries International • Summer 2018 • 73

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PROFILE: BRIAN WILSON “The opportunity to manage a lead smelter was a huge challenge, but it was a move that would ultimately change my life. The years spent managing the secondary lead plant set me up for all my future work”

EPA delegates at the Ghana BAT Workshop

HELPING THE ‘INFORMAL’ ECONOMY

Unlicensed, illegal and highly hazardous to the health of all concerned

Wilson reckons that the greatest challenge facing the lead battery business in the third world is eliminating ‘informal’ used lead acid battery recycling. “The worst recyclers operate informally. That is, the plants are not licensed, the operation is probably temporary, because if the authorities try to shut them down, they just move somewhere else,” he says. “And of course, they avoid the authorities not for environmental reasons, but because they don’t pay any taxes on profits. Persuading operators and owners in the informal sector to upgrade their operations and formalize remains the biggest challenge today. “I’m not always welcome at

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informal recycling operations but I’ve never shut down a smelter in my life. I prefer to inform and persuade owners to change, rather than threaten. “One key component of the drive to move the informal operations into the licensed formal recycling sector is to provide support and training to the regulators. One of the major issues for regulators in developing countries is that they often lack the necessary funds to buy the appropriate monitoring equipment. “And in addition, even in countries that do provide the monitoring equipment, the regulators are not trained to apply the monitoring and sampling in an effective way that leads them to the emission or discharge source.”

to make up the lost time. “In disbelief the operators agreed but were wary because deviating from normal operating procedures could land them in trouble, but after assuring them that I would document everything in the log book, which would exonerate them from any disciplinary action, they agreed. “It was a hard night’s work, but at the end of the shift the production schedule had been restored, 600 tonnes of lead was refined and ready to cast at 6am as planned, and the operator’s bonus was secured.” The huge surge in production that had been created ended the industrial action the next day — and none of the shift foremen wanted Brian Wilson supervising operations again! Wilson was now in the spotlight as the top management realised he was someone with great potential. He was assigned to work with the production manager to study operations in the secondary lead plant, which in 1982 was running at a loss. His tasks in the study were to look at manpower requirements, operators and staff competencies and costs. En route, he learned a tremendous amount about the management of the plant and the metallurgical and engineering aspects required to move the operation into profit. The study took some months, but shortly after its publication in 1983, he was invited by the general manager to manage the secondary lead plant. “The opportunity to manage a lead smelter was a huge challenge for me because I didn’t have a production background,” he says. “But it was a move that would ultimately change my life. The years spent managing the secondary lead plant set me up for all my future work.” It also gave him valuable experience in managing the ingenuity and enthusiasm, albeit sometimes misguided, of the employees. The 1980s were difficult days for Britannia and the management of lead smelting. Bonuses to increase performance would be matched by workers taking risks to achieve the bonuses — ignoring the multitude of risks that, even then, were well known. Most of this was to do with exposure to lead in the air or ingestion or exposure to the skin. “There’s an interesting psychology behind all this,” says Wilson. “It’s a kind of thinking that the damage from lead to, say the brain, wouldn’t happen to them. A kind of immunity

Batteries International • Summer 2018 • 77

PROFILE: BRIAN WILSON syndrome which meant that workers ignored the health and safety risks in pursuit of greater pay packets.” Even in those days blood testing for lead levels was compulsory, but this would be something that workers would seek to evade in an effort to qualify for overtime pay and bonuses. “One of the most absurd was that workers would give blood to multiple Blood Transfusion Services and then drink a lot of water, so that when tested they might have diluted their lead in blood level and would be eligible for the overtime bonuses and the like,” he says. “The fact that they were in danger because of this suggested to me that our entire managerial approach to remuneration was biased in the wrong direction. Employees should be rewarded for looking after their health and safety as well as their productivity.

Bonuses to increase performance would be matched by workers taking risks to achieve the bonuses — ignoring the multitude of risks that, even then, were well known “Creating a safer work environment is not about slapping penalties on people who break the rules — though there is a place for that too — rather it’s about generating an understanding and enthusiasm for creating a better workplace.” In this instance the workers couldn’t get one across Wilson. Once he’d worked out the trickery he instituted haemoglobin testing, sometimes without warning, to eliminate any cheating. One of the many engaging aspects to Wilson is his absolute passion for leading by example. His blood lead

level is under 2μg/dl — so low that regular testing methods wouldn’t even show it. “I still do everything that I did in my smelting days,” he says. “I wash my hands thoroughly, I don’t touch my hair, I drink plenty of fluids and much more.” Many of these same procedures he insisted — where he could — should be rigorously applied. Many workers didn’t change their clothes properly when they went to work, leaving vests and underpants on which could accumulate lead dust. Wilson insisted that everyone, with no exceptions, should completely change their clothing be-

MAKING PROFITS AND ESM WORK-HAND-IN-HAND Part of Wilson’s approach to dealing with the informal sector (and formal too) is to show how ESM can be paid for by investing in technology that will not only pay for itself, but in the longer term increase financial returns. In one example he saved one Indian battery maker some $600,000 a year. “In my presentation I showed how an inefficient baghouse — the filtration system that collects lead process dust from the smelting furnace and refinery — was losing this sum of money annually just by losing 2% of the lead available to recover due to inadequate dust capture and collection,” he says. Slag, for example, can be a problem in that it will contain low levels of lead. It is possible to extract financial value from this — but in Indonesia one company is already producing paving slabs on a commercial scale using a formulation that includes approximately 15% of lead slag in the mix. The paving slabs comply with building regulations and are very stable. In Colombia, one lead smelter is working on a project to produce high-end ceramic bricks designed to pass the construction industry’s standards for lead content and leaching. He gives other examples of how environmental efficiency can be made profitable.

78 • Batteries International • Summer 2018

Scrubbing towers, for example, can use lime to remove sulfur dioxide from the furnace gases. The end product gypsum has a commercial value. Another process, this time in the effluent treatment plant, mixes ammonium carbonate with the battery electrolyte so that it reacts to form ammonium sulfate, a fertilizer and a rich source of nitrogen. An ideal solution for many developing nations with an agricultural-based economy. One alternative in the breaking of batteries is the battery saw, which removes the top section of the battery and allows the grids to be extracted and the polypropylene cases to be washed — it is then possible to separate the white and coloured plastic and obtain the higher price for the white polypropylene.

…ceramic bricks and

In Colombia one smelter is working on producing high-end ceramic bricks from slag that are designed to pass exacting building standards for lead and leaching

…electrolyte to gypsum

Converting slag to…

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PROFILE: BRIAN WILSON

Wilson at the Tianneng Power lead acid battery plant in China

Wilson in the Dominican Republic with the Basel Convention Regional Centre directors for Central America and the Caribbean: Miguel Araujo and Ahmad Khan

fore and after work. One lead economist remembers how seriously Wilson took worker safety. “I’d actually gone for a job interview, dressed in a very smart suit and tie, and we’d spoken seriously in his office about work for about an hour before he invited me round to see the plant. “The next thing I knew was my future boss is in the changing rooms and is stripped naked — and telling me to do the same — and getting into a protective suit for walking round the facility. He was right of course but at the time, it was disconcerting as part of the interview! Now I follow the same procedure every shift without a second thought.” In 1996 Wilson was seconded to the ILMC from Britannia — an International Lead Association member — as its program manager. The ILMC was a key Lead Risk Reduction program of the association’s Lead Action 21 sustainability initiative (see boxed item). A 2006 Blacksmith Institute report outlining what it regarded as the worst 10 polluted places on the planet — four of which are lead related — puts the work of the ILMC into context. “Living in a town with serious pollution is like living under a death sentence. If the damage does not come from immediate poisoning, then cancers, lung infections and mental retardation are likely outcomes,” it says. “Often insidious and unseen, and usually in places with deficient and exhausted health systems, pollution

LOOKING FOR A LARGER PICTURE You’ve worked with the ILA — which organizes the ILMC — for a long time now but in recent years you’ve been working directly with other organizations. How do they work together? I’ve always worked with other agencies since I joined the ILMC some 20 years ago and the reason is that donors, countries and organizations such as the EU and the UN do not give funds to industry associations, but will give financial support to NGOs, government agencies and intergovernmental organizations. Until three years ago I worked exclusively for the ILA, but I am now a freelance consultant although the

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bulk of my work is still for the ILA. This arrangement works very well for me and the ILA because I can now work with a wider range of organizations and provide technical support to governments that I had been unable to reach when I worked solely for the ILA. I suppose I’ve built up a reputation for being objective and practical in my approach and that has enabled me to work not only with the ILA and its members, but also United Nations’ organizations such as the UNCTAD, UNEP, the Basel Convention and the International lead Zinc Study Group, NGOs such as Pure Earth and the OeKO Institute, and in China with universities in Beijing and Hangzhou.

I’ve also been engaged directly by governments such as the Philippines and Colombia for advice and support. What kind of budget constraints do you face? Budget issues are not normally an issue for me, because recycling used lead batteries is a self-supporting industry. It is profitable, given the right level of throughput and smelter design choice. Therefore, setting up a lead battery recycling operation does not require any subsidy or grant. Recycling is an investment opportunity and as such, the private sector will find the funds to develop recycling facilities.

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PROFILE: BRIAN WILSON

Development of the Benchmarking Assessment Tool Trying to create an international assessment protocol across the entire developing world is difficult — so how easy is it to compare best practice in say a tiny smelting firm in Bangladesh with a much larger recycling plant in say Africa? The answer to this imponderable question was the creation of the Benchmarking Assessment Tool or BAT — essentially a questionnaire that enables the user to make an informed assessment of any company involved in lead batteries at any point in the supply chain. Field trials in recent years have confirmed that the BAT is consistent with the ILA good practice guidelines, the Basel Convention, the supporting Technical Guidelines and prevailing domestic and international norms for safety, hygiene and environmental sustainability. One of the key features of the tool — and almost the opposite of conventional thinking — is the fact that it is observation based and does not rely on data collection, making it ideal for on-the-spot pro-active interaction between the inspectorate and operating personnel. The BAT is designed to be used in such a manner that, after a short training course, regulators can make informed judgements about the credibility of an operation’s health, safety and environmental (HSE) performance without necessarily being an expert in battery recycling or manufacture. So far the BAT has been applied and field tested in India, Costa Rica, Kenya, Ghana and most recently, China. Based on the initial success of the process, it is more than likely that the BAT will become the template for international work in Wilson’s field. The BAT was first used by Wilson during the risk reduction phase of the ILMC project with the India Lead Zinc Development Association and the Blacksmith Institute, in a pilot exercise to resolve a local lead exposure issue in Tamil Nadu involving the Tamil Nadu State Pollution Control Board and a used lead acid battery re-

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cycling plant. To test the ease of use of the assessment tool, a minimum amount of instruction about completing the form was given to the assessors. The plant inspection began with each member of the inspection team observing the recycling operation and circling the appropriate boxes in each section of the BAT form. Every aspect of the operation was inspected and when completed participants returned to Chennai to review the finding of the assessment. In Chennai the participants from the company, the State Pollution Control Board and the Blacksmith Institute analyzed the assessment forms in two separate groups to compare outcomes and further test the application process. The outcomes in the form of recommendations fall into three categories: • Short term improvements – no cost and can be implemented immediately • Short term — low cost of up to $2,000 • Long term — where major capital investment up to $1 million is required. The results were positive. In total, taking the composite of all the participants in the study, there were: • 12 short term recommendations at no cost that could be implemented immediately • Nine short term recommendations for improvements at a cost of up to $2,000 • Four long term recommendations, where major capital Investment of up to $1 million is required The outcomes of this pilot assessment exercise formed the basis for a dialogue between the Tamil Nadu State Pollution Control Board and the company.

Similar exercises were carried out in Costa Rica, Kenya and Ghana and all resulting in improved HSE performance. The participants in each case remarked how constructive the process was with the BAT form facilitating non-confrontational discussions resulting in a list of agreed improvements. In China, the tool was initially developed in a pilot scheme at the request of the China Non-ferrous Metals Industry Association (CNIA) at one of the Chunxing Group smelters. The objective was to see whether it could be used to encourage the government to focus more on sound lead battery recovery and recycling procedures and processes rather than simply smelter capacity and location or rather the proximity of lead smelters to populations. The results of the assessments were consistent with those in India and Costa Rica and the BAT scheme for recyclers was further developed in conjunction with Zhejiang University in Hangzhou to include battery manufacturing. “There is every reason to believe that the Benchmarking Assessment Tool for battery recycling and manufacturing is going to prove to be a cost-effective useful indicator of environmentally sound management, safe working and good occupational health,” says Wilson. He says the benchmarking form is easy to use and is in the form of a questionnaire. It was designed this way to ensure the questions provide a consistent approach to each assessment, irrespective of the location or the assessor. It also means that the benchmarking assessment can be made without being an expert in the Basel Technical Guidelines or best practice for lead battery manufacture, recovery and recycling. The questions are also designed so that conformance with good practice or nonconformance can be identified easily depending on whether the observations made during the plant inspection place a tick in a green zone box or not. “It’s also suitable for the assessment of environmental performance of any phase in the life cycle of the lead battery from the mining of lead bearing ore, through to smelting, lead refining, battery manufacture, retailing, used lead battery recovery and recycling,” says Wilson.

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PROFILE: BRIAN WILSON is an unacknowledged burden of the poor and unvoiced in the developing world. It is a major factor impairing economic growth, and a significant strain on the lives of already impoverished people.” For Wilson it was then that the travelling began — a relentless crossing and re-crossing of Asia, Africa and the Americas — and an eventual string of successes where lead manufacturing, recycling and smelting, if not transformed, have been radically improved. Wilson remembers his first project with the ILMC vividly: it was to the Philippines in early 1997, providing technical support to an UNCTAD lead battery recycling project at a plant close to the capital Manila. “When I arrived at the plant, there was lead oxide dust outside the plant and the operations were located directly opposite a field of rice,” he says. “I was taken aback for two reasons. First, I was used to European standards of environmental management and second, rice is a food crop that readily absorbs lead.” “When I entered the plant, the operators were wearing wet towels around their faces to supposedly protect them from the lead dust. All the operating areas were awash with oxide paste and there was a mountain of furnace residues open to the elements. “I thought to myself, ‘This project is not going to be easy’, but four years later and after many plant upgrades and changes to operational procedures, the plant was certified to ISO 14001 for its environmental management system, in fact, it was the first secondary lead plant in Asia to achieve ISO certification.” In all Wilson says he has visited some 42 countries but so far, Antarctica is the only continent he has yet to visit. The range of his work continues to be astonishing. It encompasses everything from assisting in the specifications and design of smelting facilities, changing rooms and ventilation equipment to training regulators, employers and employees, to designing programs that can be used after he has left the country. Perhaps the most useful is his creation of the Benchmarking Assessment Tool. This provides the means of undertaking an initial qualitative assessment of environmental performance of used lead acid battery recovery and recycling (see boxed item). Some of the assistance has been highly technical. For example, a re-

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It was then that the travelling began — a relentless crossing and re-crossing of Asia, Africa and the Americas — and an eventual string of successes where lead manufacturing, recycling and smelting, if not transformed, have been radically improved cent three-year battery manufacturing and recycling project in China funded by the EU delegation to China and managed by Zhenjiang University enabled him to assist the Chinese battery manufacturing industry to improve its environmental performance. This was done by providing the necessary expertise to upgrade the dust extraction and ventilation systems, thereby improving collection rates by 25%-40% and with that a corresponding reduction in occupational exposure. In a world used to talking about

leadership from the top, Wilson has always adopted a collegiate approach. “Put simply, we don’t enter a country and impose our own ideas of how to remedy any problems they might have with lead exposure,” he says. “Although, of course, we have solutions in mind. Rather we try to get everyone to find, through our guidance, their own answers to dealing with the challenges that face them so that they own the solution.” This has required liaisons at all levels of the industry. David Wilson, the former head of the ILA says: “Brian

‘SOUND HSE MANAGEMENT OF LEAD PRODUCTS, IT’S JUST EDUCATION REALLY …’

Recycling the lead in a used battery is not actually that difficult, which is one of the main reasons why lead acid batteries are the most recycled commodity in the world. Lead batteries should be an environmental success story, but the problem with recycling them is that in so many developing countries and nations in transition the recycling operations are not environmentally sound and cause unnecessary adverse occupational and population lead exposure. “The basic problem is a lack of knowledge with regard to the adverse impacts of certain smelting

operations and any understanding of how to manage environmental control systems in an effective manner so as to mitigate exposure and pollution risks,” says Wilson. “So, if it’s just about education, then training sessions and workshops would appear to be the solution, but in so many instances, the worst recyclers operate informally and are unlikely to sit in the same room as a government regulator. This means that we have to take a different approach to informal operations and conduct educational visits in a spirit of cooperation rather than coercion.”

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PROFILE: BRIAN WILSON has developed a huge body of risk management literature, and worked with industry, governments and intergovernmental organizations to set up practical risk management programs in a wide range of countries. “And overall he has helped create a better image of the lead and lead acid battery industries by demonstrating that lead can be produced, used and recycled safely and provides enormous benefits to society.” In 2001 Wilson was awarded the

The greatest challenge facing the lead battery business in the third world is eliminating ‘informal’ used lead acid battery recycling MRSC for Services to Chemistry and in 2013 he was presented with the International Lead Award in recognition of his humanitarian contribution to the lead industry. Andy Bush, head of the ILA, says:

“Brian’s passion and dedication to the work of the ILMC is extraordinary and a great example of the lead industry’s commitment to taking responsibility for its products throughout the world.”

HOW WAS THE ILMC FORMED? ILMC was established in 1996 by the ILA in response to an OECD proposal to introduce a Council Act which could have imposed restrictions on certain lead products. The lead industry successfully argued that before any Act should be considered, the industry should have the opportunity to demonstrate that lead products, particularly used lead-acid batteries and lead bearing waste, could not only be managed in an environmentally sound manner in OECD member countries, but also in the developing world and countries in economic transition. As a result the first countries that asked for ILMC assistance were Mexico and the Philippines. I would guess the broad remit for your work comes from the LA21 Charter but how does this work in practice? In part due to the success of the ILMC lead risk reduction projects the OECD did not pursue the introduction of a Council Act to restrict lead products. However, the industry realised that it had to introduce a much broader programme to encourage and embed the principles of sustainable development throughout the lead industry worldwide. The Lead Action 21 programme (LA21), developed and managed by the International Lead Association, has three main objectives, to inform, improve and support. This means sharing knowledge about safe production, using and recycling lead products, putting measures in place for continuous improvement in the industry and through an ILMC model providing practical help and guidance to

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developing countries. The ILMC model has now been incorporated into the ILA’s sustainability program and as such the link between Wilson’s work and the ILA has been strengthened. Do you have a checklist of tasks/ questions that you work through? Could you tell us more about this and how it was developed? Although the ILMC and not the ILA provides expertise in a manner similar to a consultancy, it works on a not-for-profit basis and builds capacity in those countries where the ILA works, so that the domestic lead industry and respective government agencies can monitor and manage their own projects. This is in pursuit of the goal of environmentally sound management of used leadacid batteries and any other lead products or waste material. Any plant assessments or inspections must therefore follow a consistent approach. In recent years this has been formalized and modified so that it is consistent with the ILA Good Practice Notes, the Basel Convention Technical Guidelines and the prevailing domestic and international legislation, including safety, hygiene and sustainability. It is now known as the Benchmarking Assessment Tool. The benchmarking tool has proved successful as a means of undertaking an initial qualitative assessment of environmental performance of any used lead acid battery recovery and recycling facility or manufacturing plant. In a world of literally a hundred developing economies, you

must find it difficult to assess priorities. How are these set? Over the past few years the focus of ILMC/ILA has shifted from single nation projects to regional needs and strategies and those countries in transition or nations, such as Indonesia, that have such large populations that they require a regional approach to ESM. ILMC undertook a lot of work in Central America as this was seen as a priority by the major donor organizations. Considerable progress has been made to improve used lead acid battery recycling in this region with environmentally smelting operations established in Costa Rica, Guatemala and Mexico. Now the focus is on South America, Africa, Indonesia and countries in transition, such as India. Are they mostly reliant on the funding available from international associations and local NGOs or are they set in a different fashion? Regional and specific country projects that involve the ILA are all funded externally from donor organizations such as the European Union, US AID, UNEP and the UN Common Fund for Commodities (CFC). However, it is important to emphasize that the lead industry does not raise funds directly itself, but is always in partnership with either intergovernmental organizations such as the UN International Lead Zinc Study Group, UN Conference on Trade and Development or NGOs such as Pure Earth and the OeKO Institute.

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CASE STUDY: BAJOS DE HAINA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC According to a Blacksmith Institute 2006 report, the Bajos de Haina, just south of the Dominican Republic’s capital Santo Domingo, was one of the 10 most polluted sites on the planet. Some 85,000 people were potentially affected by the lead pollution.

Nowadays

How to turn around one of the world’s worst recycling plants The Bajos de Haina area was severely contaminated with lead from a closed down automobile battery recycling smelter. “Various studies have found alarming lead levels in the Haina community, with blood and soil levels several orders of magnitude over regular limits,” says the Blacksmith Institute. The contamination was caused by the past industrial operations of the nearby Metaloxa battery plant. The most common symptom of Haina’s pollution was lead poisoning, which affects children’s health and development. The plant closed in March 1997. Testing of children in March and August that year revealed that at least 28% of the children required immediate treatment and that 5% had lead levels >79μg/dL. Only 9% of these children were under the WHO recommended 9μg/ dL for maximum concentration. The children were also at risk for severe neurologic consequences at the time of the study. Birth deformities, eye damage, learning and personality disorders, and in some cases death from lead

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poisoning, have also been reported at a higher than normal rate due to contamination caused by the past operations of the battery plant. Brian Wilson first visited the site in 2002 and says his job was to work with the owner to turn round what was then one of the worst recycling plants to one that would comply with international norms for ESM. “Despite a very bad visit to the plant that year, the owner soon realized that I was there to help him. Over the years during the planning, construction and commissioning phases of the new smelter I developed a good working relationship with the owner, providing him with technical support. “The new plant was commissioned in 2011 — compare the photos taken at the beginning and now! and has been deemed environmentally sound by the government.” As a result, exports of used lead batteries were later banned to ensure that they were all are recycled in the Dominican Republic.

2002

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MONETIZING STORAGE Storage and solar is no longer just an environmental story. It’s about producing cheaper electricity and a more reliable grid — a contribution written by ees, the conference organizer, about the North American market.

Making energy storage a new norm for business This May, California mandated that rooftop solar be added to all singlefamily homes being built from 2020. It was the first time the California Energy Commission had issued such regulations, and a first for the whole of the US. Last year, the US installed 110MWh of behind-the-meter storage, of which California contributed 73% of this. This year almost as many residential MWs were deployed in the first quarter of US as the whole of the previous year. Some 557 MW will be deployed this year, with the market set to reach 3.7 GW in annual storage deployments by 2023. Legacy solar players are pursuing storage business lines, with solar installers becoming energy solution providers. Meanwhile, since 2016 utilities have been getting more involved with storage, exploring the opportunities it can provide for both grid modernization and improved services for end users. There is also an emerging opportunity for storage players to partner with homebuilders to install solarplus-storage at new developments.

Advancing the case for storage “Changes in NEM tariffs and utility rate structures are pushing more behind-the-meter customers to pursue storage, and in particular solar-plusstorage,” says Brett Simon, senior analyst energy storage at GTM Research. “Solar-plus-storage will become a

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The most important point is that storage and solar do not need to be co-sited to add value to the utility and the grid bigger portion of the equation: nonresidential and front-of-the-meter storage developers are increasingly pursuing solar-plus-storage projects given economic attractiveness, particularly in the wake of shifting NEM rules for the former and a desire for firmed generation in the case of the latter.” While demand rises, and the cost of the technology falls — and becomes more scalable — interest in the energy storage market is bound to increase. This will require new solutions that help smooth renewables’ intermittency by creating fast-dispatchable, highly localized solutions when and where the utility needs it most. The most important point is that storage and solar do not need to be co-sited to provide value to the utility and to the grid; in fact standalone storage can sometimes perform more functions, in the form of distribution congestion relief, local capacity, or other grid services. The value of energy storage for advanced grid applications providing

peaking capacity, deferring transmission and distribution investments, and improving the use of renewable generation has increased significantly as the technology has matured in the market, says Camron Barati, senior analyst solar and energy storage at IHS Markit Technology, who talked about this during the Intersolar/ Smarter-E conference in San Francisco this July. “The US is now rapidly advancing its regulatory frameworks and is putting in place legislative support for energy storage to participate in energy markets, having identified it as a key technology for transitioning to a more distributed, low-carbon and reliable electricity supply.”

Affecting business models

New technologies, economies of scale and policy will undoubtedly affect future business models. Technologies — and variants on those battery chemistries, such as excluding cobalt — continue to emerge, as do hardware and power conversion system innovations related to those chemistries. Meanwhile software and communication system developments point to a future where the supplier has more options and control over energy decisions, and the end user more ability to participate in grid modernization. The need for long duration systems — four-hours plus — will mean less

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MONETIZING STORAGE commercially advanced battery technologies such as flow batteries benefit as the market makes a general pivot from short-duration applications. There will also be significant financial investment by large technology companies improving customer confidence and providing performance security. Barati says continued improvement in lithium ion storage and other component learning curves, the reduction of soft and hard costs through economies of scale, and federal and state policy decisions will affect the market’s potential growth. “Each will have an impact on whether customer-sited energy storage will be allowed to offer the 13 different services to customers, utilities, and grid operators that were so well articulated by Rocky Mountain Institute in their 2015 report on the Economics of Battery Energy Storage,” he says.

Monetizing new energy

Key to maximizing energy storage’s full potential. will be running technological innovations parallel to business model innovation. Viable business models between grid operators and utility customers will unlock the full value of storage and distributed energy resources. Behind-the-meter C&I storage has been successful for mitigating demand charges, but residential customers will be more focused on improving self-consumption of solar and optimizing timeof-use rate schedules to generate value.

The greatest challenge for monetizing storage and renewables is finding the right use-case for customers, which although diverse, is important for energy storage to be able to stack value through multiple applications. In other words, fulfil the maximum number of services with a single asset. Each end user will have individual needs and requirements for both the behind-the-meter segment and front-of-the-meter applications. Accessible revenue streams, sometimes determined by local regulation and electricity tariff structures, also vary from market to market or even on a regional level. Barati says: “Both lead to a difficult customer acquisition process, as well as creating steep learning curves as vendors and developers look to expand to new markets. Additionally, taking advantage of available incentive programs is critical for the earlystage development of storage adoption in the market, which can vary significantly from market to market.”

Data is the new disrupter

Artificial Intelligence will beome a cornerstone of business models. It relies on predictive analytics relating to weather, load, tariff options, and automates thousands of real-time calculations and decisions that would otherwise necessitate tremendous manpower, and therefore mitigate cost savings. Incorporating data analytics and

intelligent software will have a larger role to play in markets, especially decentralized systems, as America’s energy landscape changes, and regulators increasingly articulate its value proposition against other infrastructure and peaker plant alternatives. AI can manage the timing of energy use in real time to minimize costs and balance the grid by responding to changing needs in demand and supply. It is extremely complex, however, says Barati. “Even with the ability to store energy, there are still thousands of calculations, forecasting simulations, and split-second decisions required to produce meaningful results.” And the more data that’s captured, the smarter the network becomes, with AI and data analytics already having a significant impact on the market Utilities and grid operators need highly flexible, localized resources to manage the intermittency of renewable energy penetration and local grid congestion events, and AI-driven energy storage can offer that data and real-time execution. Brendan Harney, director business development at information technology firm Stem, says: “The potential to aggregate a portfolio of distributed EESs to provide balancing services could disrupt the power market. Many of the leading companies involved in energy storage have embedded software at the heart of their operations.”

Source: White paper: Grid Edge Innovation - Technologies, Business Models and the Future of Demand Flexibility (Find out more at ess North America). As the grid has become more decentralized and decarbonized, the need for a flexible and digitally managed grid have increased drastically. A part of this challenge stems from reduced visibility, control and arguably, revenues for the utilities and system operators. At the same time, the tools available to run a well orchestrated grid have moved closer to the customers. This white paper will look at one potential future where a suite of customer focused grid edge solutions is commonly resourced to enhance grid flexibility. Some of the technologies included in the study are standalone and solar paired storage, load control and electric vehicle charging. Beyond just examining the state of the technology and historical deployments, the white paper will assess the state of the marketplace, including players, business models and most interesting developments.

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Batteries International • Summer 2018 • 89

VIRTUAL POWER PLANTS

Coming soon to a grid near you…

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VIRTUAL POWER PLANTS

The next generation of electricity delivery — theoretically without power plants — is just round the corner. Paul Crompton reports.

The utility death spiral. It’s been the energy industry chatter for the past five years. It follows an analysis by the Edison Electric Institute that the rise of distributed energy resources would kill off the utilities. At its most basic — and the thinking was clearly far more nuanced than this — was the idea that when everyone generated their own electricity, there would be little need for the huge generating capabilities and transmission networks of the old-fashioned utility. But a new business model is emerging for the energy business. And the rise of virtual power plants — where individual distributed energy resources (DERs) are aggregated and then coordinated into a larger generating network — doesn’t necessarily spell the end of the regular power utility. Rather it would fit into a newer type of operation, where the customer is able to coordinate their own assets through an outside party — think Uber, the taxi firm with no taxis; Airbnb, the hotel with no beds; or eBay, the retailer with no shops. The technology to do this so far is now advancing from pilot projects to larger scale operations. If utilities as well as transmission operators can reorganize themselves — they already have most of the expertise in place — to moving to this new model, they could well continue to have a useful and profitable future. Future grid operators will be more an aggregator of distributed energy resources than an asset owner; teams of analysts will manage mega data from hundreds of separate sources to balance the grid, rather than rely on engineers and traditional power supply methods. The big question will be who is willing to step up to the plate to create the partnerships between regulators, utilities and customers that will help nurture the environment that can make this transition possible.

A changing business

In the UK the role of Distribution Network Operators is moving to a Distributed Systems Operator model to reflect the twoway relationship of supply and demand as the means and methods by which power is generated, distributed and consumed.

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Transmission network operators have to ensure the grid remains stable at 50Hz, which entails balancing supply and demand as finely as possible. However, traditional methods of balancing the grid, such as Peaker plants, are slowly being usurped by energy storage systems as grid operators seek cheaper and quicker ways to maintain grid frequency, especially during unforeseen fluctuations in generation and consumption. UK energy aggregator Limejump works with 1,200 organizations and 150 generators to create a VPP capable of supplying more than 200MW of capacity to the National Grid. Its head of business development, Joe McDonald, says: “Aggregators and suppliers have always been there in the energy industry. Now the Internet of Things is spilling over into the energy industry, so there will be a big fundamental

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VIRTUAL POWER PLANTS “VPPs are already part of energy markets, or in subset as aggregations of flexibility, for example frequency, DSR and capacity markets. Full-scale VPPs will become inevitable, particularly in large island nations or cities that need to manage growing grid-edge production and batteries to manage balancing.” — Simon Daniel, Moixa shift in the next six years. Big storage systems are coming on line, more renewables and assets and the technology will open up those markets. “Renewables are starting to affect the grid systems and people are becoming more aware of how they cause problems and how the grid needs to be balanced.” Chris Hickman, chief executive and founder of Innovari, believes we are in the middle of the next evolution of the electric grid. But, he says, this time the challenge power network operators face is even more daunting than any from the past, as the integration and impact of DERs on the grid system change future business models. “At stake are the most fundamental relationships we maintain with our customers and the communities we serve,” he says. “Virtual Power Plant technology will be at the centre of the solution that enables utilities to control all resources at the edge of the grid and help them optimize existing grids and existing central station resources.” In the future, VPPs will provide the backbone of numerous grid-connected services. At the base level operators will be able to integrate consumer and utility owned DERs to provide capacity and energy benefits to the grid, and also balance customer and community owned renewables from buildings, batteries and EV charging. At the next level VPPs will enable a whole new set of ancillary services at the distribution level such as power factor correction and even phase balancing. Companies such as Stem, which pairs artificial intelligence — AI —

Aggregators and suppliers have always been there in the energy industry. Now the Internet of Things is spilling over into the energy industry, so there will be a big fundamental shift in the next six years.” — Joe McDonald, Limejump 92 • Batteries International • Summer 2018

.with energy storage to help end-users optimize the timing of energy use, utilizes their proprietary software to rapidly respond to spikes in electricity use, drawing on stored power to automatically reduce demand. Meanwhile, Moixa’s Gridshare enables a range of real-time, system, energy-use or flexibility data to be analyzed and automated, to optimize battery and grid services. The company acts like a battery operator and is responsible, through its Gridshare platform, for maximizing the battery asset value from behindthe-meter for households, at-themeter for utilities, local-to-meter for DNOs/networks and front-of-the-meter for the grid. And they are not alone. Companies are developing cloudbased systems that aggregate the capacities of diverse DERs to enhance power generation and the way it is distributed. The future grid will see consumers — or prosumers — generate power, with excess stored in smallscale ESSs and shared among a community of users. In the UK, the roll-out of smart meters into all homes, some 26 million by 2020, will ensure this prosumer model is better understood by giving the end-user real-time data on their energy supply and demand.

The grid of the future

“The global energy world will change completely and get decentralized, sustainable and digital. Nothing will remain as we know it. We are running a fundamental transformation process to meet the challenges of the new energy world,” says Markus Nitschke, in charge of communication and political affairs at E.on, the Germany-based utility. Nitschke believes VPPs will be an important component in meeting the challenges posed by the transition from traditional energy generation methods to renewables. For example, E.on’s VPP directly draws on the power generation facilities of numerous consumers’ distributed energy resources to stabilize the grid when demand is too high or too low. “The increasingly decentralized production associated with the expansion of renewable energy sources means that fluctuations in the electricity grid are increasing and forecasts are becoming ever more difficult to make, which creates major challenges for grid operators,” says Nitschke. “Positive balancing power is needed

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VIRTUAL POWER PLANTS Rather it would fit into a newer type of operation where the customer is able to coordinate their own assets through an outside party — think Uber, the taxi firm with no taxis; Airbnb, the hotel with no beds; or eBay, the retailer with no shops. if consumption exceeds generation and negative is required in the opposite case. The transmission network operators have three balancing power qualities available, of which one is the tertiary balancing power.” This has the purpose of replacing the previously activated secondary balancing power and must be capable of being fully available within 15 minutes. Since July 2012, the minimum supply size in Germany has been 5MW and it is automatically requested. Network operators will also be able to use VPPs to aggregate DERs and collectively make them behave as a grid asset. This might be as a generator, or to organize a group reduction in energy demand. “These are important to the future as they can enable customer-owned or grid-edge renewable assets to participate and help balance the energy system. It becomes critical with the increasing adoption of PV, batteries and electric vehicles,” says Simon Daniel, the co-founder of Moixa. “VPPs are already part of energy markets, or in subset as aggregations of flexibility, for example frequency, DSR and capacity markets,” says Daniel. “Full-scale VPPs will become inevitable, particularly in large island nations or cities that need to manage growing grid-edge production, and batteries to manage balancing.” This is a point shared by Ted Ko, director of policy at US digitally connected energy operator Stem. He believes that utilities and bulk grid operators will increasingly seek dynamic, network-enabled VPPs as a service, where local, modular capacity and resources can be instantly applied to address localized issues. “These dynamic, network-enabled VPPs may in the future include islanding microgrids that operate indepen-

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SECOND-LIFE EV BATTERIES FOR VPP Japanese firms Benex Corp and Sumitomo announced in April they had launched a project using second-life lithium ion electric vehicle batteries to power Benex’s plant in Isahaya, Japan. The stationary energy storage system project combines renewable energy, end-of-life batteries and electric vehicles to demonstrate the technology as Japan moves to a low carbonized power economy. The project will use 10 Nissan e-NV200 electric commercial vehicles and EV batteries to stabilize output from the rooftop solar panel system and for peak-shifting services to reduce the plant’s electricity costs. Nissan employees will use the e-NV200s for commuting or work purposes, with the vehicle’s batteries recycled and refabricated into components of the ESS at their end of life. The two companies co-developed

the system for use in virtual power plants that are expected to be operating in Japan by 2020. They have already field tested ESSs and EVs as part of their participation in the Kansai VPP project, which will be used to optimize and manage supply and demand throughout the region. In January Nissan Motor, Kansai Electric Power and Sumitomo Electric Industries started testing tools to charge EVs via remote control as part of the Kansai VPP Project. Sixty electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles owned by customers and Kansai will be outfitted with EV switches, which are control instruments for EV charging developed in conjunction with Sumitomo. All three firms will link their servers to enable remote-control charging, collect vehicle data and identify available charging capacity.

Stem uses its AI driven ESSs to reduce an end-users’ peak demand and provide real-time and predictive data and energy management visualization tools. It can then link that system with others into aggregated VPPs, where a dozen additional energy services for the utility or grid operator are able to use stored energy at lower cost than traditional grid infrastructure, and with five minutes’ notice.

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VIRTUAL POWER PLANTS “Virtual Power Plant technology will be at the centre of the solution that enables utilities to control all resources at the edge of the grid and help them optimize existing grids and existing central station resources.” — Chris Hickman, Innovari

dently of the electric grid when required to maintain service amid larger grid disturbances,” says Ko. At the individual commercial or institutional customer level, Stem uses its AI driven ESSs to reduce an enduser’s peak demand and provide realtime and predictive data and energy management visualization tools. It can then link that system with others into aggregated VPPs, where a dozen additional energy services for the utility or grid operator are able to use stored energy at lower cost than traditional grid infrastructure, and with five minutes notice. E.on’s VPP in Germany is connected directly to the grid. By analyzing data from power facilities such as wind farms and the power consumption of B2B customers, the system can decide how to act at short notice. This allows it to use the energy of a customer that has its own power production to stabilize the grid when supply or generation is low, or split customers from the grid to save energy. Alternatively, if low demand or too many renewables causes too much energy in the grid, the company can cut energy production.

Helping VPPs become business as usual

GRID CONNECTED PROJECTS ADVANCE IN EUROPE Tesla has partnered ReStore, the Belgian demand response start-up bought for €70million ($81million) in November 2017 by UK-based Centrica, for a 18.2MW lithium ion virtual power plant for grid balancing services in Belgium, Tesla announced in May. This is being built in a retired coal mine in the country. Commercial and industrial customers have agreed to participate in the project and will allow the project partners to limit demand when needed and provide access to their battery storage. ReStore says its algorithms can coordinate a complex mix of distributed energy sources. That means it can instantly balance

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everything from residential water heaters to heavy factory equipment. That flexibility means utilities can use them for a wider range of applications than standalone batteries. “That makes for a significant economic difference: energy providers can generate 150% more revenue from networked batteries than from standalone ones,” says one industry commentator. The system at Terhills, in northeast Belgium, is using 140 powerpacks to store excess renewable power for use at times of peak demand. The system has been integrated into the primary reserve of Elia, the national grid administrator in Belgium.

Hitherto utilities, transmission and network operators and regulators have been the stewards of the electricity system that provides the lifeblood of modern society. What has to happen now is that new technologies, customers, communities and regulators must be brought together in a way that will allow all the different technologies to work in an energy ecosystem as myriad DERs become an integral part of the power architecture (in Europe, for example, the sale of fossil fuel cars will be banned in many countries by 2040 and in some as early as 2025). If this is seen as an opportunity, Hickman says there is a phenomenal untapped potential for utilities to enhance and strengthen their relationships with their customers, communities and regulators. He believes that if all parties work closer together to ensure the grid evolves holistically, it can benefit all stakeholders. As the nature of power demand, supply and distribution changes with DERs, utilities in industrialized markets must also change how they decentralize their grids. They will have

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VIRTUAL POWER PLANTS to become more flexible, localized, and manage energy in real time. In the UK the role of Distribution Network Operators is moving to a Distributed Systems Operator model to reflect the two-way relationship of supply and demand as the means and methods by which power is generated, distributed and consumed. “It’s not just integrating these resources at the edge safely,” says Hickman. “It’s making them work with existing central station resources, existing grids and existing customer constraints that have developed over the past 100 years. “As the grid is the centre of this entire conversation, the utility must be in a position to make the decisions to proactively engage these stakeholders, including innovative newcomers, and enable the conversations to make this possible.” Business models will change as customers become more connected and willing to adopt DER technologies, so the utility industry will have to move forward to meet consumer desires to engage in the new connected energy future. This evolution has already started and utilities need to be engaged. Hickman says: “This is inevitable. This is not a theory, a political red herring or a policy that will simply fade away when a specific regulator or politician moves on. This evolution is based on technology and no one can stop the evolution and required incorporation of technology.” Today any number of disruptive technologies are presenting challenges to grid operators, with many viewing DERs as one of the most significant. And just as the need to define energy storage proves a stumbling block in the UK with double charging and the integration of grid enhancing technologies becomes business as usual, there will be regulatory implications for those newly developed utility assets. While many believe sweeping regulatory change is needed to implement VPPs as business as usual, companies such as Innovari believe the regulatory path already exists in most jurisdictions. Hickman says: “Leveraging existing regulatory frameworks provides an easier path for the utility to engage their customers for the benefit of all stakeholders. However, this requires a fundamental belief that regulators and utilities have an aligned vision for the future. “If this relationship is fractured,

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there is little hope that either sweeping change or existing structures have any hope of helping create the distributed, resilient and clean energy future that everyone desires. “The ability of a utility to effectively integrate them into the grid and manage those resources in harmony with the other assets the utility manages is being significantly hampered by special interest groups driving policy or regulation strictly to support a single technology.” However, Hickman says that forward thinking commissions and utili-

ties are partnering to recognize that DERs are actually an opportunity, not a challenge. “Things that people have never thought possible are now possible with a diverse set of resources at the edge of the grid,” says Hickman. Moixa’s Daniel thinks regulation is moving slowly to accommodate and maximize the opportunity of new technologies and models, such as virtual power plants. But he understands the challenge of ensuring fair market access, and the persistency of technology — so that

INTEGRATING JAPAN’S EVS INTO VPPS In June Japan’s Ministry for Economy, Transport and Infrastructure announced it was awarding a grant to seven firms in what it called a “Demonstrator project for virtual power plant utilizing consumer energy resources in a VG2 aggregator project”. Put simply, the project aims to build a vehicle-to-grid system whereby the electricity stored in electric vehicles is made available to the grid as and when required. The energy is then pumped back when no longer needed. In this way EVs become part of a larger virtual power plant. The seven firms in receipt of the grant are Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings; TEPCO Energy Partner; TEPCO Power Grid; Hitachi Systems Power Service; Mitsubishi Motors; Shizuoka Gas; and Hitachi Solutions.

An official statement said: “the hopes are that the batteries of EV/PHEVs, ownership of which is expected to grow rapidly in the near future, can be effectively utilized as a VPP resource. There are, however, several problems that must be solved first, including the establishment of V2G technology that utilizes large numbers of EV/ PHEVs; the upgrading of related systems; and ensuring grid stability is compatible with EV/PHEV mobility needs. “The companies will work to establish a V2G business model, the objective of which will be to encourage sustainable adoption of renewable energy sources and of power grid stabilization. In FY2018, the companies will build the testing environment and conduct validation testing on the results produced using the V2G system.”

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VIRTUAL POWER PLANTS the models can be properly factored into future energy system design — still needs to be addressed. Stem’s Ko says: “Utility regulators and grid operators must set policies that allow third-party energy storage providers to provide additional grid services and remunerate them fairly for these ancillary benefits. “Finally, in the US, policymakers outside California must create the rules to allow third-party DER aggregators to participate in wholesale markets equally with front-of-meter resources.” In California the move from utilitybased Demand Response programs to wholesale market-based DR resources that provide capacity to the California ISO grid operator is under way. An example of policy working is in the Demand Response Auction Mechanism programme, which was started in 2015 by the California Public Utilities Commission for utility customers to participate in the California wholesale energy market. DRAM makes the transactions more economical, larger in scale, and more predictable than the smaller previous pilots. Ko says DRAM has been a success on many fronts, despite the small current VPP sizes and high transaction costs. “It is proving the technical viability of the first customer-based VPPs in the US. Moreover, the DRAM contracts are proving the ability of the VPPs to execute in the real-time market,” he says. Stem’s own network of customersited storage responded to 150 ‘realtime’ or five-minute dispatch events for San Diego Gas & Electric between January and May 2017. Hickman says: “Utilities have to be at the centre of the delivery of a business model. As an example, people are clamouring about ‘competitive EV charging networks’. Yet what they are actually asking is to be the single provider of these charging stations. They are asking to be granted a monopoly licence in an area with no regulatory oversight. “Regulators are seeing these initiatives and seeing how when a young, innovative start-up fails, all stakeholders are affected and they have no oversight or authority. “The simple truth is that the grid must manage all comers and the utility most be in a position to partner with the commission to integrate and manage these resources if we are to be successful in our endeavour to enable a distributed, clean energy future.”

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MAJOR VPP PLAYERS • Alstom Grid • Bosch • Comverge • Consert • Cooper Power Systems/Eaton • Customized Energy Solutions • Duke Energy • ENBALA Power Networks • EnerNOC • GE Digital Energy • IBM

• Joule Assets • Ørsted (formerly DONG Energy) • Power Analytics • Power Assure • RWE • Schneider Electric • Siemens • Spirae • Sonnen • Ventyx/ABB • Viridity Energy

AND BLOCKCHAIN TOO … Where one can see B2B systems in the current deployment of VPPs, in the future peer-to-peer business models based on Blockchain technologies will be possible. In December, E.On launched the pilot project Regio Bayern Strom in two Bavarian regions for trading energy, whereby residents get the renewable power produced in their region directly from the producer of the renewable energy. Nitschke says: “The energy producers of one of our pilot regions are equipped with smart meters and will directly supply the consumers: a so-called P2P market is created. These platforms are the starting point for autonomous electricity regions — and thus the independent energy ecosystems of the future. “As a first step, the Blockchain technology helps private electricity producers and consumers to see directly where their energy comes from — or where it flows to. This creates an awareness for a regional energy ecosystem, which aims at increasing the energy autonomy of communities.”

And in London, trials are set to begin to test the possibilities of sharing power generated from PVs situated on site between homes on a housing estate. The 12 month, Blockchain-based peer-to-peer pilot, run in part by energy trading firm Green Running, will use storage, energy monitoring and renewable generation. To get to P2P as business as usual will take a culture shift. McDonald says: “Peer-to-peer connectivity is becoming more and more normal. With Uber and Airbnb, people manage their own assets, it’s a platform to coordinate assets. But energy is invisible, so it’s hard to understand what it is. So there needs to be a level of transparency, and until we get a full roll out of smart meters (in the UK) it’s difficult to show the benefits to customers.” And so the evolution of VPPs and the creation of an advanced grid that is cost effective will be dependent on utilizing the combined technologies of the utility, its customers, and its communities.

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VIRTUAL POWER PLANTS

Artificial intelligence

— the next weapon in the smart grid armoury Artificial intelligence looks set to be the major enabler for the development of yet more complex virtual power plant systems. AI-driven energy storage is transforming all expectations of the electricity system — among commercial customers, utilities, grid operators, and policymakers — and putting businesses in the driver’s seat to control their costs and even participate in new ways in the energy markets to maximize their economic opportunities. These cloud-based systems will use advanced technology platforms that utilize big data, analytics and AI to aggregate DERs and fully automated controllable loads that operate like any other generation asset with twoway verification and closed loop control. To get an idea of the amount of data being processed, Joe McDonald, head of business development for the UK energy aggregator Limejump, says most of the demand response in the UK that goes through a VPP will need to process 80-90 times more data than Facebook does each day (Facebook processes around 2.5 billion pieces of content and 500+ terabytes of data each day) — to curtail or ramp up supply as required to balance the grid. This will become increasingly important as DERs such as electric vehicles, solar panels and energy storage

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systems are adopted by end users. However, operating a network of multi-purpose, grid-responsive energy storage systems requires sophisticated software that includes distributed decision-making and edge computing,

honing predictive capabilities using machine learning and neural networks to continuously improve optimization decisions and reduce latency, says Ted Ko, director of policy at US digitally connected energy operator Stem. “The AI behind energy storage is transformative because it turns a commodity battery into a platform for grid-edge matchmaking among market opportunities, akin to a shared ride service or shared tourism residence service, putting more power in the control of the consumer,” he says. Looking at Stem’s work, it’s easy to see why analysts will be as important as engineers in the future grid ecosystem. Stem captures data on a onesecond basis, and stores terabytes to the cloud. To date it has analyzed more than three million hours of field data from more than 300 systems using machine learning, smart analytics, and other data science techniques. This data is used to continuously inform its predictive algorithms, savings projections, hardware controls, and other performance and system life aspects. “The more data we collect, the smarter our platform gets and the more value is delivered to customers, utilities, and grid operators,” says Ko. What that means in the real world is that an AI-based platform offers grid operators a means to provide grid-level services such as flexibility, balancing and peak-shifting, without additional reinforcement costs, while making the forecasting and planning for reduced load growth and distributed energy changes easier. Limejump understands that the data is required first and then education, because McDonald says getting a platform and educating at the individual level on how customers can make those changes to their energy usage is fundamental to the transition to VPPs. “Granularity is the key to being able to read the data in less than a second; in technology terms real-time is subsecond. Batteries are reliable enough, but if you want to control renewables you have to do that on a sub-second time scale,” he says.

“The AI behind energy storage is transformative because it turns a commodity battery into a platform for grid-edge matchmaking among market opportunities, akin to a shared ride service or shared tourism residence service, putting more power in the control of the consumer.” — Ted Ko, Stem Batteries International • Summer 2018 • 99

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VIRTUAL POWER PLANTS Simon Daniel, the co-founder of Moixa, adds the caveat that data itself can’t achieve anything without control of the energy resource. “In our 2008 IP model, we were concerned that the ’data only’ providers would disappear, as customers fundamentally need affordable and reliable energy. “We used and pioneered early AI and advanced network models, so have significant experience above the current fad, where many are simply using basic algorithms, not machine intelligence.” Consumer needs are changing as fast as the technology itself, so the industry is being forced to evolve rapidly.

This is a disadvantage for many grid operators who are being forced to catch up and adapt an antiquated grid-system — which served a purpose when the flow of energy from coal and nuclear plants could be forecast easily — to the introduction of renewables in scale. And unfortunately for these operators many will find it hard to do this. Anecdotal evidence is that as late as two years ago some utilities were only then appointing someone to work out how they would integrate renewables into their business models, the difficulty being that the uptake of renewables is not so easy to forecast, despite

the crunching of millions of bits of data by AI. And so the industry must move forward and embrace technology while educating itself and customers (Moixa has found some consumers are reluctant to share even small amounts of energy resources) to the possibilities that VPP allow. The question is how long will this mass integration/aggregation take? Players such as Limejump predict it could be years. Others see it as decades. What is certain, however, is that the industry as a whole must gain real-world experience if it is ever going to understand it.

STEM, SUNVERGE AND MITSUI JOIN FORCES IN AI ENERGY STORAGE IN JAPAN California-based firms Stem and Sunverge announced last December that they are to install energy storage systems across multiple sites in Japan to examine how virtual power plants can allow the country to increase renewable energy generation in its energy mix. The pilot projects come as Japan’s Ministry of Energy, Trade and Infrastructure (METI) investigates how deregulated services and markets and flexible capacity can help manage grid-connected renewable energy as it looks to redesign its near 300GW electricity market. The Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co is involved with both projects. Stem, in its first international project, will initially deploy around 750kWh of industrial customer-sited energy storage at multiple sites outside Tokyo for Mitsui and host customers to form a fast-responding distributed resource. The first system

is at a recycling centre in the service territory of Tepco (Tokyo Electric Power Company). Stem will use its AI software to capture data on a second-by-second basis, which it will then dispatch on a five-minute basis, with terabytes of data stored to the cloud. The initial project within the VPP network is the first of a series of planned schemes in Japan by Stem and Mitsui, and could form a base for further expansion throughout Asia. Meanwhile, the Sunverge project aims to demonstrate VPP ability to provide grid-balancing and demand charge reduction services, by providing the grid operator with an energy control system that adjusts within 15 minutes (or less) of major changes in demand. In February 2016, Mitsui invested $10 million in Series ‘C’ preferred stock financing by Sunverge amid reports that the pair were due to work on a next-generation electricity power business. That business looks as if it will involve a project, in cooperation with Mitsui, to manage seven of its 19.6kWh battery invertor units as a single virtual node on Tepco’s grid. The net aggregated power flow will be controlled at the individual unit

level, based on the predicted load, PV generation and available storage capacity. Sunverge CEO Martin Milani, said: “The ability to aggregate and manage distributed energy resources as a fleet and combining and managing a logical subset and grouping as a virtual nanogrid is increasingly important to make the grid more stable, resilient and dynamic. “When aggregated, renewables can contribute a significant portion of a country’s energy generation without significant investment.” Enabling a secure energy supply has been a key issue in Japan since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami knocked the Fukushima nuclear power plant off-line. Japan, which wants renewables to account for at least 20% of its power generation in 2030, has so far seen METI designate ¥7 billion ($59 million) in subsidies for VPP development in fiscal years 2016 to 2017. On the same day the projects were announced, Mitsui confirmed it had invested around ¥500 million ($4,433million) in shares of Preferred Networks, which develops and supplies artificial intelligence technologies, including deep learning technology.

“The ability to aggregate and manage distributed energy resources as a fleet and combining and managing a logical subset and grouping as a virtual nanogrid is increasingly important to make the grid more stable, resilient and dynamic.” — Martin Milani, Sunverge

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VIRTUAL POWER PLANTS As virtual power plants, smart meters and distributed energy resources move from trials to business as usual, data will be vital in how power is managed. Paul Crompton reports.

Changing information from data… to power A flood of recent headlines — from talk of outside manipulation of US president Trump’s election campaign to new rules over public information access across Europe — shows data and its interpretations are more important than ever. But in the energy storage world there’s one big question. You’ve harvested your market data — it could be any data — from a myriad of sources but now what to do with it? How to make it worth the effort? Data harvesting has become commonplace. But the specifics of what to do with the information — and the huge varieties of ways that might make it commercially valid — are issues where there’s little agreement. Or, sometimes, little profit. In the energy storage world, data is king if suppliers and aggregators are able to use it to control minute-byminute and second-by-second power supply and demand, as well as managing their assets performance and electricity prices and tariffs. The more relevant or detailed the data, the more lucrative the market it can be. But data ownership is also an issue. Adrian Timbus, technology and solutions manager, smart grids and renewables at ABB, says the firm was seeing data, and that can be a sub-set of data, being mostly owned by the customer, or the asset owner. “A company might say it can monetiize some of its energy information but only certain bits of that data mean it can offer a service. Part of that agreement will require the company to look at the data and control some of the assets, which allows them to monetize and share profit,” he says.

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It’s also the pedigree of the information. When discussing small, distributed energy resources a data company may not care as much about the gathered information, but when talking about bigger assets like a wind-farm or large solar plants there is a markedly different set up in the market. It’s a question of where the value can be found. “Take wind farm OEMs, data is produced by the manufacturer building in sensors connected to digital control centres,” says Timbus. “The OEM will then access data from the turbine to see how it is operating to allow them to do good business, minimize risk and build value for the customer.”

Ownership of the data can vary with circumstance. In the example of a wind farm owner, if that person wants to go to the second level of the data parameter, such as how fast a wind turbine turns into the wind direction, then various components in that wind turbine will have de-fault parameter settings, but that can be controlled to make it more dynamic, says Timbus.

Monetizing VPPs

There are two cases where data can be monetized for virtual power plants. The first is where the DER is connected to the virtual power plant and its flexibility is sold to the market. The second is using Distributed Energy Resource Management systems whereby a utility has connected the DER to its own system, which is in turn is connected between the asset owner and the utility, and the markets are not involved. Most virtual power plants — around 95% — monetize capacity or flexibility on certain markets. The data aggregator business will say they have to monitor the capacity of the DER and will take that flexibility and sell it on to the market, says Timbus. “So when the market says ‘can you agree to sell some flexibility to me’ and they need it now we can go back to the system to supply that flexibility.” ABB’s technology can ask EV chargers to not charge as fast, which creates power gaps by using data gathered from what happened before and what is happening at the moment. But it requires a lot of data about the maximum capacity of a single DER, such as roof top solar that may generate more power at different times of the day, say between 11am and 2pm or different weather conditions, and its operating parameters. Timbus says: “Once we have that data we can sell certain amounts of solar capacity on the grid. All these data points need to be known by the control centre. There are some cases of taking power from a DER and selling it to the grid on the electricity market.”

“A company might say it can monetize some of its energy information but only certain bits of that data mean it can offer a service. Part of that agreement will require the company to look at the data and control some of the assets, which allows them to monetize and share profit.” — Adrian Timbus, ABB www.batteriesinternational.com

EVENT REVIEW: EUROBAT AGM & FORUM Brussels, Belgium • June 14-15

Competitiveness, decarbonization and Europe’s energy storage future EUROBAT meetings are always different from other industry events. There’s very much the feel of a welcoming club and a friendly, if odd, routine with the way things operate. The AGM, always on the Thursday afternoon, is when the business of the organization is approved. This is followed by a classy dinner, typically in an interesting location — this year did not disappoint in an ancient Brussels library — and then a rush back to the hotel, either to the bar or to bed. But it is the following morning, at the forum, that things get quirky. But quirky in a good way. Some of the speakers would never be seen on the regular conference circuit, but are European Commission figures with some political or administrative clout. Irrespective of the correctness of their arguments they give the flavour of European policymaking. And, as the forum showed, some of that policymaking seemed — to many delegates at least — flawed. The underlying theme that dominated the presentations in the morning was how the European battery industry would deal with new regulations and a new business environment, yet still remain competitive. Specifically the forum addressed three issues — the first being the implications on battery development and manufacturing of the ever tighter rules on CO2 emissions. The short-term targets are well known and the push for e-Mobility is coming from the top. But how the route to achieve these goals will be made is looming over the issue. Huge questions over the ability to install, for example, the charging infrastructure have not been resolved. Perhaps the most interesting talk here came from Cian O’Dunlaing of Johnson Controls Power Solutions and chairman of the EUROBAT Starter-Lighting-Ignition working group who presented the opportunities for low-voltage electrification, from energy recuperation to 48V technology. For these applications, multiple technologies, particularly

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lithium ion and lead based batteries, will coexist for the foreseeable future to deliver CO2 savings. The second session looked at the sustainability considerations for batteries and the need for a coordinated approach to strike a balance between sustainability and industry growth. The issues were presented well but answers weren’t forthcoming. Shortages of nickel and cobalt could quite possibly happen in the next five years — at which point all this fine planning for coordination will fall by the wayside. The third session looked at the European Battery Alliance and the new EC Batteries Action Plan. Of necessity the presentations were interesting given the seriousness of the issues raised.

“The only hope of successfully making lithium batteries in Europe might possibly come if Volkswagen, for example, decided it needed to manufacture them for itself and take control of the supply chain.” Joanna Szychowska of DG Grow presented the plans of the European Commission to boost the competitiveness of the EU battery industry in the framework of the EU Battery Alliance. Her theme, effectively, was that now is the time to build a European lithium battery manufacturing capability. A bit late surely? This was followed by Christoph Neef of the Fraunhofer-Institute for Systems and Innovation Research who offered forecasts on li-ion battery production and their potential growth. Neef highlighted that Europe has the chance to manufacture its own battery cells, focusing on optimized LIBs or Li-based technologies in the short term and all-solidstate-batteries after 2025.

Talking to delegates afterwards the overwhelming impression was that both Szychowska and Neef were at least a decade too late in their thinking. “It’s a perfect example of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted,” one delegate told Batteries International. “These proposals should have been aired a long time before this. “Asia already has a stranglehold on this market, the Chinese and South Koreans have invested huge sums of money and refined their manufacturing technology. They already have huge economies of scale. Sadly for the Europeans, all their fine plans won’t make any economic sense at all.” Another delegate said: “We hear that the US DoE has unofficially accepted that the country can never catch up with the Chinese in lithium ion manufacturing. The US is pinning its hope for a new technology that will supplant this manufacturing process. “The only hope of successfully making lithium batteries in Europe might possibly come if Volkswagen, for example, decided it needed to manufacture them for itself and take control of the supply chain.” A more concrete speech came from Alistair Davidson of the Advanced Lead Acid Battery Consortium (ALABC) who discussed the role of lead batteries in the future. He made the case that their versatility and price were being ignored and promised that step changes in their performance would be seen shortly. It was about the only time that lead batteries were discussed other than in passing. Rene Schroeder, executive director for EUROBAT led the proceedings and Johann-Friedrich Dempwolff, its president, opened the sessions. More than 100 delegates attended. In all this year’s EUROBAT meetings proved as thought provoking as ever — if in unsuspected ways — and an excellent opportunity to meet the cream of Europe’s battery industry. EUROBAT AGM and Forum 2019 will be held on June 13-14 in Berlin, Germany.

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EVENT REVIEW: ALL ENERGY 2018 The energy industry is becoming increasingly aware of Scotland as a potential world leader in low carbon technology despite knowing full well — as a contradiction — as historically being a leading oil and gas producer. This was all part of All Energy 2018 on May 2-3.

Scotland’s first minister praises storage at All Energy meetings

“We let the market decide what we are going to include. What we see in the exhibitions changes from year-toyear and the conference, more often than not leads the exhibition,” says the event’s project director Judith Patten. It’s what makes All Energy, which started life in 2001, constantly fresh and relevant in 2018. The annual All-Energy exhibition and conference has made its home in Glasgow, having moved there in 2015 from Aberdeen where it had been since its inception. This year it attracted 300+ exhibitors and nearly 500 speakers. For the first time, there were keynote speeches from parliamentary minsters: first minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon MSP; Paul Wheelhouse MSP, minister for business, innovation and energy; and Humza Yousaf MSP, minister for transport; and Rt Hon Claire Perry MP, minister of state for energy and clean growth.

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No surprise, then, that it attracted more than 7,000 visitors this year. Co-located with Smart Urban Mobility Solutions (SUMS 2018), more than 375 presentations, speeches and academic posters reflected the four pillars of the event: renewable power, low carbon heating, energy efficiency and low carbon transport. Energy experts gave interpretations of policy, case histories, descriptions of innovative developments and solutions during the event. A highlight included the first minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon MSP, who told a packed conference hall that while there were a number of opportunities in the energy sector, there were still a number of real challenges to be addressed over the years to come. Attendees heard how in the past 12 years Scotland had grown the amount of renewable energy to 60%, and was getting close to 70%. Sturgeon said: “That success we’ve

seen in electricity now has to be replicated elsewhere. We now need something similar in the next 12 years — not just for electricity but for our energy use as a whole, including heat and transport.” This year also included the introduction of a number of features including an Innovation Hub and trail; an Investors Breakfast; ‘Meet the Local Authority Official’ and ‘Meet the Farmer’ networking events; an International Trade Theatre; and The Hydrogen Hub. During one seminar, a speaker said that this year’s queues for energy storage sessions were quieter than the previous year, when queues could be seen out of the door, and people being turned away. This, he said, is because energy storage has permeated into a plethora of alternative streams. Patten said: “When I first introduced energy storage to the programme the speakers were all academics who could store tiny amounts, then suddenly we got to sensible amounts and have seen interest in the sessions — both speaking and attending — grow. “What is evident now is that not all presentations on storage are in the storage sessions.”

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EVENT REVIEW — THE BATTERY SHOW EUROPE The Battery Show and Electric & Hybrid Vehicle Technology Expo Europe Hanover, Germany • May 15-17

New perspectives on European EV architecture One of Europe’s largest battery and EV events just got bigger. Still only in its second year, The Battery Show and Electric & Hybrid Vehicle Technology Expo Europe has experienced phenomenal growth, with more than a 50% increase in attendance on last year. The floor space doubled from the exhibition’s first year to 20,000m2, making room to accommodate 6,275 attendees from all corners of the world and representing the entire industry spectrum from OEMs, manufacturers, suppliers and stakeholders from a diverse range of markets. In the three-track conference, hundreds of delegates from top automotive sector companies vied for seating as crowds assembled to hear industry heavyweights tackle the hottest topics of the moment. It was standing-room only in many sessions as speakers from Volkswagen, Toyota, LG Chem, Daimler, McLaren F1, CATL, Renault-Nissan, BAIC and Tata Motors took to the stage. Questions were fired at the panels who discussed everything from 48V energy storage and powertrains to fast charging and lithium-ion cell and pack design and manufacture. The show floor was a hive of activity. Here, more than 350 exhibitors took the opportunity to reach an enormous base of potential customers. Popular showcases included Volkswagen’s display of the I.D Buzz electric campervan – an update of the iconic original for the digital-age traveller. At Caresoft’s stand, attendees experienced a virtual-reality tour of the subassembly of a Tesla Model X, Model 3 and Chevrolet Bolt, including the battery systems, power management and electronics. Other interactive demonstrations included LEONI’s showcase of its EVC charging cables, which used visual monitoring to indicate the charging status of an electric car or plug-in hybrid vehicle, and LORD Corporation’s presentation of its broad portfolio of thermally conductive solutions

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for the EV powertrain. Drawing vast crowds to their stands with an impressive array of technology were Voltabox, showcasing its smart modular battery systems, and Siemens, sharing future-orientated battery production with an integrated digital value chain. Elaphe Propulsion Technologies bought along its ultimate powertrain platform for the next generation of electric and autonomous mobility solutions. With advanced power electronics and an intelligent and connected vehicle control, it delivers control features that up until now have been impossible. As ever Paraclete Energy proved popular, too, demonstrating the many advantages of its silicon metal-based SMSilicon. TE Connectivity unveiled its new high-voltage terminal and connector system, and Henkel AG showcased its flexible thermal solutions for EV powertrain applications. At HUBER+SUHNER’s stand, attendees were impressed by the company’s new highpower charging system, which allows the power throughput of a charging system to be multiplied. It boasts charging times below 15 minutes, bringing super-fast charging within reach. The conference also offered an opportunity to delve deeply into the knowledge pools of some of the industry’s most high-profile members. One stand-out interview was with Volkswagen’s CTO of e-mobility, Frank Bekemeier, who outlined plans to revolutionize the company’s car manufacturing business with pioneering electrification strategies. The interview set the tone for the conference, which hosted lively debates and got crowds contemplating the drivers behind current trends and the pivotal challenges ahead for the region’s EV and battery technology stakeholders. Certainly the organizers were able to attract a host of strong testimonials from senior figures within the in-

dustry. “The Battery Show provides a fantastic forum to understand all the latest trends and points of view in this fast changing and exciting industry,” said Ford Motor Company’s purchasing manager Jonas Malmqvist. “The event was highly enjoyable and resulted in a number of good contacts and potential customers to follow-up with,” said speaker and Skeleton Technologies’ CEO, Taavi Madiberk. Jaguar Land Rover’s energy storage expert, Limhi Somerville said, “This event gives me real access to see some of the challenges that are met at an end-user level and with companies that are really working with the end user in mind. The Battery Show and Electric & Hybrid Vehicle Technology Expo Europe 2019 will be held in Stuttgart, Germany on May 7-9

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EVENT REVIEW: THE SMARTER E EUROPE Messe München • June 19-22

Synergy of generation, storage and consumption under one roof The awards have been presented, the 50,000 attendees have returned home and the 1,200 exhibitors are counting the benefits of another hugely successful ees Europe show — the continent’s largest and most-visited exhibition for batteries, energy storage systems and green energy, which was held in Messe München between June 19-22 under the new umbrella “The smarter E Europe”. It’s not until you walk from one side of the exhibition, through the eight halls totalling 86,000 square meters, to the other than you realise just how big and varied the event is. From global technology powerhouses like ABB (an Intersolar award winner this year) to start-ups introducing themselves to the industry for the first time, the entire energy storage value chain was represented. There was even the chance to let your hair down and test drive a variety of electric vehicles, from scooters to a car. Alongside the established Intersolar event, which focused on the generation and distribution of solar energy, and ees Europe, which looked at the storage of this energy, there were two new exhibitions this year: Power2Drive and EM-Power. The former was about charging infrastructure and electric mobility with the later focusing on intelligent energy use in industry and buildings. Together, the four exhibitions covered the entire renewable energies chain. They were linked together by the innovation hub The smarter E Europe. The innovation hub was introduced to empower new energy

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solutions, and was a reaction to the increasing interconnection of the generation, storage, intelligent distribution and use of renewable energies, said organisers.

Interconnected industries The focus of this event is summed up the key trends spotlighted across the halls: decentralization, sector coupling and digitalization. Manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, service providers and partners of the energy industry saw how technology was accelerating the development of new business ideas, products and solutions that even a few years ago were unknown. In an industry where energy producers are installing charging stations, and roof-mounted PV is no longer just generating power but charging EVs and assisting heat pumps the synergies of the electricity, heating and mobility sectors were represented and it was clear to everyone just how huge the industry’s market penetration now is. Alongside sector coupling, it was obvious that digitalization is promoting and facilitating the decentralization of power by enabling units, in-

cluding residential PV and storage systems, to work together. Nowhere is this more clearly demonstrated than virtual power plants. The smarter E Europe saw a number of intelligent, digitalized solutions on view, including Sonnen’s VPP technology that aggregates thousands of storage units to allow end users, utilities and the companies to participate in the developing flexible energy markets. Speaking to exhibitors, the principle behind VPP is that end users who normally use self-generated energy for self-consumption can begin to offer grid services through this block chain technology to open up new revenue streams. These includes grid operators paying to use the storage systems, re-dispatch for transmission operators or for end users to benefit from changing energy tariffs. In the Power2Drive section, the list of exhibitors showcasing their EV charging solutions was exhaustive, but a notable solution to fast charging was displayed by Porsche Engineering. The system on display allowed Porsche drivers to charge their car in less than quar-

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EVENT REVIEW: THE SMARTER E EUROPE ter of an hour. Their partner firm, the ees exhibitor ads-tec, showcased their high-performance grid and/or renewable energy connected buffering solution for EV owners. The introduction of these buffering systems, as well as the growing adoption of PV+storage solutions, at both residential and commercial scale, will allow the integration of EVs onto the wider power system, especially as European countries prepare for the ban on internal combustion engines.

Battery manufacturing Nestled in a quadrant of one hall was the battery production exhibition, the themed, dedicated area forum that gave insight into emerging manufacturing techniques and technology. A tour of this section was available and gave the attendee insight into cutting-edge ideas and solutions through presentations from battery production company spokesmen. The dedicated space comes as Europe begins to understand it will need to make its own batteries if it is to meet both demand and slash costs to match the rest of the world. While Asia remains the manufacturing hub for batteries, plans for gigafactories are underway in Europe, with a number of gigawatt-size battery factories scheduled to start operating on the continent by 2020, and another three developments rumoured, including Tesla. Against this backdrop, on the Thursday morning, vice-president for the Energy Union Maroš Šefcovic delivered an opening speech at the High Level Industrial Forum. He reiterated the Commission’s commitment to creating an innovative, sustainable battery ecosystem in Europe, already translated into the first tangible results under the industry-led European Battery Alliance. He told delegates: “There is one critical component in Europe’s e-mobility value chain which is still weak in our endeavour to become a global leader: batteries. “We must be ready to compete on the global market. And this implies developing manufacturing capacities and creating an innovative, sustainable battery ecosystem in Europe. “I strongly believe that clean, ‘made in Europe’ batteries are about to charge our economy with green energy, green jobs and green innovation.

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THE EES AWARD 2018

Innovation meets real world applications The presentation of The ees and Intersolar Awards and for the first time The smarter E Awards took place on June 20 at The smarter E Forum. Once again the juries of industry experts awarded the most innovative concepts and solutions from the energy storage, smarter e and solar industries. THE EES AWARD 2018 The coveted ees Award identified the following companies for their innovation, flexibility of use and costeffectiveness. SMA Solar Technology: Sunny Central Storage with grid-forming capabilities: inverter for grid-connected applications and hybrid PV mini-grids system for the integration of largescale storage systems into the grid. SOCOMEC: Microgrid Energy Storage Solution: can be integrated into mini-grid system architectures, from 33kW/91kWh up to 800kW/1MWh. Dynapower Company: Dynapower DC: can be used to retrofit energy storage in large PV power plants on the DC side without changing the inverter OUTSTANDING PROJECTS The inaugural winners of the smarter E Award were recognised for their innovative business models and projects as well as forward-looking ideas. Bach Khoa Investment Development of Solar Energy Corporation (SolarBK): Solar Experience Space: demonstrates what can be achieved with PV technology in Vietnamese homes and businesses. First Solar: developed and built a 300 MW PV utility-scale plant in California, Unlimited Energy Australia / TESVOLT: an off-grid 53kW PV installation at an avocado farm in

Australia that combines 160kWh salt-water batteries and 48kWh lithium storage. SMART RENEWABLE ENERGY Ferroamp Elektronik: PowerShare Technology: a modular system based on a local 760 V DC nanogrid that feeds energy from one or more common PV installations to multiple users. indielux UG: ready2plugin: the system enables the safe plug-in of PV panels and battery storage into regular sockets without an electrician. SMA Solar Technology AG: ennexOS Platform: a cross sector IoT platform for energy management that provides solutions along the whole value chain. THE INTERSOLAR AWARD 2018 Now in its eleventh year, the Intersolar award recognises pioneering solutions in the renewable energy sector. ABB: PVS-175-TL: a cloudconnected three-phase string solution for commercial rooftop applications and utility scale power plants. Hanwha Q CELLS: Q.PEAK DUO-G5: a drop-in-replacement for standard modules that combines monocrystalline Q.ANTUM cells with a six-busbar advanced cell interconnection technology design, and smoothly cut edges Krinner Solar: CAS²– Computer Aided Solar Structure: an integrated software and hardware package that reduces the time for planning and installing large scale PV plants by up to 30%.

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The largest global gathering of lead battery experts in 2018 Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Centre, Vienna

16th European Lead Battery Conference & Exhibition Vienna, 4-7 September 2018

800+ 100+ 50+ 50+ delegates

exhibitors

speakers

countries

Registration is now open! Pre-Conference Workshop

Do Current Standards and Test Methods for Lead–Acid Batteries Properly Reﬂect Micro-Hybrid Automotive Duty? Tuesday 4 September 2018, 14.00 – 17.00

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Further information

Maura McDermott, International Lead Association, Bravington House, 2 Bravingtons Walk, London N1 9AF United Kingdom

+44 (0) 20 7833 8090 +44 (0) 20 7833 1611 16elbc@ila-lead.org www.ila-lead.org/16elbc

FORTHCOMING EVENTS The 3rd Asia (Guangzhou) Battery Sourcing Fair 2018

Guangzhou, China hosts the 3rd Asia Battery Sourcing Fair 2018

Guangzhou, China August 16-18 GBF Asia engages in battery and associated applications in the field of power and energy storage. It also focuses on displaying the whole production chain of battery materials, and equipment. Contact Aileen Chen Tel: +86 20 29806525 Email: Aileen2017@yeah.net www.battery-expo.com/index.php?lang=en

Advanced Batteries, Accumulators and Fuel Cells Conference (ABAF) Brno, Czech Republic August 26-29 The conference will be co-sponsored by the International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE-competition for the best poster among young scientists) and the Electrochemical Society (ECSpublication in the ECS Transactions magazine). The conference language is English. Main field of interest of this year’s conference is the research and development of materials designated for modern electrochemical power sources, new investigations in the fields of mate-

rials research, applied electrochemistry, corrosion, preparation and properties of nanomaterial structures, non-conventional sources of electrical energy including photovoltaic systems, ionic liquids for power sources and their properties, replacement of lithium by sodium in batteries and practical use of electrochemical power sources includ-

ing their application. As a new topic, electrochromism and its application will be added. Contact Marie Sedlarikova Tel: +42 0541146143 Email: sedlara@feec.vutbr.cz www.aba-brno.cz

ees South America August 28-30 • São Paulo, Brazil

Intersolar South America will be hosting and highlighting the special exhibition “ees South America” to extend and round up electrical energy storage innovations and programs. ees South America is the industry hotspot for suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and users of stationary and mobile electrical energy storage solutions.

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Covering the entire value chain of innovative battery and energy storage technologies-from components and production to specific user application-it is the ideal platform for all stakeholders in the rapidly growing energy storage market. The focus at ees is on energy storage solutions suited to energy systems with increasing amounts of

renewable energy sources attracting investors, utilities, installers, manufacturers and project developers from all over the world. Contact Olivia Hsu Tel: +49 7231 58598 16 Email: hsu@solarpromotion.de www.intersolar.net.br

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FORTHCOMING EVENTS 16th European Lead Battery Conference and Exhibition (ELBC) September 4-7 • Vienna, Austria This is your chance to hear from and meet the technical champions and industry experts who are setting the pace for the next generation of lead batteries, at an event with the industry’s most comprehensive technical conference programme. The 16ELBC is the largest global gathering of lead battery experts in 2018, bringing together all those involved in the development, production and use of lead batteries. Up to 800 delegates are expected to attend from sectors including: • battery manufactures • researchers • equipment and materials suppliers • end users from automotive, industrial and energy storage sectors. Topics will include: • Consumer requirements for current and future automotive, industrial, utility, smart-grid and renewable energy storage applications. • Achievements in using carbons in lead batteries, and future research directions. • Development of full

electrochemical models to simulate processes in carbon enhanced lead batteries. • Additives to the negative or positive active mass or electrolyte. • Gas evolution and water loss in relation to Dynamic Charge Acceptance (DCA) improvements. • Improving lifetimes and deep cycle life of lead batteries for industrial, utility, smart-grid and renewable energy storage applications. • Harmonization of testing standards. • Battery testing method improvements. • Development and use of advanced analytical techniques, basic science methods and materials engineering for lead battery research. • Future production requirements in terms of quality control, impurities, raw materials, manufacturing and next generation equipment. Contact Maura McDermott Tel: +44 20 7833 8090 Email: 16elbc@ila-lead.org www.ila-lead.org/16elbc

The Battery Show North America Novi, Michigan, USA • September 11-13 The Battery Show is the largest showcase of advanced battery technology in North America, displaying thousands of design, production and manufacturing solutions including battery systems, materials, components, testing and recycling. With more than 600 manufacturers and service providers from across the battery supply chain, this free-to-attend exhibition is your opportunity to source the latest energy storage solutions, helping you to reduce costs and improve the performance of your applications. Contact Tel: +1 310 445 4200 Email: Tshowreg@ubm.com www.thebatteryshow.com

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FORTHCOMING EVENTS Berlin, Germany hosts ICBR 2018

23rd International Congress for Battery Recycling — ICBR 2018 Berlin, Germany September 26-28 ICBR is the international platform for presenting the latest developments and discussing the challenges faced by the battery recycling industry. The 23rd edition of ICBR will bring together many experts and decision makers 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, policy makers and many more.

Energy Storage Canada Toronto, Canada September 19-20 Energy Storage Canada (ESC) is the voice of leadership for energy storage and the only industry association in Canada that focuses on advancing opportunities and building the market for energy storage. ESC leverages the strength of our diverse membership to drive market development in Canada. ESC has made energy storage a key focus for policy makers. We educate stakeholders and drive awareness about the value that energy storage delivers. We work to create new competitive markets and ensure regulatory fairness. Our mission is to advance the energy storage industry in Canada through policy advocacy, collaboration, education, and research. Energy Storage Canada works closely with sector allies and with other energy storage stakeholders to push the industry forward. Contact Tel: +1 416-977-3095 Email: information@energystoragecanada.org www.energy-storage-ontario.squarespace.com

Solar Power International & Energy Storage International Anaheim, California, US September 24-27 Solar Power International (SPI) and Energy Storage International (ESI) generates success for energy professionals and the global solar industry. SPI sets the standard for solar events as the fastest growing and largest solar show in North America as recognized by Trade Show Executive and Trade Show News Network. SPI has also been among the Gold 100 for eight years running and named this year’s ”Best Use of Technology” and the 2016 ”Stickiest Show Floor” by Trade Show Executive for the innovative ways in which attendees stay engaged. Under the umbrella of North America Smart Energy Week, SPI’s expanded scope to reflect the growth of energy innovation through the addition of ESI, Hydrogen + Fuel Cells North America, and the Smart Energy Microgrid Marketplace. ESI is the largest energy storage conference in North America, featuring over 160 energy storage exhibitors on the show floor, dedicated full conference education; show floor education in Storage Central and an exclusive storage-networking event.

Contact Tel: +41 62 785 10 00 Email: info@icm.ch www.icm.ch

Batteries 2018 Nice, France October 2-5 The market for batteries and their components has experienced a strong double-digit growth for 10 years and several positive factors should ensure that the rally continues. For 19 years, the Batteries event still remains one of the world’s most attractive event and the meeting place of technologies (lead acid, NiMH, Li-ion, post Li-ion), applications (from micro batteries to large format batteries) and of the value chain (chemists OEMs and end users)... Batteries 2018 will focus on battery market issues, latest trends and will allow you to meet new partners and customers! Contact Virginie Morlet Tel: +33 6 0974 2007 Email: vmorlet@hopscotch.fr www.batteriesevent.com

Contact: Tel: +1 508 743 8522 www.solarpowerinternational.com

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FORTHCOMING EVENTS Osaka, Japan hosts the Advanced Automotive Battery Conference Asia (AABC Asia)

Advanced Automotive Battery Conference Asia (AABC Asia) Osaka, Japan October 15-18 AABC is excited to return to Japan in 2018 with an event that promises to build on the success of our US and European conferences, while focusing on the unique drivers, needs, and challenges of the diverse Asian market. With sessions covering topics from raw materials through research and development findings in novel battery chemistries and new approaches to cell and pack engineering, as well as applied technologies in the next generation of electric and hybrid vehicles, AABC Asia is an invaluable opportunity to discover the latest trends, technology and market information. Contact: Deborah Shear Tel: + 1 781-972-5455 Email: dshear@CambridgeEnerTech.com www.advancedautobat.com/asia/

INTELEC

Interbattery 2018

Turin, Italy October 7-11

Seoul, Korea October 10-12

INTELEC is an international annual technical conference which, for the past thirty-nine years, has been the premier forum for the science and engineering of energy systems for Information and Communications Technologies (ICT). Research and technical papers explore the needs and trends in the subject areas of power conversion, energy storage, and high-reliability and mission-critical powering infrastructure. Topics include DC power plants, powering architectures, converters, inverters, batteries, fuel cells, grounding, physical and thermal designs, building and equipment cooling systems. The 2018 conference will be held in Torino, Italy at the Lingotto Conference Centre. Theme of the conference will be: 40 years of Inspiration, Research and Exploration in Power and Energy for ICT.

InterBattery, sponsored by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and directed by Korea Battery Industry Association and Coex, is Korea’s biggest secondary-cell battery convention that was first launched in 2013. InterBattery is Korea’s only battery industry exhibition that simultaneously accommodates the fast-growing mobile market, automobile industry, as well as ESS and EV markets, and allows for the buyers and manufacturers to naturally and most efficiently interact while learning about the newest products and trends. Furthermore, the global conference ‘The Battery Conference’ will be in session at the same time, allowing for the opportunity to listen to international opinion leaders, exchange influential ideas, and estimate the future of the industry.

Contact: Organizing Secretariat: Symposium Tel: +39 11 921 1467 www.intelec.org

Contact Tel: +82 6000 1393/1065/1104 Email. energyplus@coex.co.kr www.interbattery.or.kr

Battery Technology Show October 23-24 • ExCel London 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. This show will feature a select lineup of world-leading manufacturers in the battery and energy storage space on our Expo floor, alongside a first-class conference programme featuring three thought-leading symposiums: The Future of Battery Technology, The Future of Hybrid & Electric Vehicles, and The Global Battery Market. Come and experience the power of the future. Contact Sarah O’Connell Tel: +44 117 932 3586

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FORTHCOMING EVENTS Battery Safety Conference Arlington, Virginia, US October 30-31

ees Summit France Strasbourg, France October 24 The ees & IBESA Summit France will take place in Strasbourg on October 24, 2018 and addresses leading international and local experts on energy storage solutions. The Summit’s mission is to provide in-depth education, enable high-quality networking opportunities, expand the use of all energy storage technologies at national and regional level and strengthen local storage industry.

Higher energy and higher use lead to higher risk. While research continues to boost the energy storage capability of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and leads to expanding applications and consumer use, the task of implementing effective safety strategies falls on regulatory authorities, cell manufacturers, R&D engineers, and forensic scientists. Accurate tests and models are critical for predicting and controlling the complex electrochemical, thermal, and mechanical behavior of LIBs while forensic investigations and regulations are required. The Battery Safety 2018 conference continues this vital dialogue to integrate and implement LIBs safety to meet ever-increasing energy demands. Contact: Sherry Johnson Tel: +1 781 972 1359 Email: sjohnson@CambridgeEnertech.com www.cambridgeenertech.com/battery-safety

Contact: Simone Fein Tel: +49 7231 5859 8177 Email: Fein@solarpromotion.com www.ees-summit.com/france

Lithium Battery Material & Chemistries Arlington, Virginia, US November 1-2 Cambridge EnerTech’s Lithium Battery Materials & Chemistries conference provides in-depth coverage on the chemistries, both current and next-generation, that are shaping the future of energy storage. From novel electrode/electrolyte materials to higher-capacity cathode/anode structures, this conference explores how to economically increase battery energy density. Contact: Sherry Johnson Tel: +1 781 972 1359 Email: sjohnson@CambridgeEnertech.com www.cambridgeenertech.com/lithiumbattery-materials-chemistries/

European Utility Week 2018 Vienna, Austria November 6-8 European Utility Week is your premier business, innovation and information platform helping you to connect with the smart utility community. The three day event will offer you access to executives, regulators, policymakers and other professionals from leading European utilities and grid operators. The event offers a platform to showcase

Energy Storage North America Pasadena, California, USA • November 6-8 Energy Storage North America (ESNA) is the largest conference and expo for grid-connected energy storage in North America. ESNA 2018 will include energy storage site tours, networking, workshops, and learning sessions featuring the leading policymakers, utilities, and commercial and industrial customers focused on building the grid of the future. Network with over 1,900 energy storage stakeholders through one on one meetings, roundtable discussions, workshops with interactive discussions, intimate receptions for international attendees, utilities and women in the storage industry, and an evening of dining and dancing in Pasadena. Contact Daniela Knoll Email: dknoll@mdna.com Tel: +1 312 621 5838 www.esnaexpo.com

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FORTHCOMING EVENTS solutions coherent with European strategy to achieve a smooth transition towards a low carbon energy supply. It also offers expert knowledge and foresight from hundreds of industry leaders who address trends helping the advancement of energy provision. We have solutions for every forward thinking company and person looking to participate during European Utility Week 2018. Contact Tel: +31 346 590 901 Email: service@european-utility-week.com www.european-utility-week.com

The 2nd Medical Battery Conference Dusseldorf, Germany November 19 - 20 RRC Power Solutions GmbH and Shmuel De-Leon energy are pleased to invite you to participate in the 2nd Medical Battery conference, which will take place at the Marriott Hotel, Dusseldorf, Germany on November 19-20, 2018. The Conference for Medical batteries will meet to discuss and provide a platform for technological innovations

and business opportunities with the latest updates in that fields in Germany and abroad. The conference is held once a year and is the leading and the only medical battery dedicated conference, bringing together participants from leading private and public battery and companies, start-ups, investors, academics and businesses that are interested in the medical battery field. Contact Email: shmueldeleo1@gmail.com www.medicalbatteryconference.com

CTI Symposium

Intersolar India Bangalore, India • December 11-13

Berlin, Germany December 3-6 The International CTI Symposium and its flanking specialist exhibition is the international industry event in Europe for people seeking latest information on developments in automotive transmissions and drives for passenger cars and commercial vehicles! Contact: Volker Altenbeck Tel.: +49 211 887 43-3845 Email: anmeldung@car-training-institute. com www.transmission-symposium.com/en

Advanced Automotive Battery Conference Europe (AABC Europe) Strasbourg, France January 27-31

This is India’s most pioneering exhibition and conference for the solar industry Solar developments in India grew exponentially in 2017. Further announcements and new market opportunities in the energy storage and electric mobility sector strengthen India to become an interesting and very promising market in the future. The state of Karnataka is one of the most flourishing Indian solar markets and the first Indian state to launch a specific EV policy. Intersolar India, the most pioneering exhibition and conference for the solar industry is celebrating

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its 10th edition in Bangalore, the capital city of the top solar market. The event will focus on the solar, energy storage and electric mobility industries and will welcome more than 17,000 industry professionals and 300 exhibitors. In addition, Intersolar India will continue to connect solar businesses in Mumbai at the Bombay Exhibition Centre (BEC) on April 4-5, 2019 with a focus on financing and India’s western solar markets. Contact Brijesh Nair Tel: +91 22 4255-4707 www.intersolar.in

Each year, AABC Europe brings together a global audience of battery technologists and their key suppliers for a must-attend week of development trends, breakthrough technologies and predictions of the market for years to come. Our 2018 event was the largest AABC event ever with 1,000 attendees from 35 countries taking part in interactive discussions on the development and future market trends for vehicle electrification. As more European nations and international automotive OEMs make their own commitment to vehicle electrification, we are excited to carry that momentum forward for 2019. Our program continues to expand coverage of the research and development of the chemistries and materials supporting the next generation of electric vehicle batteries, while maintaining our core focus on applied technologies needed for hybrid and electric cars and specialty vehicles. Contact: Tel: +1 781 972 5400 Email: ce@cambridgeenertech.com www.advancedautobat.com/europe

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The Battery and Energy Storage

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BATTERY HEROES: CRAIG BOREIKO One man has been at the forefront of both scientific research on the toxic dangers of lead and also related ways to improve how it is used for almost 35 years. His involvement with ILZRO and the ILA in working in the developing world has been legendary. Kevin Desmond reports.

Toxicology and the art of the possible Craig Boreiko was born in 1951 in Milford, Connecticut. From early on he showed a marked aptitude for things scientific, particularly biology and chemistry. After university he continued his studies and obtained a doctorate in experimental cancer research

from the University of WisconsinMadison in 1979. It was while he was working towards his degree at the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research in Madison that he met his wife to be, Karla Dunn. An undergraduate student majoring in

“It had long been apparent to myself and others that most risk assessment guidelines were developed to assess the risks associated with organic chemicals and were often ill-suited to accurate assessment of risks associated with exposures to metals and metalloids” 122 • Batteries International • Summer 2018

special education, Karla was paying her way through school working as a lab assistant just down the hall from where Boreiko worked. They were to marry in 1975. In 1979 he took a position as a staff scientist with the Chemical Industry Institute of Toxicology(CIIT) in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. The Research Triangle, commonly referred to as simply The Triangle, is one of the largest research parks in the world. It is named for the three hub cities of Durham, Raleigh, and Chapel Hill, or more properly for the three major research universities in those three cities (Duke University, State University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). Here Boreiko headed a research group evaluating cellular and molecular mechanisms for chemical carcinogenesis and xenograft technology — grafting tissue from one species on to another —for evaluating the toxicity of chemicals towards human tissues grown on mice. His research group was soon publishing multiple-papers per year, making a number of discoveries that contributed to an understanding of the cancer process. The interdisciplinary nature of CIIT also fostered collaborative work on more general aspects of toxicology, with Boreiko conducting research helping to define the toxic effects of diverse compounds that ranged from formaldehyde to dioxins. By 1989 Boreiko was becoming frustrated with the growing time spent looking for funding support and the decreased time available for doing hands-on research in the laboratory. “A visitor from an international commodity association that had recently relocated to the Research Triangle Park from New York City ap-

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BATTERY HEROES: CRAIG BOREIKO peared at the front door of CIIT and asked if he might have a tour of the research facilities. The visitor happened to be Jerome Cole, president of the International Lead Zinc Research Organization (ILZRO), and I was the CIIT staff member who volunteered to serve as his tour guide. During this serendipitous meeting, we talked extensively – with Cole finally asking if I had ever considered a career in research administration. Cancer concerns were increasing for both lead and cadmium and ILZRO was looking to add a staff member who could formulate cancer search programs. Follow-up conversations over the next months resulted in Boreiko being appointed as manager, environment and health with ILZRO in July 1989. This transition from lab researcher to research administrator marked the first of a series of career changes. These would result in a broadening of research interests to encompass a full range of heavy metals, development of a significant role in representation of the lead zinc and cadmium metals industry in international regulatory forums and ultimately the implementation of sustainable development projects. These projects sought to devise the means by which metals traded in international commerce could be safely produced and used in developing countries. “The early years were rough,” recalls Boreiko. “I lacked an appreciation for the political rancour that had devel-

“I would like to thank Craig Boreiko on behalf of the ILA membership, and the wider lead industry, for his tremendous contribution to advancing our understanding of the science that underpins the management of lead risks, and crucially its appropriate use in the regulatory context” — Andy Bush, ILA oped between industry, regulatory agencies and some academic scientists. I met Herb Needleman at a scientific conference shortly after joining IZRO. I went up to him, introduced myself and extended my hand to shake his. “Needleman stared at me a bit and looked down at my extended hand before turning his back on me and walking away. I had gone from being a white hat cancer researcher to a dark hearted lead industry guy. Herb passed away recently and I am glad to say that we were able to overcome those early barriers to dialogue and enjoy each other’s company, sharing battle stories in the industry over dinner.” The seeds for much of what was to follow in Boreiko’s career were planted in the early 1990s when the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development initiated what was initially called the ‘Sunset Chemicals Program’. This was an effort to develop international treaties that would restrict and ultimately ban the use of sub-

stances viewed as no longer being needed by modern society. Lead was one of the primary targets of the program — it was judged by OECD that most lead applications had substitutes available and there were multiple examples of improper production, use and poor recycling in developing countries. Over five years and many meetings, Boreiko worked with people such as David Wilson (then head of what is now the International Lead Association) to represent the industry at OECD meetings. As different stakeholders began to talk and exchange information, a consensus developed that differed markedly from the initial proposals of the Sunset Chemicals Program. The effort was soon renamed the OECD Risk Reduction Program as it became apparent that although there were inappropriate lead products, lead could be safely used in a number of critical applications for which no substitutes were available.

Dan Vornberg (Doe Run), Graham Kenyon (Trail, British Columbia Community Lead Program) and Craig Boreiko initiating multi-stakeholder discussions in Callao, Peru to establish community lead programs to reduce childhood exposures to fugitive lead emissions from ore concentrate storage warehouses at the Port of Callao.

ILMC meeting in Paris to develop international strategies for lead risk reduction — from left to right Joe Carra (US EPA), Patrick McCutcheon (DG Environment, European Commission), Kaye Dal Bon (Australia EPA), Robert Goyer (University of Western Ontario, Canada), Francis Labro (International Lead Zinc Study Group), Craig Boreiko, and Fritz Balkau (United Nations Environment Program).

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Batteries International • Summer 2018 • 123

BATTERY HEROES: CRAIG BOREIKO Developing world

Industry practice and ‘informal’ sector activity — illegal back yard smelters— in developing countries could be highly dangerous to the workers and the environment. But there were ways to change this and technical solutions to improve industry performance were available.

“However, countries differed in their cultural, socioeconomic and climatic circumstances. There was no one-size fits-all solution to ensuring the safe use of lead,” says Boreiko. “The international industry indicated its willingness to work in partnership with intergovernmental organizations and national governments to

HERBERT NEEDLEMAN (1927-2017)

Herbert Needleman had been thinking about the impact lead had on children’s cognitive abilities for nearly two decades before he finally came up with a way to test historical lead levels. He wanted to take samples of hair, fingernails or even bone. But none of it would be feasible or provide long-term evidence of lead exposure in children. Then he realized there was a type of bone sample that kids involuntarily give up themselves from around five years old: baby teeth. So, as a researcher at Temple University, he developed the “tooth fairy” approach of paying children for their teeth and testing them for lead. That method led to a groundbreaking paper in 1972 that found that inner-city, mostly black, children had lead levels five times higher than suburban, mostly white kids. This was just the start of a lot longer road that culminated in the total ban of lead in US petrol that became effective in 1995.

He moved to Harvard University and tested 3,000 teeth from 2,500 children and asked a yet more important question: Is there a relationship between even low lead levels and cognitive ability in children? The answer, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1979, was a scientifically significant yes. He found that children with even low levels of lead in their bodies had IQ scores five to six points lower on average than children in similar homes and backgrounds without lead. The finding hit the scientific community, government regulators and the lead industry like a tsunami that continues to send ripples into the present day. It led to the US federal government’s decision in to fully phase out lead in gasoline, and his work continues to spur additional research into the impacts of even smaller levels of lead than he tested for in children.

“Needleman stared at me a bit and looked down at my extended hand before turning his back on me and walking away. I had gone from being a white hat cancer researcher to a dark hearted lead industry guy” 124 • Batteries International • Summer 2018

provide the technical expertise needed by developing countries develop technology and policy instruments best suited to their needs. “The lead and battery industry could be a constructive partner in the development and implementation of country specific lead risk reduction programs.” In 1996 OECD issued a so-called ministerial declaration calling for the industry to make its expertise available to the international community in efforts to reduce the risks of lead. The International Lead Management Center was then formed by industry and Boreiko named as the founding executive director. The ILMC began to rapidly establish programs and partnership such as: • Working with the United Nations Environment Program to develop a global scorecard on lead in gasoline phase out and technical manuals detailing solutions to technical impediments to lead in gasoline phase out. • Working with the ISO Secretariat Ceramic ware to instructional manuals detailing technology for the safe use of lead in ceramic ware. • Establishing community programs to reduce lead exposure risks associated with lead ore concentrates awaiting shipment at ports. • A major portion of ILMC’s efforts have focused on improving the environmental performance of recycling facilities and economic incentives to discourage backyard smelting by the informal sector, working in partnership with the Basel Secretariat, the United Nations Development Program and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Figures such as Brian Wilson — also featured in this issue — became highly effective personnel attached to the ILMC programs. Boreiko maintained his research administration responsibilities at ILZRO during his tenure with ILMC. In a later reorganization of international associations, ILZRO and ILMC were merged with the International Lead Association and Boreiko became director of scientific programs for ILA and ILZRO. This timing roughly coincided with the onset of the REACH regulatory initiative within the EU and the requirement to undertake extensive risk assessments for lead and other metals. “It had long been apparent to myself and others that most risk assess-

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BATTERY HEROES: CRAIG BOREIKO ment guidelines were developed to assess the risks associated with organic chemicals and were often ill-suited to accurate assessment of risks associated with exposures to metals and metalloids,” Boreiko says. “I then began to propose, and advocate for metal-specific guidelines more appropriate evaluating inorganic compounds.” Co-author of the Health Effects Risk Assessment Guidelines (HERAG) for metals, Boreiko and colleagues began to publish peer-reviewed articles on the risk assessment procedures appropriate for gauging the risks to human health posed by metals and their compounds. “Modern metal applications, especially in batteries and metal alloys, have become increasingly sophisticated and complex,” he says. “Accurately predicting the potential combined toxic impacts of the complex constituents of metal-containing products used by modern society poses a significant challenge for existing risk assessment procedures.” Throughout his career Craig Boreiko has served in an advisory capacity to multiple international and govern-

mental organizations, including the OECD, the International Program for Chemical Safety, The International Agency for Research on Cancer, the EU, and a broad range of US governmental (US EPA, FDA, NIEHS, NTP, USDA) and United Nation (UNEP, UNCTAD) agencies. He was principal author of the health assessments in the Voluntary Risk Assessment for Lead prepared under the auspices of the Existing Substances Program of the European Union and has further published approximately 50 articles in the peerreviewed scientific literature. After 25 years of guiding the health and environmental research programs of the International Lead Zinc Research Organization, Boreiko decided it was time for a change of pace and direction. Taking early retirement from ILZRO at the start of 2014, he set up CJB Risk Analysis in RaleighDurham, North Carolina. “I am now providing services to an array of clients concerned with general population exposure pathways, occupational exposure limits, risk assessment for health effects associated with exposure to heavy metals and

In 2001 the Boreikos purchased a female Rhodesian puppy, Gennie. They have now bred five of the species, all descended from Gennie.

compliance with regulatory programs at the national and international level,” he says. “My working experience extends to the impacts associated with a wide range of heavy metals.”

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Batteries International • Summer 2018 • 125

d r o w t s a l e Th Most important delegate? Competition for most important delegate at BCI’s conference heated up again this year as half a dozen unscrupulous battery people found a way to steal extra titles to their name tags. “Who wants to be a ‘Delegate’ when I can be an ‘Exhibitor’ too?” said one of the less ambitious thieves. “I’m not talking to you,” said another. “You’re just a ‘Speaker’ while I’m an ‘Organizer’, a ‘Committee Member’ and a ‘First Time Attendee’ too. This being America, there was soon a lively secondary market in trading with one ‘Moderator’ trading for two ‘Hot Lunch Sponsor’ tags with a ‘Co-chair to a Dull Seminar’ as part of a side deal. Ever keen to keep the magazine in profit, we offered our ‘Press’ tag for a quick valuation. No takers. We were puzzled. I guess we were probably too expensive.

Vienna or bust! “Our ELBC squad is already on its way to Vienna” boasted our Abertax spokesperson, proudly showing off their new solar powered catamaran in its home harbour of Malta. “No more expensive air flights for us now,” he says. “It’ll just be a leisurely cruise around Greece and Turkey through the Bosporus into the Black Sea and then a quick dash up the Danube. Moldova, Romania Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Hungary Slovakia and nous voilà we’ll be in Austria and Vienna in no time at all. “It may take a couple of months but we’re saving a fortune in air fares.”

Best present of the show There was no doubt about it. The Water Gremlin Tool Kit offered to select members of the BCI gathering was the best freebie of the event. “Every time my wife opens this I know she’ll immediately think of metal extrusion, die cast and advanced die-cast lead battery terminals. “And, of course, Kurt and the generous folk at Water Gremlin,” said one delegate.

126 • Batteries International • Summer 2018

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From Russia with love

Join us for a hearty intellectual debate … At Batteries International we always like to gather a select audience for our Pot Luck Dinner at conferences. On the last night at any conference the ‘chosen few’ — or ‘completely left out’ — as we like to call ourselves, gather together for a glitzy meal and drink. Eat and drink all night feeling smug that we are now our own ‘chosen few’ and no one else was invited! Our slogan: “Feel at a loose end and fancy intellectual conversation, sparkling dialogue and a few drinks? Come and join us!” Well the drinks bit is true, but come anyway... This BCI a crowded gathering assembled to hear the lively discussion between two of the world’s greatest living lead analysts — the ever-popular Mr Farid Ahmed and his equally amiable counterpart Mr Neil Hawkes. In their public debate the two disagreed on everything. They were, however, in agreement on one subject. “The price of lead,” they chirruped together, “will probably go up or down sometime in the future.”

The possible links between key figures in the US administration and Russia continue. Our mole in Battery Council International has sneaked us a photo of its new leader, Kevin Moran, in where of all places? Yes, Red Square! Tight lipped Moran would neither confirm nor deny that he was a foreign agent. “Nyet” he says. “I am peaceloving citizen of United States, you capitalist lackey and exploiter of battery working classes.”

“It’s a tough life but someone’s got to go to Bali” Potential delegate quote. “Yes, of course in theory I want to go the 18th Asian Battery Conference in Bali, but what kind of conference is this? “I’ve looked through all the photos of the Westin in Nusa Dua … the swimming pools, luxury Japanese, Italian and Spanish restaurants, beachfront cocktails, and bars on golden white sands … snorkelling, windsurfing, scuba diving, fishing. “But I can’t see a golf course in the grounds of the hotel. I know it’s five minutes away but as a conference it’s distinctly UnAmerican. S’pose it’s a tough life but someone’s got to go...”

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Roadrunner rools? Meep Meep! A half swoon at best. A smidge of a bird flies across the road in Tucson. One British BCI attendee collapses in giggles. “I always thought they were fictional,” she says. ”You know like Mr Wile E. Coyote — or even a battery manufacturer that’d like to open up and talk about how it sees our industry going.”

Batteries International • Summer 2018 • 127

d r o w t s a l e Th “It’s probably something to do with the electricity”

Always good to have an expert at hand Nobody could have not noticed the series of power cuts that gripped the BCI conference hotel exactly at the time of day when a short snifter is needed. “It’s probably something to do with the electricity,” said one wise delegate, proudly displaying his speaker badge.

Women? Can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em Yes, of course this is sexist banter. And of course this magazine won’t publish anything derogatory about the Sisters. But that’s the phrase some disgruntled engineers said about the BCI closing cocktail session. “It’s disgusting that the women-only cocktail hour was only for women,” they said. “It was discriminatory they had an extra hour of drinks ahead of us. “Next year we’ll make time for men-only golfing…”

128 • Batteries International • Summer 2018

‘I only agreed to the promotion if they let me go to BCI one last time’ “I only agreed to the promotion if they let me go to BCI one last time.” That’s probably the best endorsement for a conference that anyone would receive. But that’s what Marshall Joas told us as he bid a final farewell to the conference and an industry he has been active in for the past three decades. “This is an industry and people I’ve really enjoyed working with and wanted to say my goodbyes.” In January Marshall stepped down as general manager of the battery division at International Thermal Systems, the global heating equipment manufacturer. In a management restructuring at ITS, industrial products and metal packaging divisions general manager Tom Stricker was promoted to ITS president, leaving a role — and a promotion — for Joas to fill. Taking his place as general manager is Matthew Zea, former sales manager in the battery division under Joas. “Matt is doing a great job, we’ve been travelling a lot, and made great relationships and friendships in the industry — we are the world leader in curing technology and it gets us into a lot of facilities, where we’ve made a lot of good friendships,” Joas said. www.batteriesinternational.com

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