An international investment push to expand battery manufacturing and energy storage deployment across the continent is underway, lighting the way to a new era of electricpowered economic prosperity, as the region’s leaders are told minerals and technology are the ‘low-hanging fruit’ to revitalize growth.
Africa’s political leaders, together with regional and world business leaders all agree that the continent is ripe for development as a key player in the global batteries industry. Global financial institutions are keen to help drive battery investments, but much remains to be done.
The region has been buffeted by the same economic crosswinds that have chilled the rest of the world, yet Africa is nevertheless a region brimming with opportunities to expand the battery supply chain — and the industry should take note.
Africans ‘must master own materials destiny’ 59
Solar-storage powers hope for the energy deprived 62
Resource-rich region in need of an investment roadmap 64
The fickleness of so-called expert opinion on developments in the EV market highlight the depressing projections for energy storage future.
6
PEOPLE NEWS 10
Stern joins MAC Engineering • Ecobat announces further senior appointments • Conner returns to Doe Run Company • Parulian moves from Arbin to Keysight Technologies • Rudolph Wynter joins EnerSys as director • Bernard joins BCI as regulatory and technical affairs director • Niamh, Fareha say farewell to ILA, CBI • Rich joins Microporous as VP of operations • Leclanché CEO Srivastava quits, Blanc and Broad to manage firm • American Manganese founder Larry Reaugh dies, Meseldzija appointed as interim CEO • Lead battery industry stalwart Mihara retires from Microporous
AWARD SPECIAL 12
Karden, Stevenson were this year’s joint winners of the prestigious International Lead Medal NEWS 20
East Penn Manufacturing marks 75th anniversary with huge celebration • Amara Raja moves to acquire Mangal’s battery components unit • Clarios ‘continues to assess market’ for IPO • ENTEK secures slice of US funds for separator project • Metair to decide on battery business sale by year end • STC system slashes gas usage for lead recycler Monbat • Exide Industries starts work on greenfield cells project • Amara Raja completes $5m investment in Log 9 • Batek Makina ‘open house’ marks 20th anniversary • Gravita India wins Rajasthan award for exports • Ecobat suspends lead production at Italy plants • Trafigura’s Nyrstar yet to finalize Stolberg deal • MAC, Inbatec partnership to strengthen supply chain • Banner extends Duracell deal • Moll targets stop-start with new ‘AFB’ design • Metals price boost for recycler • Campine follow acquisitions • Lead batteries supercharge Leoch results • Lead in driving seat for Indian EVs, but lithium closing gap • Germany’s Schuler acquires Sovema Group • Second Fenix Battery Recycling director quits amid further tussles over permit issue • Deficit in global lead market as mine production falls • East Penn opens $106m Texas battery center • Indiana legislator tours Hammond’s lab EnerSys formally opens expanded Kentucky facility
NEWS FOCUS 36
Lead Battery360° — global alliance empowers new sustainability push
40
Florida state chief warns of ‘ticking timebomb’ of EV battery fires • New rulebook to tackle misnomers in opaque EV supply chain emissions • CATL breaks ground for $1.9bn China plant • EV batteries face Indonesia nickel export tax blow • Electrovaya picks New York for first US gigafactory • Japan unveils ESS targets Planning permission go-ahead for 200MW Irish BESS • PM lays gigafactory cornerstone for Norway’s ‘battery future’ • Tesla, PG&E probe into Moss Landing BESS fire • LiNa Energy unveils sodium battery tech plans for India • Cayman Islands utility orders first BESS • CEMA Baterías looks to solar-storage with ‘large stake’ in Spain’s Alge-Bat • Italy’s Energy Dome joins Ørsted in ‘CO2 Battery’ feasibility study • Umicore launches Nysa materials plant • Bid to tighten UK laws for ‘hazardous’ lithium BESS sites • Pilot plant bid to end US reliance on imports of battery materials • ESS agrees US 200MW Sacramento storage deal • BMZ invests to shore up battery supply chain • NGK secures grid storage batteries order
LEAD MARKET ANALYSIS 48
Energy squeeze leaves fate of EU lead smelters in the balance
INTERVIEW 70 Ed Shaffer, CEO of Advanced Battery Concepts, on talks with Exide India for a potential landmark deal and the importance of thinking outside the box
Close your eyes, take your hands off the wheel and let your car drive you home. Or to work. Or to your holiday destination. That’s the dream of fully autonomous driving.
And it’s in our shops already! Didn’t you know it?
According to a survey of the general public in the US almost three-quarters of them believe that, if you have the money, you can buy a self-driving car.
And not just a car that will nudge you if you drift into a nearby lane on the freeway, but a fully and totally autonomous machine.
The question was posed to 2,000 drivers by Thatcham Research in the US this March where 72% believed that such a car could be bought now. A similar number of respondents in the UK gave a figure of 52%.
Given that this is the audience that battery manufacturers of all chemistries are pinning their hopes on, it shows a disappointing level of EV awareness.
Drilling down to the basics of the future reminds one of the joke about the First Law of Economists. It’s a simple one. For every economist’s opinion, there exists an equal and opposite one. (The Second Law then posits that they’re both valid and both wrong.)
The babble of informed and ill-informed opinion is now pointing in two directions.
First, there are the so-called ‘exuberants’. Expert opinion is mostly divided about how exuberant one should be. They say, probably rightly, that the energy transition is ploughing ahead full-steam and is unstoppable. But the timeline is vague.
At the extreme part of this camp are optimists such as the European Commission confidently predicting that European energy self-sufficiency if
There’s a whole world of business opening up in developing nations — especially Africa — that will keep the lead battery business thriving for at least a couple of generations
not already there, is just around the corner.
Frans Timmermans, European Commission vice-president in charge of the Green Deal — and better known by Batteries International readers for wanting to get rare earths out of batteries and being technologically agnostic on all battery chemistries [except lead] — said this in October: “The era of cheap fossil fuel is over. For good. It will not come back.
“And while the era of cheap renewable energy is real and coming fast, it’s not coming fast enough to solve the problems this year or perhaps next year.”
Perhaps next year?!
Mr Timmermans may have wanted, like Alice in Wonderland, to believe six impossible things before breakfast but as a candid opinion on how Europe’s energy future is shaping up, he is about 10 years too optimistic.
That said Timmermans has captured the business flavour of what’s going on in Europe in particular and across the planet more generally.
Politicians, in general, have still yet to grasp that there’s a 100% link between renewables and energy storage in any brave new energy world of the future. What they do understand is that solar panels and wind turbines are the basic blocks of renewable energy.
Thankfully, the business world has filled in the gaps and dived into financing energy storage as well. The huge sums of investment here are focused almost exclusively on developments in lithium ion batteries. Despite the bleating at the time and subsequently, the Covid pandemic caused only minor delays in some of the planning for the megaprojects and gigafactories.
And in the other corner far from the exuberants are the sackcloth and hair-shirt brigade. They’re predicting that this is not just a recession around the corner but a global crisis too.
The four horsemen of the apocalypse are about to get over-shadowed by stockmarket collapses, rampant inflation, an over-strong dollar and uncle
Tom Cobbley and all.
The term ‘permacrisis’ — a newly minted word for 2022 and defined as an extended period of instability and insecurity — has entered the language.
The fact is, however, predictions of the doomsayers are starting to unravel. If just a little bit. Everything from nonfarm payrolls in the US and similar employment levels across the EU are better than expected. Inflation is falling more rapidly than predicted.
So where does this leave the lead battery market? Oddly enough, it’ll be in a good place. There are three reasons for this.
Forgetting the newly emerging markets in grid storage, the automotive sector for the lead battery isn’t going to go away any time soon.
Last year, according to Wood Mackenzie research, some 80 million new vehicles were produced. Each of which had a lead battery inside them. And not forgetting around 8 million of these were EVs which have a back-up lead battery for safety systems and to power in-car entertainment systems.
Lead-acid batteries need replacing every few years. Given an average vehicle life of 13-14 years, last year’s 80 million vehicles will still be requiring replacement batteries in the early part of the next decade.
Lead’s usage profile is one of unexciting but steady growth, driven by the need to meet demand for replacement batteries in an ever-growing global passenger fleet.
With replacement battery demand accounting for around half of global lead usage each year and recycled metal for around 60% of supply, lead’s market dynamics are quite different from the other industrial metals.
Batteries fail in boom times and bad, meaning lead is partly insulated from the economic cycle and has a history of shallower troughs but lower peaks than other LME metals.
And in one of the strangest quirks about global warming, the change in temperatures — at its most general hotter summers and colder winters — are positive for the lead battery market.
Extremes of temperature shorten battery life profoundly.
Given this ill-informed audience that battery manufacturers of all chemistries are pinning their futures on, their disappointing level of EV awareness is frightening
And in yet another corner are the steady-state analysts who argue that the higher price of commodities will simply mean that the price of batteries goes up. But not by that much either. They argue, with some reason, that the cost of batteries had reached impossibly low levels and that the low cost of so much involved with — which has now been incorporated to some extent in all the traditional carriers — needed to be modified.
So recommendations for the future?
If battery sales are to continue apace and the amount of lead being deployed each year is going to grow by between 1%-1.5%, then this isn’t the time to panic. Our marketing spend should be up, not frozen. And, as our cover story shows so clearly, there’s a whole world of business opening up in Africa. Enough to keep the lead battery business thriving for at least two generations.
Mike Halls, Editor-in-Chief
Stern started his career as an automotive technician and he told Batterues Inter national how he “turned a wrench” for nearly 12 years professionally, while also teaching automotive repair for a community education centre.
successful but the only prob lem was we were working 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So, when one of our partner AAA companies said they were looking to expand they made us an excellent of fer and we sold up.”
and they operate with integ rity, which was probably the biggest thing that sold me on the company.”
Bret Stern joined MAC En gineering & Equipment ef fective October 3 as sales director covering the US and Canada, based at the com pany’s Michigan head office.
Stern, 50, also supports Sorfin Yoshimura in han dling MAC’s international sales — and as he marks 30 years in the automotive in dustry, Stern brings a wealth of experience to his new job.
MAC president Doug Bornas told Batteries Inter national: “Bret brings a dif ferent level of experience of the battery industry when dealing with customers that is really advantageous. We’re excited that he has joined us. “He’s highly motivated and he’ll be a great addition to the company.”
He later moved into his first sales job, in aftermar ket parts, and before long was working with the North American distribution giant the National Automotive Parts Association (NAPA) — with responsibilities for under hood products as sales manager for markets across Illinois, Indiana and part of Wisconsin.
“Our main product was batteries because of the vol ume of those that NAPA sells. That really got me in terested in that end of the business,” Stern said.
He went on to launch his own roadside business with his wife, Monica, working with the AAA automobile association network, dealing with vehicle breakdowns.
Stern continued to work at NAPA for a couple of years before joining his wife in the family business full-time.
“It was very profitable and
Stern was snapped up by battery test equipment spe cialist Midtronics where he joined as national key accounts manager and as which he had the NAPA ac count — supporting its bat teries team.
He also had the account for US tools manufacturer Snap-on Tools, including supporting the company at tradeshows in Europe.
“East Penn was a big cus tomer of ours and so I had an opportunity to learn more about the lead battery manu facturing process and found that extremely interesting. That ‘little black box’ as ev eryone calls it is an amazing invention,” Stern said.
In the aftermath of Co vid-19, Stern decided the time was right for a new challenge, which led him to MAC. “I live about 15 minutes from the corporate headquarters. The team there is extremely knowledgeable
Stern is also delighted to be working with industry stalwart Jimmy Stewart — MAC’s sales and marketing VP — “one of those oncein-a-lifetime things where you have the opportunity to learn from someone who’s been in the business for 45 years”.
Stern says: “I’m a car guy, what you would call a ‘gear head’ here in the US. I look at EVs and the technology is amazing, but I’m not sold on lithium. I can’t see it being sustainable.
“I can see some of the in ner-city delivery vehicles go ing EV, but lead batteries are more than 99% recyclable. How much greener can you get than that?
“The lead battery industry can re-use everything, but when you’re done with lith ium, you have to find a way to dispose of it.”
Stern said he welcomes the fact that MAC is constantly looking at potential new technologies, but said: “Lead acid battery production ma chines is where we’ll always
Capital Partners after serving on ac tive duty in the US Marine Corps as a judge advocate.
Chichester was most recently executive global controller for oil field services with the Baker Hughes company in Texas, where she over saw the financials of the $10 billion revenue business and its nine global product lines.
Chichester reports to new chief financial officer Lloyd McGuire, whose appointment was announced on September 19.
McGuire, who was most recently a corporate finance and restructuring partner at FTI Consulting, interned with The Blackstone Group’s GSO
In the military, he focused on litigation and was deployed to Af ghanistan with an infantry battalion, acting as legal adviser to the com manding officer on matters including fiscal law, investigations, detainee operations, and the law of war.
Other appointments include that of Erich Esser as MD of Ecobat Resources Germany/Austria, who has been in the post on an interim basis since June. His official appointment was announced on September 16 and he will continue as MD of the com pany’s polypropylene division.
Esser joined Ecobat in December 2021 as MD of plastics resources,
having spent more than 25 years in the automotive and chemical indus tries.
Meanwhile, Julie Gillespie has been appointed finance director for North America, the company said on September 14.
Gillespie joined Ecobat in August 2017 as director of group financial accounting and external reporting before being promoted to group controller in 2019.
J Ross Conner has returned to the Doe Run Company as vice president for met als and exploration, the Missouri-headquartered lead miner and recycler an nounced on August 24.
Conner was previously VP for exploration and development from 2010 to 2019, when he oversaw development of hydromet technologies for lead metal processing at the compa ny’s research and technol ogy center.
In his new job, Conner has a particular focus on exploration activities and sustainable metal produc tion at the company’s re
source recycling facility.
Doe Run president and CEO Matthew Wohl said: “Ross knows and under stands our organization and our tremendous min eral assets. He has a long history of overseeing our work in hydrometallurgy, and his leadership and tech nical skills are a great asset to our organization.”
Conner has more than 40 years’ experience in the mining industry including exploration, geology, un derground mine produc tion, smelting, environmen tal systems and sustainable development.
Most recently, he was a
Antony Parulian, former VP of sales and marketing at Arbin Instruments, has joined Californiaheadquartered Keysight Technologies as Americas e-mobility and energy storage business development manager and sales specialist.
Parulian announced the move in a LinkedIn post in August and praised
former co-workers at Arbin for their support during his time at the battery testing equipment specialist.
Parulian said his new job at the electronics testing, measurement equipment and software company was “an excellent opportunity for me to broaden my horizons and grow in my profession”.
consultant VP of mining services for the Railveyor Technology Group.
Throughout his career, Conner has overseen all as pects of the mining busi
ness, including exploration, geology, underground mine production, smelting, envi ronmental systems and sus tainable development initi atives.
gies, including renewable energy, to help meet green house gas emissions targets in territories National Grid serves.
The president of National Grid’s New York business, Rudolph Wynter, has been appointed a class I direc tor of the board of lead and lithium batteries firm EnerSys, the company an nounced on August 1.
Wynter leads National Grid’s regulated energy de livery portfolio, providing electricity and natural gas services across New York State.
In his more than 30-year tenure at National Grid and its legacy companies, Wynt er has worked in senior and operational roles including COO of its wholesale net works and capital delivery business.
His experience includes focusing on grid resilience and clean energy technolo
EnerSys president and CEO David Shaffer said: “The breadth and depth of Rudy’s experience in the utility industry, particularly with clean energy and elec tric grid resilience will pro vide immeasurable value to the EnerSys leadership team.”
Arthur Katsaros, the in dependent non-executive chair of the EnerSys board, said Wynter’s appointment “enhances the strength of the board and furthers our refreshment and succession planning initiatives at the board level”.
Wynter is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Gas Association and the Edison Electric In stitute, and also works on the boards of GridWise Alliance, the Partnership for New York City and the American Gas Associa tion.
The closing session of the first m orn ing of ELBC conferences has always been one of the most interesting for the backbone of the lead and lead battery industry — it’s the award of the International Lead Medal.
The award, this year given in Lyon, France on Setpember 7 alternates be tween ceremonies at the ELBC and the Asian Battery Conference, has hon oured the great and the good of the lead business for an entire generation.
Because the 2020 ELBC had to be a virtual conference, no ceremony could be held so the judging commit
tee decided that this year there would be two medallists.
East Penn’s Norbert Maleschitz in troduced the first recipient, Eckhard Karden — who is widely regarded as a genuine statesperson for the in dustry technical expert with a few words saying: “The award goes to a great scientist and engineer as well as a great presenter. One of the things I admire most about this person is just how well he can explain the most complex topics in a very understand able way.”
Later, Wirtz’s Doug Lambert intro
duced the next winner, Mark Steven son, long regarded as a walking en cyclopaedia on all things to do with lead metallurgy, smelting and alloys. He said: “I’ve known Mark for many a long year and without being preten tious about the word ‘worthy’ Mark is someone who is outstandingly worthy for this award.
“He seems to know every aspect of his subject and has been an inspira tion to many for his willingness to impart his knowledge to the good of this industry. He is a bucket chemist in the very best sense of the word.”
Eckhard has a very differ ent background and per spective to the lead battery business than almost all of his contemporaries.
Eckhard’s involvement with automotive batter ies goes back to his early days at Aachen Univer sity in Germany, generally
reckoned as one of the best engineering/scientific insti tutions in Europe. Here he came under the tutelage of Hans-Christoph Skudelny and later Rik W De Don cker, two power-electronics professors who entertained the battery research group since the 1970s and had
Although Mark is perhaps best known for his work as the organizer of the Asian Battery Conference, he is in fact one of the world’s leading metallur gical experts and has spent a lifetime studying and ad vising the lead and battery industries.
It has been a long journey for Mark. Born a secondgeneration coal-miner’s son in Lithgow, a remote township in New South Wales, Australia he remem bers to this day his grand father’s advice. “Whatever you do, promise me you’ll never work in the mines.”
been electric vehicle enthu siasts for most of their lifes.
For his doctorate thesis Eckhard studied model ling of the voltage charac teristics of batteries using impedance spectroscopy — a new approach for the battery group though the technique was just starting to be deployed elsewhere. It was during this period that Eckhard met his fu ture wife Nathalie, a GP. More than two decades on, his daughter Fiona is also studying medicine.
One characteristic of the German university system is for research to be con ducted in partnership with industry and Eckhard’s Phd involved collaboration with Ford, the automotive giant. With his doctorate completed he joined the company in Aachen as a senior research engineer in July 2002. In 2005 he earned the title of technical expert.
He recalls his early days with affection. “When I joined Ford, I thought my English was fairly good — I could chat in it and read academic papers relatively easily, but I soon realised that that had to reach an other level working in such an international company.
“The work then, and now, consists of working very closely with product and application engineers and suppliers. It’s never just about the battery but how it interacts with, for example, the power train. Or it could be to do with quality issues when de
mands on the electrical sys tem changes.”
Eckhard entered the en ergy storage business at the same time as the huge explosion in lithium bat tery research started to happen. Although many doctoral students saw the then-relatively uncharted research areas of lithium as attractive, Eckhard saw it differently.
“One of the characteris tics of lead battery research and analysis is that it en compasses a wide range of different disciplines — from powertrain controls and electrical system sizing to electrochemical reaction kinetics and ageing mecha nisms,” he says.
“It’s a broad approach to the role of the battery. With lithium research it’s very specific it could just be on, say, one new type of an ode material and you may never see the broader pic ture. This broader view is part of the fun of the work — besides helping formu late development processes and operating strategies, you have the chance to stay learning about battery technology itself all the time.”
Eckhard believes that many of the recent advanc es in lead battery develop ment have been enabled by collaborative develop ment of test methods and standards, he is a member of various European and international standardiza tion working groups.
Eckhard joined Ford at the time when it was clear
He dates his early inter est in metallurgy to his teenage years. “A hobby of mine was to collect scrap metal like used soft drink cans — in those days people used to throw them away by the side of the road — and then melt them up for the alumin ium. You needed about 40 cans to be smelted to make a kilo which you could then sell for 60 cents. It was good pocket money and a start of a lifetime’s journey into the world of high-tempera ture metallurgy.”
He did well at High School but decided not to go immediately into full time study at university but do an extended parttime university course while gaining professional experience at Sims Metal Management through their cadetship program, one of the iconic names then (and now) in scrap metal and recycling ex pertise.
“I was extremely lucky to come under the direct tutelage and management of John Crabb, one of the greats of the scrap metal industry,” says Mark. “John believed in that we should all start at the very bottom so, though we were being trained for management, my first job was sweeping the factory floor. He insisted that we should not only be able to understand operators’ jobs but also know how to do them.”
“Sims gave me a basic understanding of lead, zinc, copper and alumin
ium and of course it was a perfect introduction into the world of batter ies through its subsidiary Besco.”
As Mark grew in expe rience and seniority his work within the company changed from techni cal and analytic work to larger scale projects and advisory roles. In effect he had become, he says, “that rare animal, a met allurgist with hands-on skills.” Even now, Mark prefers to start his prob lem solving directly from the raw battery feeds into the furnace than in the laboratory.
In the mid-1980s he was transferred across to Pasminco which had been collaborating with Sims Metals for several years.
Some of the problems Mark has tackled over the years have since be come standard industry practice. He was, for ex ample, an early exponent and developer of slag-less melting. “All battery feeds have impurities within them but we developed a way of converting them so that they could be sold on,” he says.
“I’ve watched the way our industry has embraced advances in technology and noticed that each step forward often creates a new set of problems that have to be solved,” he says. “And, oddly enough, I’ve noticed how one gen eration of this industry solves issues that then become forgotten by the next and the wheel has to be re-invented.”
“Automotive applications are in the midst of further change, and probably at a yet faster pace than before. For a mature industry, it will remain a challenge to innovate the product intelligently in response to new requirements”
“I’ve watched the way our industry has embraced advances in technology and noticed that each step forward often creates a new set of problems that have to be solved”
that the 42V system was not going to be the next automotive standard but has been at the forefront of looking at the development of 12V enhanced flooded batteries (EFB) and the rise of stop-start cars.
“Several battery suppliers suggested that AGM bat teries were the only kind capable of withstanding the stop-start demands being put on them, however we could make significant sav ings by developing EFB that could be manufactured on standard automotive bat tery production lines. I was involved from first concept studies and durability tests to field battery analysis af ter batteries had been sev eral years in service.”
After mainstream stopstart introduction, Eck hard’s work shifted toward improving brake energy re cuperation in 12V systems. In the meantime, Ford has introduced EFB with high Dynamic Charge Accept ance (EFB+C) that allow for a further improvement of fuel economy and CO2 emissions both under realworld driving conditions and in the new European homologation regime (WLTP).
Most recently, his work has shifted focus again, ad dressing auxiliary (AUX) batteries in battery-electric vehicles as well as battery reliability and diagnostics to support safety-critical 12V functions like driver assistance. Again, he sees pre-competitive collabo ration in industry expert
groups as a key enabler for cost-efficient and reli able commodity solutions — both in standardiza tion committees and in the Consortium for Battery Innovation (CBI), an issue that will occupy automo tive OEMs for the next few years. “This will lead to faster charging regimes,” he says.
Eckhard is keen to share his knowledge and works with the CBI at its battery workshops and their juststarted battery academy. He also regularly acts as session chair and co-organ izer of industry meetings such as Advanced Auto motive Battery Conference Europe. He has 18 patents to his name and has ed ited and co-authored many books on battery applica tion technology.
So with two decades at the cutting edge of lead battery applications and technology, how does he see the next two?
“Some trends are very positive,” he says. “Over the last 20 years we’ve seen greater and deeper collabo ration between different parts of the battery indus try and that openness, as we’re seeing in the work that the CBI is doing, is starting to bear fruit.
“That said, the automo tive application is undergo ing further change, and probably at a yet faster pace. For a mature indus try, it will remain a chal lenge to innovate the prod uct intelligently in response to new requirements.”
Mark is concerned that he and his peer group leave a legacy behind him just for this very reason. Part of this explains his enthusiasm and commit ment to the Asian Battery Conference which runs every two years at a dif ferent location in Asia. While working for Pas minco, which organized the ABC in its early years, he was put in charge of managing the conference as part of his regular du ties.
“I worked with John Manders on the ABC [Manders was co-founder of ABC with David Rand and Jerry McAuliffe in 1986 which was later to become the inspiration of its European counterpart] learning a lot about the technical program side and on his retirement, I realized conferences are more than just papers!
Since then the ABC has grown and grown. “My initial understanding of a conference — that it was a place for technical pa pers to be aired and de bated — was completely wrong,” he says.
“I soon learned that it’s got to be that but also so much more. It must be an event that people en joy, to be held at a des tination that people will love going to and with interesting things to do. A place where network ing is natural and not forced. Making things a little spectacular adds to the magic.”
A perfect example was the closing gala dinner
at the 18ABC in Bali, 2019 was perhaps the most spectacular yet seen with squadrons of VW open-top jeeps — com plete with police escort through the early evening rush hour traffic — driv ing delegates to a huge open-air array of plush tables with three stages displaying live dancing. “I don’t know how they arranged this” one of Batteries International reporters said afterwards, "but the detail of what went on was completely extraordinary."
Mark, like Eckhard, has serious worries about where the next battery leaders will come from. “An entire generation of battery experts is disap pearing every year. The Ken Peters, the Mike Meyers and the Manders are no more.
“That said, this in dustry has come a long way in the past 40 or so years,” says Mark. “When I started we used to boast about how high our blood levels were. In my early days at Sims, you’d be automatically moved to another part of the plant if you hit lev els of 70 mg per decilitre of blood and you’d be thought a slacker if you didn’t have levels near to that.
People used to think low blood levels were a sign of not pulling your weight. Now we’ve al most a whole industry comfortably reaching levels of below 15 mg per decilitre.
People used to think low blood levels were a sign of not pulling your weight. Now we’ve almost a whole industry comfortably reaching levels of below 15 mg per decilitre
“One of the characteristics of lead battery research and analysis is that it encompasses a wide range of different disciplines — from powertrain controls and electrical system sizing to electrochemical reaction kinetics and ageing mechanisms”
the battery industry and that’s from where my pas sion grew.”
Bernard works with fed eral and state legislators and agency staff on pro posed domestic and inter national legislative and regulatory developments affecting various segments of the environmental, trans portation, and product safety industries, including lead batteries, rechargeable batteries and the electronics containing them.
towards the research and development of the nascent collection and recycling in frastructure in the US.”
Bernard said the entry of newer chemistries into ma ture markets, such as indus trial and UPS systems, would continue to be an important issue alongside opportunities to expand the industry into new and emerging markets such as energy storage.
Susan Bernard (pictured above) has joined Battery Council International as its new director of regulatory and technical affairs, the organization announced on August 15.
Bernard previously worked with US law firm Wiley Rein.
“After joining Wiley, I
was quickly introduced to BCI and both the lead and lithium battery industries have been a main focal point of my work for the past six years as a regulato ry analyst at the law firm,” she said.
“I was mentored by Rog er Miksad, David Wein berg, and other leaders in
Upcoming revisions to the US Occupational Safety and Health Administra tion’s lead standard and Environmental Protection Agency’s revisions to its air lead standards “cer tainly have the potential to bring about major changes for our industry”, Bernard said.
“Specific to the lithium battery industry, we’ve seen a major uptick in state leg islative efforts to enact bat tery product stewardship responsibilities as well as a major increase in the scale of federal money allocated
Niamh Owen-McLaughlin has stepped down from her post as communications manager for the Consorti um for Battery Innovation.
Niamh has worked with the CBI and ILA for nine years.
Her final task for the or ganizations was to attend the ELBC conference in Lyon in September, before moving to her new com munications job with the University of Washington in Seattle.
Niamh thanked col
leagues, industry partners and friends at ELBC for the “wonderful opportunities to travel and meet people from around the world”.
In June, the trade and in novation bodies bid fare well to fellow communica tions professional, Fareha
Lasker, who had worked with the CBI and ILA for the past three years.
Fareha is now marketing and communications man ager with the automotive and mobility systems engi neering organization Fisi ta.
11.
Rich, who has an extensive international background in manufac turing and business man agement in the plastics and speciality chemicals sectors, is based at the company’s Piney Flats site with global respon sibilities.
Over the past 13 years, Doug has been responsi ble for manufacturing, operations and new product development activities of several businesses across North America, Europe, and China.
Swiss energy storage group Leclanché said on October 31 that Anil Srivastava had stepped down as CEO.
Srivastava decided to leave following the ap pointment of a new board on 30 September and a subsequent management restructure, with which he had been involved, the company said.
Leclanché is now man aged by Pierre Blanc as group CEO and chief tech nology and industrial offi cer of Leclanché e-Mobili ty, with Phil Broad as CEO of Leclanché E-Mobility and chief sales and devel opment officer of Leclan ché.
Srivastava said: “It's time for a change. When I de cided to accept this posi tion eight years ago, it was because of the reputation and the exceptional poten tial of Leclanché.
“I am proud of the work I have done together with all employees. I wish the com pany all the success as it at tains profitable growth.”
Board chairman Alexan der Rhea said Srivastava, together with other senior executives, had “greatly expanded” the firm’s cus tomer base.
Rhea said: “Now it is time for Leclanché to un leash all its stored value. We are certain that this new management struc ture will impulse a new dynamic to the company.”
Blanc and Broad are now members of the group’s executive committee, along with CFO Pasquale Foglia.
Blanc joined Leclanché in March 2000 as a chemi cal engineer in its alkaline battery division, where he was responsible for the development and manu
facturing of battery cells for major brands includ ing Varta, Energizer and Panasonic.
Blanc was appointed CTO in 2006, where he oversaw R&D and indus trialization of the compa ny’s lithium-ion business. Leclanché said he led the introduction of novel and unique production pro cesses, particularly for wa ter-based manufacturing for lithium-ion batteries.
Broad joined Leclanché in 2018 and was appoint ed executive vice president of e-Mobility Solutions in March 2019. His previ ous position at Leclanché was vice president of the commercial vehicles unit, leading application engi neering, programme man agement and sales.
Leclanché announced on August 9 that it had ap pointed Pasquale Foglia as
acting CFO — the firm’s third interim CFO in re cent months.
That announcement came after the company revealed on June 6 that it had negotiated conditions with “different stakehold ers” to secure Sfr15 mil lion ($15.5 million) fund ing for near-term liquidity requirements and could remain a going concern until June 2023.
Leclanché had warned on February 24 that li quidity remained tight ahead of a merger of its e-mobility business with a US-listed special pur pose acquisition company (SPAC).
Leclanché said then it had secured a Sfr20.4 mil lion bridging loan from the SPAC’s largest share holder, SEFAM, to run its operations ahead of the merger.
American Manganese announced the death on September 21 of its founder, president and CEO Larry Reaugh.
Reaugh was an accomplished and well-known figure in the mining industry, having successfully devel oped several mineral properties.
He was also instrumental in turning the company’s proprietary hydrometallurgical process from a manganese recovery technique to an innovative battery recyclingupcycling solution, known as the RecycLiCo patented process.
CTO Zarko Meseldzija was appointed as interim CEO by the American Manganese board as of September 21, with Paul Hilde brand becoming interim chairman and CFO Shaheem Ali appointed as a director.
Meseldzija said Reaugh had been “a great leader and mentor to many of us.
“Under his direction, we have grown as a pioneer in the lithium ion battery recycling industry and our team stands ready to ensure that his vision is carried out, and that the interests of the company’s shareholders are looked after.
“Larry will be sincerely missed, and we extend our deepest con dolences to the entire Reaugh family.”
On October 3, Meseldzija said the company had formally changed its name to RecycLiCo Battery Materials, following ap proval by Canada’s TSX Venture Exchange.
Meseldzija said: “In light of the immense global applications for our patented technology, it was evident that these applications were much broader than mining manganese, as our previous name suggested.
“As a battery materials compa ny, we focus on recycling lithium-
ion battery waste and upcycling it into battery-ready materials … our mission is to provide a circular solution that bridges the gaps in today’s segmented battery supply chain.”
RecycLiCo and R&D partner Kemetco Research had already announced that the leach sec tion of its technology defining demonstration plant project had achieved over 99% extraction of lithium, nickel, cobalt, and man ganese from lithium ion battery production scrap.
A detailed cost analysis of the economics of such processes is still needed. The crucial issue is still whether the cost of the recycling provides profits from the sale of the raw materials — as in lead battery recycling — or that the process is inherently uneco nomical and processing requires tolls and charges to be levied.
David Mihara, Micro porous’s much-liked and much-admired VP of tech nology, announced on No vember 3 that he will be retiring at the end of that month after more than 35 years in the battery and bat tery separator industries.
The former Northstar Battery chief technical of ficer and director of bat tery development took up his post at Microporous in March 2018.
Mihara was senior di rector and head of global R&D at Exide Technolo gies between 2009 and 2013, before taking up his first appointment with North Star as director of battery development.
“We’ll be sad to see Da vid go,” said Claudia Lo renzini, Microporous’ vice president, sales and market ing. “He’s done a fantastic job for the firm, building up the R&D team from virtually nothing. He has
a huge wealth of experi ence and, as anyone who’s ever worked with him will tell you, he’s a hugely lik able colleague and creates a great team spirit.”
Mihara said: “It has been a rewarding experience to work with the great people on the Microporous team and I am proud of the products and support Mi croporous can now provide its customers around the world.”
Now it’s time to focus on wife Karen, friends and travel, he said.
Mihara told Batteries In ternational: “The next five to 10 years are going to be challenging times for the lead battery industry, with EVs taking off in a massive
way, but many people forget that a lot of those EVs still carry a 12V lead battery.”
“I don’t think the picture is bleak for the lead battery industry as a whole at all. Look at the advances being made in AGMs and TPPL and some of the advanced EFB batteries that are com ing out — and lead has a great role to play in the ex panding energy storage sec tor too.”
Microporous president and CEO John Reeves said: “David has had a positive and lasting impact on not only our technology and R&D teams, but the com pany overall. His expertise, insights and leadership have helped Microporous make significant advances
in the lead acid battery in dustry.
“While we look for Da vid’s successor, we appre ciate his work building a foundation for the signifi cant developments we will be sharing during 2023. We wish David the best in his future endeavours.” added Reeves.
Mihara’s retirement high lights yet again the aging demographic of the lead battery industry’s senior management figures and the difficulty of replacing some of the legends of yes teryear.
A fuller interview with Mihara will be published in our winter issue, out in early 2023.
The next five to 10 years are going to be challenging — but the lead battery industry has a great role to play in the expanding energy storage sector"David Mihara with Microporous R&D associates Sachin Kumar, Divya Tiwari, Timothy Campbell and Jamie Miller
More than 8,000 current and former employees and their families of East Penn Manufacturing turned out on October 1 to mark the battery giant’s 75th anni versary.
The celebratory event, rescheduled from last year as a result of Covid-19, was also attended by a number of Pennsylvania state dignitaries and fo cused on the contribution employees have made to the success of the familyowned business, which staff say epitomizes the American dream.
East Penn was founded in 1946 by DeLight Brei degam Jr and his father in a vacant creamery in Bowers. Nowadays, East
Penn’s Lyons Station cam pus at more than 520 acres, is the world’s big gest single-site lead battery manufacturer, employing more than 10,000 with a further 2,000 worldwide.
Almost half of East Penn’s employees have worked at the firm for more than a decade and around a quarter have logged 20 years or more at the company.
Three employees have put in 50-plus years and 149 have celebrated more than 40 years with the company. Some 500 are members of the so-called ‘Century Club’ — those whose age added to their years of service equals 100 years or more.
DeLight Jr, who died in 2015 and his daughter, Sal ly Miksiewicz, who died in 2104, were both beloved by the workforce, a com pany spokesperson told Batteries International
“They put employees first and reinvested profits so that future generations would have job security, good pay, and benefits.
“Today, chairman Dan Breidegam [DeLight’s son] and CEO and president Chris Pruitt and their team are keeping the culture cul tivated by DeLight and Sally alive. The Breidegam/ Miksiewicz family is active in the company, ensuring that the traditions and val ues established by DeLight and Sally endure.”
India’s Amara Raja Bat teries is proposing to in tegrate the plastic battery components business of a key supplier, Mangal Indus tries, with its own battery manufacturing operations, the group told investors on September 26.
Amara Raja said it al ready receives Mangal’s en tire output of plastic com ponents for batteries and the proposed deal would simplify operations and im prove efficiencies.
The move would also boost control over raw materials supply at a time when Amara Raja is ex panding its operations, the company said.
Mangal, which started operations in 2004, was founded by Amara Raja patriarch Ramachandra Galla, who stepped down as chairman of the battery group last year.
The Andhra Pradesh firm is wholly-owned by RN Galla Family Private Lim ited and will continue to manufacture a wide range of other products including automotive components.
The plastic battery com ponents business has around 150 injection moulding machines, which would be taken over by Amara Raja along with their facilities, buildings and land.
Details of what Amara Raja called the proposed “demerger” of the compo nents unit are being pre sented to shareholders and regulatory authorities and the deal should be complet ed within 12 to 14 months.
Amara Raja’s executive director of automotive and industrial batteries, Harshavardhana Gourine ni, said the move would strengthen his company’s
control of the supply chain and “augments our battery recycling initiatives”.
“It also helps us in im proving margins by better utilization of manpower and reducing logistics costs.”
Meanwhile, Amara Raja chairman and MD Jayadev Galla said the group was looking for a technology partner to support its move into the production of lithi um ion battery cells.
Galla said on May 20 that his company would “fast track” its development of a customer qualification plant for lithium cells while also building on its lead battery foundations.
“We are very bullish about the future of lead acid batteries. Even with the transition going from internal combustion en gines to EVs taking place,” he said.
Clarios International, which pulled out of a planned initial public offer ing last July, is “continuing to assess” market condi tions for the move, Batter ies International was told.
A spokesperson for the world’s largest manufac turer of automotive bat teries said on September 27: “Our focus remains on advancing our strategic priorities and delivering on our financial commitments to continue to improve our market leading business.
“We have the luxury of being a high-quality com pany with strong support from our sponsors and a great long-term future ahead. This affords us flex ibility for when the market conditions are right.”
Clarios and its Brook field/CDPQ owners is committed to keeping the market informed, the spokesperson said.
The lead battery giant’s long-awaited IPO, which had been predicted in the market to raise some $1.7 billion, was pulled on July 29, 2021 in a move the company said was prompted by market volatility.
The cancellation coincided with a fall in momentum of the year’s record spree to that date of IPOs in the US.
Clarios told BI last March it had acquired Spanish battery recycler Metalúrgica de Medina. The firm has an an nual capacity of producing around 59,000 tonnes of recycled lead.
Last May, Clarios announced it was teaming up with Natron Energy to manufacture what the partners said would be the world’s first mass-pro duced sodium ion batteries.
Plans by ENTEK to ramp up its production of electric vehicle battery separators have been given a boost af ter the company revealed it had secured a tranche of un disclosed US federal fund ing to support the country’s domestic battery materials supply chain.
An ENTEK spokesperson told Batteries International that the group was among the first to be selected for project funding under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
The funding, announced by the Department of En ergy on October 19, is the first phase of more than $7 billion in total provided by the infrastructure law, EN TEK said.
It will support the compa ny’s investment in projects including plans unveiled on April 26 to build two “gigascale” EV battery separator plants in the US.
Kimberly Medford, presi dent of ENTEK Manufac turing, said: “This support for our domestic supply chain and investment in our US manufacturing in frastructure ensures that we are prepared to supply criti cal US produced compo nents to US lithium battery manufactures.”
Medford took part in a White House event on No vember 2 in support of the Talent Pipeline Challenge — a US government-backed initiative encouraging in vestment in domestic infra structure jobs.
ENTEK said the event was an opportunity for the US-headquartered battery separators group to show case the firm’s commitment to supporting federal plans to expand its electric vehicle and energy storage battery supply chain.
Medford joined employ ers, training providers and state and local government
leaders for the event.
The Talent Pipeline Chal lenge encourages employ ers to partner with and hire skilled workers from at least one training provider in each region in which the employer has operations, such as a registered ap prenticeship program or a community college with a
diverse student population.
“We want to create more American jobs producing battery parts using the most advanced technologies and meeting the cleanest envi ronmental standards in the world,” Medford said.
Oregon-headquartered ENTEK has already part nered with several organi
zations, such as the Oregon Manufacturing Innovation Center, to boost training for skilled workers to get qual ity, well-paying jobs in the transition to a clean energy economy.
The company said Med ford and ENTEK CEO Lar ry Keith met Oregon con gresswoman Suzanne Bonamici in October to dis cuss the importance of cre ating opportunities for skilled workers and a “ro bust domestic workforce”.
Metair has told Batteries In ternational it will decide on the potential sale of its inter national batteries division by year end, after reporting a robust performance for the unit in delayed interim half-year results released on September 15 — despite a 260% fall in overall group profit.
The South Africa-based batteries and auto compo nents group said in its finan cial results that while no fi nal decision had been taken “at this point”, the strong operational performance of its energy storage division — including battery firms in Romania (Rombat), Turkey (Mutlu Akü) and South Af rica (First National Battery) — provided “the opportu nity to consider strategic options”.
A spokesperson told BI on September 27 Metair would decide on the future of the division by the end of the calendar year 2022.
Asked whether the group would consider selling its energy storage division in
its entirety, or as individ ual battery businesses, the spokesperson said: “Metair is considering all the avail able options and will advise the market when a decision has been made.”
BI reported on February 24 speculation by some Me tair shareholders that the group was preparing to sell its energy storage division.
Meanwhile, the group, said overall profit for the six months ended June 30 fell from ZAR344 million ($19 million) in the corre sponding period last year to ZAR0.96 million, amid a perfect storm of global eco nomic events.
Group operating profit dropped to ZAR144 mil lion from ZAR545 million previously.
The impact of hyperin flation on the company’s Mutlu Akü lead batteries business was among the fac tors that had hit the overall interim results. The pub lication of these had been delayed by the company while it reviewed figures in
relation to its operation in Turkey — which was des ignated a hyperinflationary economy by the Interna tional Monetary Fund and leading accounting firms.
Mutlu Akü accounted for nearly ZAR4 billion of Me tair’s turnover in the finan cial year ended December 31, 2021. The company said this represented about 31% of group turnover while 55% “was directly linked to hard currencies (US dollars or euros) through direct ex port and OEM sales, grow ing both volumes and price in the first half of 2022”.
In the latest results, Metair posted a 14% improvement in turnover for its energy storage division, to ZAR3.7 billion, mainly because of improved sales, the impact of hyperinflation and higher average lead prices.
In July Turkey’s inflation rate was reckoned to be around 175% a year.
However, the division de livered an operating loss of ZAR44 million — ZAR273 million operating profit on a
Italian lead recycler and en gineering company STC has said that the installation of a new energy recovery sys tem at a lead recycling plant operated by its parent com pany, Monbat, is currently saving the firm around 1.8 million m3 of natural gas annually.
Following the success of the mechanical vapour re compression (MVR) system at Monbat’s recycling facil ity in Serbia, the European lead battery giant now plans to install MVR systems at its lead battery recycling plants in Bulgaria and Romania —
which are eventually expect ed to achieve combined gas savings of around 5 million m3 every year.
An STC spokesperson told Batteries International on October 20 that the MVR collects pure water vapor arising from the evapora tion of the sodium sulphate solution, which contains no noxious substances.
The system is used to pro duce heat that can be used in the crystallization of the sodium sulphate solution, which is a by-product of the lead paste desulphurization reaction.
Before the installation of the MVR, the crystal lizer was “a direct live steam crystallizer”, where the steam from an existing gas steam boiler was used to heat up and evaporate the sodium sulphate solution, the spokesperson said.
“The MVR is more in line with circular economy prin ciples, because it recycles the steam coming from the crys tallizer through an electri cally driven mechanical re compression — without the need to add steam from the gas boiler, which remains only as back-up. This leads
pre-hyperinflation basis — compared to an operating profit of ZAR328 million in the first half of 2021.
On a pre-hyperinflation basis, Metair said Mutlu Akü’s Ebit in local currency was approximately 56% higher than in the first half of last year.
Overall sales of automo tive batteries was up 1% to four million units, sup ported by “strong volumes” from Mutlu Akü as the op eration increased exports by around 14% compared to the year ago period.
Sales from Rombat were about 4% lower, “mainly due to dampened consumer confidence arising from the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and extremely strong de mand experienced in the prior period following re strictions due to Covid-19”.
First National Battery’s sales were marginally down on the first-half of last year, but Metair said moves to improve competitiveness and market share were pro gressing according to plan.
to both economical savings and to the tangible support of environmental sustain ability.”
Following its initial suc cess at Monbat, the system could be offered to other companies, the spokesper son said.
STC said it is able to pro vide different desulphuriza tion processes — “tradition al” with soda ash or caustic soda or its patented U4Lead that uses urea as chemical and produces ammonium sulphate as a by-product.
In April, STC announced it had secured a $5 million contract to supply a lead battery recycling plant to Tunisia’s Nour, in which Monbat owns a 60% stake.
India’s Exide Industries for mally launched construc tion of its lithium ion cell gigafactory in Bengaluru on September 27 — but has pledged to maintain its pro duction and development of lead batteries.
The greenfield project was announced by Exide in March, when it said it had agreed a long-term techni cal collaboration deal with China’s SVOLT Energy Technology.
Managing director and CEO Subir Chakraborty told dignitaries at a cer emony marking the start of work on the new plant:
“While we continue to maintain our leading posi tion in the lead acid battery market of the past 75 years, we have simultaneously taken significant steps to strengthen our position in the emerging li-ion mar ket.”
The first phase of the fa cility is to be operational by the end of 2024.
Chakraborty said the project would not have been possible without the strong support of the Kar nataka state government.
Karnataka’s chief minis ter Basavaraj Bommai and skills development minis
ter Ashwath Narayan were among those attending the ceremony.
The new plant will span more than 80 acres of land and manufacturing batter ies for electric vehicles and other industrial uses.
SVOLT, in addition to providing the technology for the plant, is provid ing unspecified support for construction on a turnkey basis.
Exide is also setting up a research and development laboratory and pilot manu facturing line to support new product development for the Indian market.
Indian lead major Amara Raja Batteries announced on August 30 the comple tion of its $5 million in vestment in the Bangalorebased start-up known as Log 9 Materials.
Amara Raja had said in August 2021 that its deci sion to invest in Log 9 — in which it now has a stake of just over 15% — would be “pivotal” for the develop ment of EV two-wheelers and EV three-wheelers.
Log 9 CEO Akshay Sing
Turkish battery equipment company Batek Makina held an open house event at its manufacturing plant near Istanbul to mark the firm’s 20th anniversary.
The company’s clients were among the many guests invited to tour the 4,500 sq metre facility at the port town of Dilovasi on September 5. Many of the visitors continued on to attend the ELBC conference in Lyon held that week.
Batek MD Mahmut Cel al Sarıçam told Batteries
hal told Batteries Interna tional in October 2017 that the firm had made a techno logical breakthrough using graphene to improve the ca pacity of lead batteries.
The company is also de veloping advanced battery and fuel technologies for electric vehicles and rapid charging battery packs.
Amara Raja has made a series of announcements in recent months to reaffirm the firm’s intention to grow beyond its lead-acid roots
to other areas of India’s EV and energy storage sectors.
On May 20, the company pledged to fast track its de velopment of a customer qualification plant for lith ium cells.
Chairman and MD Jay adev Galla said last July that the company was also looking into the possibility of expanding its lead bat teries business through greenfield investments or acquisitions in the IndianOcean rim.
Lead recycler Gravita India has been honoured by Ra jasthan’s state government for the company’s services to the exports sector.
Industry minister Shakun tala Rawat presented the Rajasthan State Export Award at a ceremony on September 17, in recogni tion of Gravita’s export activities and “global man ufacturing presence”, the company said.
Gravita has 13 manufac turing facilities across Asia, Africa and Central America with an overall production capacity of 204,919 tonnes a year.
The company told Bat teries International in June 2019 that it had started commercial production of lead in Ghana and Tanza nia, with the aim of supply ing European markets.
Last December, the com pany announced the open ing of a new battery recy cling plant at Mundra Port in the Indian state of Guja rat.
CEO Yogesh Malhotra said in a first-quarter earn ings conference call in Au gust that the company was looking for opportunities in evolving or developing economies.
International that the tour included a demonstration of some of the state-ofthe-art facilities at the plant, including a com pleted assembly line and post burning machines for truck batteries.
Guests then joined Batek staff on a dinner cruise on the Bosphorous.
Batek’s plant was opened in 2020 — help ing to expand the firm’s production capacity three fold, along with Batek’s acquisition of Italian formation firm Bertola
and its subsidiary Moran, which was completed in January 2021.
Sarıçam said the compa ny is fulfilling contracts for several major international projects, especially orders for assembly lines, which account, he said, for a sig nificant share of the plant’s production capacity.
On January 3 this year, Bulent Omerderelioglu, who has been a consult ant to the company for more than a decade, was appointed as Batek’s CEO.
Malhotra said Gravita believed growth in the lead battery recycling business was more likely in those regions, rather than trying to expand into the mature European or US markets — which he said were “al ready saturated” and where battery companies already have effective recycling ar rangements in place.
He said the total capacity for smelting and refining lead across the Gravita group was 168,000 tonnes — with about 118,000 tonnes of that capacity in India.
Australia-based Volt Re sources has formed a new business unit through which it is supplying graph ite products for lead acid and lithium battery mar kets in the US, the company announced on October 4.
The new unit, Volt En ergy Materials, will provide products including coated spheronised purified graph ite (CSPG) for lithium ion batteries and graphite ex pander additives for nega tive electrodes for lead bat teries, the company said in an Australian Securities Ex change announcement.
Volt Resources MD Trev or Matthews said the move would boost the company’s partnerships with key in dustry players in the US in cluding batteries developer Apollo Energy Systems and Energy Supply Developers (ESD) — which was estab lished in March 2021 to help secure a battery mate rials supply chain for Li-ion batteries.
In February, Volt was se lected as the CSPG supplier
for ESD’s planned 50GWh lithium battery production facility, which is to start op erations in the US Midwest by 2025.
Tests by Apollo Energy have shown that lead bat tery cells containing Volt’s graphite have “consistently delivered higher capacity” than those whose expander formulation was based on traditional carbon materi als, Volt claimed.
The company said its ultra-high purity graphite product used for lead acid battery expanders is a by-
Ecobat suspended lead production at its plants in Italy effective October 1 in the wake of “extreme energy prices and other excessively burdensome costs” in the country, the company confirmed to Bat teries International on Sep tember 27.
Ecobat said its secondary lead smelting facilities in its Paderno and Marcianise plants have an aggregate capacity of 80,000 tonnes of lead per year.
However, while lead production was being sus pended, “various other non-lead activities” at both plants would “continue as needed”.
Ecobat had warned in
August that the economic conditions prompting the move showed “no signs of improvement” and its at tempts to explore alterna tives to suspension had not been productive.
The company said its continuation of opera tions at the Italian facilities through September had been an accommodation to customers, despite hav ing to conduct business at significant loss.
No announcement has been about when the sus pension will be lifted. Eco bat has said it will monitor the situation and the evolu tion of the market, as well as possible governmental support measures.
product of a larger down stream process for manu facturing spherical graphite or BAM for lithium ion battery anodes.
Meanwhile, Volt said the development of non-spher ical graphite products for the alkaline and lead acid battery markets will im
prove the economics of its planned CSPG manufac turing facilities in the US and Europe — using flake graphite production capa bility from the Zavalievsky graphite mine in Ukraine, together with future pro duction from the Bunyu Graphite Project in Tanza nia.
Volt said in June it had received commitments to raise $2 million in a share placement to help restart graphite production in Ukraine.
On September 6, Volt said graphite produced at Zava lievsky during 14 days of August was at an average daily production rate of 60.5 tonnes. Despite dis ruptions during recommis sioning, production at Za valievsky, 280km south of Kyiv, is on track to meet its fiscal 2023 forecast of 8,000-9,000 tonnes, the company said.
Nyrstar had yet to finalize its acquisition of German lead production plant Stolberg — more than two months after agreeing to buy the facility, Batteries International discovered on September 28.
Nyrstar’s parent company, the Trafigura Group, said on July 6 it had entered into a binding agreement to acquire Ecobat Resources Stolberg, which owns the Stolberg multi-metals processing plant, in a deal it expected to be com pleted in the third quarter of this year.
However, a Nyrstar spokesperson said the sale had yet to be completed and the company did not know when it could expect to receive relevant regulatory approvals.
“We plan to restart the facility after all closing
conditions and receipt of regulatory approvals to transfer the assets have been obtained and when the plant is technically ready.”
Stolberg has been out of action since declaring force majeure last year after devasting floods in Europe.
The facility has the capacity to produce 155,000 tonnes of lead and more than 100 dif ferent specifications of market-leading lead al loys and produce 130,000 tonnes of sulphuric acid.
Lead commentator Farid Ahmed told BI in July that the facility had only produced about 100kt/a for the past few years of full production, as it had focused on optimizing the type of throughput rather than maxing out on tonnage.
A further rationalization of the battery manufactur ing supply chain was an nounced on October 28 with Michigan-headquar tered MAC Engineering us ing its distribution strength across North and South America to stock and sup ply parts for Europeanbased Inbatec’s formation machines in the region.
“This is a perfect example of how key players in the lead battery industry are acting to counter disrup tions in the supply chain,” said one commentator.
“I expect to see further rationalizations such as this in the future.”
Long delays and sig nificantly higher costs for firms shipping internation al goods have character ized the market since the arrival of the Covid pan demic in 2020.
Orders will be placed and invoiced directly with MAC, which the firms said would go a long way to supporting the sale of Inbatec’s formation ma chines in those regions — “and give customers confi dence of the availability of spare parts locally and in the shortest timescale pos sible”.
MAC president Doug Bornas said: “This is an opportunity to work with a great company like In batec, which has an out standing reputation in this industry. We are confident this will streamline parts ordering for our US and South American custom ers, making it easier and quicker for them to get the parts they need for their Inbatec machines.”
Nick Hennen, Inbatec global vice president, said: “The number of installed systems in the US alone is now over 100 and we knew we had to address
concerns regarding how we manage spares and ser vice in the Americas.”
Hennen said he and Inbatec president Chris tian Papmahl had a longstanding admiration of MAC and the quality of its products and people. “This partnership just makes
sense for our customers.”
Sorfin Yoshimura presi dent Scott Fink told Bat teries International he welcomed news of the ar rangement between the key industry players.
“I work very closely with both companies and I do believe that we will see
more of this kind of part nerships,” Fink said.
“They make a whole lot of sense because they are providing the best service they can to the end user and doing it in close enough proximity without significantly increasing costs.”
um programme has enabled us to open up additional markets and target groups for Banner.”
Bawart said the firm’s tar get for the next few years is to further expand Duracell sales with a focus on Europe, “where we still see major po tential for the brand”.
Banner says that, to date, it has supplied Duracell batter ies to customers in over 45 countries, all mostly in the automotive component and battery wholesale and retail trades.
Moll Batterien announced a new advanced flooded battery (AFB) design on September 9 as a chal lenger to traditional AGM batteries used in start-stop vehicles.
Austria-headquartered lead battery group Banner Batter ien announced on September 6 that it had further extend ed its licensing agreement for the production and market ing of car and commercial vehicle batteries under the Duracell Automotive brand.
Banner, which has had the agreement with Duracell since 2013, did not disclose
details of the prolongation.
Commercial CEO An dreas Bawart (pictured) said: “Thanks to the combination of the world’s best-known battery brand with the fa mous Duracell bunny as an advertising medium and our know-how as a leading qual ity manufacturer of starter and electrical system power supply batteries, this premi
The focus of sales is on continental Europe, with a share of around 80%, while the Middle East and African regions contribute to some 20% of sales.
In January 2018, Duracell, best known for its small al kaline batteries, unveiled a 12V AGM sealed lead-acid battery at the CES confer ence in Las Vegas.
Last June, Banner marked 85 years in the battery man ufacturing business with an anniversary celebration for staff.
Belgian metals recycling and speciality chemicals group Campine said on August 29 that rising metal prices boosted its revenue for the first half of 2022 to €156.6 million ($157 million) — a 46% increase compared to the same period last year.
The company, which acquired two lead battery recycling plants from French lead recycler Recyclex in July, also an nounced Ebitda of €13.5 million, which it said was a record half-year result.
Campine sold 36,600 tonnes of lead during the period, which was an 8% rise in volume over the year-ago period and
which contributed €7.3 million (a 60% increase over the previous period) to the Ebitda total.
The company said it had been able to increase production following the replacement of equipment that had limited output from its lead blast furnace in 2021.
Campine said LME lead metal cost an average of €2,070 per tonne in the first half of the year, com pared to €1,720 per tonne a year earlier.
The acquisition of the Recyclex plants at Escau doeuvres and Villefranchesur-Saône from Recyclex, which have a combined annual recycling capacity
of some 90,000 tonnes of used batteries, represents a “substantial upstream expansion” of Campine’s battery recycling capabili ties, the company said.
CEO Wim De Vos said: “Thanks to the contin ued high demand for our products and the growing profit contribution from the recent investments, we continue our strong performance.”
But De Vos warned the rest of the year would be more difficult because of the global economic downturn and energy crisis, although the French acquisitions would have a positive effect.
The AFB can be used as a direct replacement for AGM batteries, such as the micro-hybrid vehicles market, because of en hanced features including improved charge accep tance and recuperation ca pability, Moll says.
Another key feature of the AFB is that it can be adapted to a vehicle’s AGM on-board network behaviour.
This means the AFB can be optimally charged if it is registered as an AGM battery with the vehicle’s on-board network, the manufacturer says.
Work on the AFB design stems from the rapid intro duction of start-srop ve hicles as car makers strive to meet European Union requirements to gradually reduce CO2 emissions and fuel consumption of ve hicles.
Moll says its R&D for the new design was built on the “robust basic design of a classic flooded battery” and drew on its experience of developing enhanced flood ed batteries.
Moll, one of Europe’s best known family leadacid battery businesses, was taken over by a con sortium of investors led by the CEO of BAE Hold ing Jan IJspeert, the com pany announced in March 2021.
The firm was founded by Peter Moll 75 years ago and later taken over by his daughter, Gertrud MollMöhrstedt. However, the company was forced to file for insolvency in 2020.
Chinese lead and lithium batteries manufacturer Leoch said in unaudit ed half-year results an nounced on August 26 that lead batteries were the key driver in achiev ing a 19% increase in rev enue over the correspond ing period in 2021.
Leoch chairman Dong Li said revenue for the six months ended June 30 was more than Rmb6.1 billion ($885 million) compared to Rmb5 bil
lion previously — a result in line with a forecast is sued in July.
The group’s reserve power batteries unit, in cluding AGM and pure lead products, was the major revenue contribu tor for the period. These products accounted for 48% of total sales (Rmb3 billion compared to Rmb2 billion previously).
Revenue from Leoch’s overall batteries business amounted to nearly Rmb5
billion — a 16% increase from the corresponding period in 2021.
Leoch’s lead recycling business generated rev enue of Rmb1.25 billion (a rise of 35%), while overall profit for the pe riod increased by 117% to Rmb96 million.
On future prospects, Dong said “overwhelm ing” global risks includ ing the energy crisis, in flation and tough trading conditions could hit over
seas market growth and suppress battery sales.
However, Dong said the group believed its reserve power battery business “will be one of the key growth drivers in 2022 and China’s market will be the major revenue gen erator in this category”, thanks to ongoing strong support from the Chinese government for invest ments in sectors such as 5G telecoms infrastruc ture.
Lead batteries continue to dominate India’s electric vehicles sector, but lithium is gradually increasing its market share, the India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA) said on August 23.
Lead acid batteries ac counted for 81% of the market in 2021, according to the IESA’s India Electric Vehicle and Component Market Overview Report 2021-2030.
The IESA said the lead batteries share was the result of continuing high demand for electric rick shaws.
However, lithium is eat ing into market and in 2021, for the first time, demand for these batter ies exceeded the 1GWh threshold, the report said.
Among lithium ion chemistries, lithium iron phosphate is the preferred option for electric threeand four-wheelers, while nickel manganese cobalt is the preferred option for electric two-wheeled ve hicles and e-buses.
The national EV market is set to expand at a com pound annual growth rate of 49% between 2021 and 2030, according to the report’s business as usual scenario — reaching an nual sales of 17 million units by that time, with nearly 15 million of those
projected to be electric two-wheelers.
Meanwhile, annual de mand for batteries up to 2030 is anticipated to in crease at a CAGR of 41%, reaching 142GWh.
In April, ENTEK said it was investing to expand its manufacturing of AGM battery separators to India
and the US, in response to expanding demand for en ergy storage solutions for inverters, industrial appli cations and EVs.
In July, the boss of Indiabased Amara Raja Batter ies said his company was looking into the possibil ity of expansion through greenfield investments or
The Sovema Group has been acquired by Ger man metal-forming group Schuler for an undisclosed sum, the companies announced on August 23.
A Schuler spokesperson told Batteries Internation al the deal was not subject to any relevant regulatory decisions and was closed at the end of September.
The acquisition includ ed both the lithium ion and the lead acid battery parts of Italy-based Sov ema’s business — which will “both be continued”, the spokesperson said.
“We consider it a great strategic fit as both companies’ technological capabilities are fully com plimentary and gigafac tories are about to come into play soon.”
The acquisition cov
acquisitions for its lead battery business in the In dian-Ocean rim.
Chairman and MD Jay adev Galla said there would always be a place for lead battery technolo gy — and warned that the rising cost of lithium bat teries for EVs presented new challenges.
ered all Sovema entities including Solith, which provides equipment for lithium ion cell and module production, Sovel — high-performance for mation systems for lead and lithium storage tech nologies — and US-based battery testing equipment company Bitrode.
Sovema general man ager Massimiliano Ian niello said the deal would ensure the group could “play a major role in the gigafactory challenge”.
“So far, our size al lowed us to serve our cus tomers with high quality and customization. Now, as part of Schuler, we will finally be able to reach the volumes required by the massive demand for battery manufacturing equipment in Europe and beyond.”
Bitrode president and CEO Cyril Narishkin said the takeover would help the firm “accelerate new product offerings and help Bitrode reach its techno logical potential”.
Sovema changed its name to Sovema Group in June 2017, in line with the lead battery equipment manufacturer’s expansion into making machinery for the lithium ion battery industry.
Schuler, part of the international technology group Andritz, was founded in 1839 and has production sites in Europe, China, and the US, as well as service companies in more than 40 countries. Schuler’s client base includes automotive manufacturers and suppliers and electri cal industries.
Fenix Battery Recycling — a UKbased company that has previously been accused of providing “mislead ing” information about its operations in a possible bid to acquire public funding, has come under further pres sure as the second of its founding di rectors, Miles Freeman, has resigned.
The company was founded by Athan Fox, Miles Freeman, directors of Ever Resource and Neil Muttock in July 2020. Fox resigned on April 12 this year. Muttock, according to Companies House, continues as chairman of Fenix.
The accusation of providing mis leading information — see more de tails further down this article — were made in an April 4, 2022 report by the Environment Agency.
Fenix is now involved in an “on going legal situation” according to the EA, the environmental regulator for England, Batteries International learned under a freedom of informa tion request.
Claims and counter claims are at the centre of potential litigation by both sides, BI understands.
The EA would not comment in de tail, but said Fenix had not appealed the agency’s original decision to refuse the company an environment permit — as reported by BI in April — for a
facility at Fenix’s site in Willenhall, in the English Midlands.
The EA said previously the site would be used to sort different bat teries by category/chemistry and the subsequent processing of alkaline and lead-acid batteries.
In its April 4 report, which gave its reasons for refusing to issue a permit, the EA said that “one or more” of Fe nix’s directors were facing “potential legal action”, because they “are known to the agency for failing to adhere to waste exemption regulations and for ignoring enforcement notices”.
Fenix general manager, Miles Free man, resigned as a director of the company on August 23, according to records filed at the UK’s Compa nies House, Batteries International has learned. Freeman’s resignation followed that of Athan Fox, who re signed directly after the report was released.
Fox told Batteries International in April that his resignation as a direc tor was “pre-planned due to conflicts of interest within my role in multiple technology start-ups”.
He also said he was “not ending my association with the other members of the board at Fenix Battery Recycling” because of the technology start-ups he
was involved with would be licensing technology to Fenix.
In a joint email sent to Batteries International on September 1, about the Fenix dispute with the EA, Fox and Freeman claim that “third parties have somehow influenced the process.
“Numerous parties over the years have tried to force Fox to sell pat ents/IP or to cease development of the work. Due to the highly disrup tive nature of this work, the group has attracted malignant individuals who are trying to stand in the way of progress.”
They said Fox and his team “have been working on game-changing tech nology and innovation for the lead battery recycling industry”.
Fox is a director and CEO of Ever Resource (formerly Aurelius Technol ogy) according to Companies House.
Ever Resource claims to “revolu tionize recycling”, including that of lead acid, lithium ion and alkaline batteries.
The MD of Ever Resource is the former Fenix director Miles Freeman. Both Freeman and Fox were appoint ed as Ever Resource directors on June 1, 2020.
According to the Ever Resource website as of October 16, Fenix CEO Damian Lambkin was still among “associates and partners” of Ever Re source. The website says Fenix holds “technology licences” from Ever Re source.
In a further twist for Fenix, the government-backed UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) agency has now formally dismissed claims, made by Fenix, that the company had received more than £900,000 ($1 million) of grant funding “to develop a specialist technology capable of making lith ium-ion battery recycling processes cleaner and more sustainable”.
UKRI told Batteries International in an official statement on August 23: “Following an investigation into environmental compliance at a site associated with the proposed proj ect, the project was cancelled and no
“Numerous parties over the years have tried to force Fox to sell patents/IP or to cease development of the work. Due to the highly disruptive nature of this work, the group has attracted malignant individuals who are trying to stand in the way of progress”
payments were made to Fenix Battery Recycling.”
Lambkin declined to comment on UKRI’s statement that no grant fund ing had been paid to Fenix.
Damian Lambkin told Batteries In ternational in an email on September 1 that Athan Fox and Miles Freeman were “no longer directors of, nor em ployees of Fenix Battery Recycling”, therefore their comments “don’t re flect that of the company”.
Lambkin said Fenix now had two new directors Andrew Gibson (op erations) and Jeremy Stewart (compli ance).
The new directorships were not yet listed on the Companies House web site as of October 16.
On the dispute with the EA, Lambkin said: “Our legal team is involved in on going, detailed, and constructive corre spondence with the EA’s legal team. We are very close to reaching an agreement with the EA, that Fenix can make an ap plication for an environmental permit, and the EA’s view of Fenix’s manage ment team, will not preclude that appli cation from being granted.”
Lambkin said such an agreement “will not require an appeal, which would be a drain on both Fenix’s and the EA’s resources, for no greater ben efit than the negotiated outcome will offer”.
But he said Fenix “may well” still take legal action against the EA… and “has been advised that it has good le gal grounds for doing so”.
In its original 21-page report ac companying its decision to refuse an environment permit to Fenix, the EA said: “It appears that relevant persons are providing misleading information both within the environmental permit application itself, and to other nongovernmental bodies, with the pur pose of obtaining an environmental permit and potentially to acquire pub lic funds from other regulators.”
The EA also claimed Fenix was not considered “competent to operate the site, given its previous poor history of compliance and those of its directors, as well as reasons relating to technical competence”.
The report was also critical of Fe nix directors personally, citing what it claimed then were “illegal operations at the Willenhall site” and noting di rectors’ “known history of non-com pliance in the waste industry”.
In another setback for Fenix, BI learned that the company was being removed from an ‘investment show case’ website promoting low carbon
and other businesses operating in England’s West Midlands region.
A spokesperson for the West Mid lands Growth Company told Batter ies International on August 31 it was not responsible for details provided in a ‘case study’ about Fenix’s activities, which was posted on the ‘Invest in the West Midlands’ website. However, the spokesperson said the case study was
being taken down in light of matters involving Fenix that the organization had been made aware of.
When asked by Batteries Interna tional about the case study promoting a site for which Fenix had no permit to operate, Lambkin said the article was “old” and Fenix had no knowl edge of it being “re-posted” on the ‘In vest in the West Midlands’ website.
We are very close to reaching an agreement with the EA, that Fenix can make an application for an environmental permit, and the EA’s view of Fenix’s management team, will not preclude that application from being granted”
Damian Lambkin, Fenix CEO
The global market for re fined lead metal was in defi cit by 22 kilotonnes during the first half of this year, according to preliminary figures compiled by the In ternational Lead and Zinc Study Group (ILZSG).
Total reported invento ries of lead worldwide were down by 32kt compared to the same period a year ago, the international commod ity organization said on Au gust 22.
Global lead mine produc tion fell by 0.6%, which the ILZSG said was primar ily because of decreases in Australia, Greece, Peru and Turkey — but which were “partially balanced” by a rise in India.
Meanwhile, a 3.1% re duction in global lead metal
production was mainly the result of lower output in Belgium, China, Germany, South Korea, Ukraine and the US.
The ILZSG said refined lead metal usage fell in a number of countries, most notably Brazil, India, Ja pan, South Korea, Mexico, Taiwan, Thailand and Tur key, resulting in an overall decrease globally of 1.3%.
However, in Europe usage rose by 2.6% and 2.9% in the US.
Chinese imports of lead contained in lead concen trates fell by 20% to 242kt, while net exports of refined lead metal totalled 87kt compared to net imports of 12kt over the same period in 2021.
An ILZSG spokesperson
told Batteries International some of the data was at variance with figures it had forecast in April — which had been mainly based on estimates it received from member countries — when the organization said world lead mine production would likely rise by 2.9% to 4.71 million tonnes in 2022.
The spokesperson said the August figures were “lower than initially anticipated, particularly regarding mine production”.
“Although some degree of recovery is expected over the second half of the year, it is clear that our next mar ket forecasts update will in clude significant revisions in the expected mine output in some countries in 2022.”
Texas governor Greg Ab bot has welcomed East Penn Manufacturing’s $106 mil lion capital investment boost for the state, with the open ing on August 16 of the glob al battery firm’s new battery finishing and distribution center at its site in the city of Temple.
The Temple Economic Development Corporation, which offered $1.4 million in Texas Enterprise Fund grant funding for the initiative, said the project would also create nearly 300 new jobs
in the city.
Lead batteries manufactur er East Penn unveiled plans for the 28,000m2 facility in November 2018, when it said the facility would bol ster distribution operations in Texas, which it described as a strategic location to bet ter reach customers in the south central US and other key points across North America.
Governor Abbott, who toured the new center with state and local leaders, praised East Penn for the
economic impact the project would have on the region.
“As the global demand for batteries continues to grow, this new facility will further stimulate the booming econ omy in Texas and usher in greater opportunities to the people of central Texas.”
Abbott said East Penn’s ex pansion was “great news for Texas’s skilled workforce”. The company’s “strong fam ily-oriented culture and dedi cation to the communities they serve complement the ‘made in Texas’ brand”.
The Hammond Group has been praised for its research into sustainable lead battery technology during a visit to the company’s site in Indi ana by state representative Mike Andrade.
Andrade toured Ham mond’s ‘E=(LAB)2’ facil ity in July to find out more about how Hammond is ad vancing research in battery materials, cell manufacture
and battery testing for nextgeneration batteries critical for a sustainable future.
Andrade, who is a mem ber of the committee for commerce, small business and economic development committee in the Indiana House of Representatives, said: “Understanding the needs of the lead battery in dustry and how businesses like Hammond Group are
taking action for a more sustainable future are key takeaways from this visit.”
Hammond, which has twice won the BCI Innova tion Award, is a global man ufacturer of lead battery ox ides and speciality performance additives for energy storage applications ranging from cars and in dustrial uses to renewable energy.
However, the spokesper son confirmed that in terms of the lead batteries market, “the much larger and more stable replacement market is expected to underpin global lead usage in most regions of the world this year”.
EnerSys announced on July 15 the formal opening of its expanded Richmond, Kentucky distribution centre in sup port of its motive power portfolio.
Robert Blythe, the local mayor, took part in a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the opening of the 195,000 sq ft center.
Products shipped from the expanded site will in clude the company’s range of traditional flooded lead acid and Thin Plate Pure Lead (TPPL) batteries and modular chargers.
Chad Uplinger, VP of sales for the firm’s Motive Power Americas division said: “With these prod ucts housed in a centrally located US facility, our fulfilment capabilities are streamlined to a single point for order process ing and shipping thus improving our responsive ness to our customers.”
EnerSys CEO David Shaffer, who announced the annual results on May 25, said the company had exceeded its capacity goal for its proprietary TPPL technology, with demand “continuing to outpace our ability to supply”.
Sales in the company’s motive power segment amounted to $1.4 billion — an increase of 17% over the previous year, Shaffer said.
EnerSys formally opens expanded Kentucky facility
The Sunlight Group has completed an acquisition taking full control of its lead acid and lithium ion battery systems operations in Italy.
The Greece-based group said on August 1 that it had finalized its acquisition of BMG Energy’s 22% stake in Sunlight European Battery Assembly (SEBA) and
Sunlight Italy, both based in Verona.
The acquisition means the Sunlight Group becomes the sole owner of SEBA and Sunlight Italy — which was established in 2009 and has been operating as a group subsidiary since December 2020.
Sunlight Group CEO Lampros Bisalas said: “SEBA is our main European assembly plant and after acquiring 100% of its share capital,
we confirm the further execution and pursuance of our ambitious business plan to support growth of both our manufacturing and commercial presence in Western Europe.”
SEBA produces batteries using cells manufactured at the Sunlight’s Xanthi industrial complex in Greece, while Sunlight Italy supports SEBA by focusing on activities including sales, after sales, and customer services.
Sunlight said on June 24 it had received €275 million ($286 million) funding from Greek banks to support its expansion of lead and lithium production and R&D.
The loans are supporting plant upgrades and an expansion of production capacity and assembly lines in the company’s facilities in Xanthi, Greece, Italy and in the US to boost output of both lithium ion and lead batteries and energy storage systems.
Royal Gulf Industries said on August 4 it would invest more than AED62 million ($17 million) to build a lead batteries recycling centre in the United Arab Emirates.
The company, a subsidiary of Indiaheadquartered Hyderabad Castings, unveiled plans to build the plant on a 110,000 sq ft site at the Al Ghail Industrial Zone in the Ras Al Khaimah emirate.
Royal Gulf said it expected the facility to be built by the fourth quarter of 2022, where it aims to recycle up to 35,000 tonnes of used lead acid batteries annually.
The company said the process would produce 21,500 tonnes of lead ingots and 2,400 tonnes of plastic granules — both of which would be largely exported to India, Japan, Korea, China and Europe for the manufacturing of new batteries and cases.
According to Royal Gulf, the facility will be recycling nearly 60% of the lead battery scrap generated annually in the UAE.
The company said it planned to invest a further AED125 million in the site, during a three-year second phase, to make the UAE “a hub for
metals
and creating global supply chains”.
Royal Gulf chairman Hanuman Mal Nakh said: “We aim to collect waste batteries not just from the UAE, but also import from around the world to make Ras Al Khaimah a hub for recycling.”
He said the project had been three years in the planning including obtaining various regulatory approvals.
Royal Gulf has described the project as the UAE’s first battery recycling venture. However, Batteries International reported last March that Dubatt Battery Recycling had broken ground for a combined lead battery manufacturing plant and recycling facility at Dubai Industrial City, in which it is investing AED110 million.
Battery cases firm Netelco acquired by Technoform Sunlight Group subsidiary Technoform acquired Greek battery cases producer Netelco on October 17 for an undisclosed sum, the companies have announced.
Netelco, based near Sunlight’s headquarters in Xanthi, was formed in 2000 and manufactures metal cases for industrial batteries.
Technoform said the takeover would boost its own plans to expand beyond the design and manufacture of moulds and components into producing metal cases for lead acid and lithium ion batteries for domestic and international markets.
Sunlight CEO Lampros Bisalas said Technoform was already planning to invest in excess of €100 million ($98 million) to develop its business.
“Technoform will cover part of our needs in metal cases for lead acid batteries, mainly
supplying our industrial complex in Xanthi,” Bisalas said.
The subsidiary aims to cover 80% of Sunlight’s future needs for metal cases and components for its lithium batteries range, Bisalas said.
Separately, the Sunlight Group reported that it had been honoured for the second consecutive year in Greece’s annual ‘HR Awards’ event, which is organized by national events company Boussias.
Sunlight said on November 2 that the group had received a gold distinction in the ‘excellence in leadership development’ category.
The company also announced that it had received five awards related to manufacturing and innovation at a separate national event — Greece’s 2022 Manufacturing Excellence Awards — also organized by Boussias.
Crown Battery hosts 'energy pioneers' internship program Crown Battery played host to potential battery industry workers of the future at its corporate operations site in Ohio, the company said on August 4.
The US lead battery maker said in a LinkedIn post that it had welcomed students from Northwest Ohio taking part in its ‘Energy Pioneer’ 2022 internship program.
Crown said the program allows college and postgraduate students to gain hands-on experience in their field of study, while getting a “real-world flavour for potential career paths in the battery industry”.
The battery maker said it also learns from interns’ work experiences to help it “better invest in our future workforce”.
“Our hope, and a
primary goal of the program, is that this experience leaves our energy pioneers with a positive impression of our industry and company culture, and what Crown Battery truly values — our employee community.”
The class of 2022 included Alexa Gabel, Hank Webb, Brianna Fraley, Aaron Life, Brinneth Michael and Ryan Weaver.
In July last year, BCI announced that Crown had joined four other lead industry leaders — Clarios, EnerSys, East Penn Manufacturing and Ecobat — in forming a research group with the Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Toledo to improve battery cycling efficiency.
The boss of Indiabased Amara Raja Batteries has said the company is looking into the possibility of expansion through greenfield investments or acquisitions for its lead battery business in the Indian-Ocean rim.
Chairman and MD Jayadev Galla outlined future plans for the firm in The Hindu BusinessLine on July 18, saying: “we have global ambitions and are mainly looking at the Indian Ocean rim.
“We are currently exporting three million units a year. I could easily absorb another two million. So, if I had another five-to-six-million capacity in this region, I think we could sell it easily.”
He said: “there will always be a place” for lead battery technology — and warning that the
rising cost of lithium batteries for electric vehicles presents “new challenges”.
But Galla said that he was not as concerned as he had been in the past about the “transformation” of the batteries sector, including the rise in demand for EVs and how they might displace the existing internal combustion engine market.
“For more than a decade now, this is what has been keeping me up at night in terms of how the EV market is going to shape up and what it means for component suppliers like us.
“I am not as worried anymore. The reason being that even with the advent of EVs, there is still going to be a place for lead acid batteries. I am fairly confident of that now.”
On the future of lead, Galla said: “Where you don’t need to conserve space, weight and where recharge doesn’t have to be instantaneous, lead acid is a far better, more economical option — and a trusted option.
“It is less likely to blow up in case of a malfunction. I don’t think any one battery chemistry will serve all the needs in the world. Everything is becoming electrified and unplugged. So some kind of a storage system is needed.”
Galla said “there is not enough lithium in the world if every storage device is going to be made only from that material. You don’t have to have the best technology powering everything under the sun.”
Meanwhile, Galla said Amara Raja would continue to invest in lead battery technology. “It has taken us 30 years to get to a point where we can compete globally."
In May, environment ministers of the Group of Seven (G7), the informal forum of countries representing around half of global economic output, issued a communique that required the EU and US to co-host a workshop under the German presidency of the body — to take stock of G7 activities and develop possible options for future work and cooperation on sources of lead to reduce lead exposure in developing countries.
Substandard lead battery recycling was identified as one of main causes of environmental pollution in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
The ‘LeadBattery360°’ program, formally launched on October 4, builds on a pledge made in 2020 by the ILA, BCI, EUROBAT and the Association of Battery Recyclers in 2020 to support improving lead battery recycling performance in LMICs, which represent around half of global economic output.
ILA regulatory affairs director Steve Binks, who is also director of LeadBattery360°, was invited to present the program during the November G7 workshop.
“Pollution resulting from substandard lead battery recycling is
clearly now on the world stage and demonstrates the need for the ongoing commitment of the lead battery industry in terms of environmental responsibility, sustainability and energy security,” says Binks.
“The G7 is now recognizing that substandard lead battery recycling is a significant global health challenge, so it is important that I can take part in meetings as LeadBattery360° representing the full value chain rather than just the lead industry.”
A dedicated website has been launched to support the programme — highlighting all initiatives that have already been supported by battery industry leaders to combat informal recycling in several countries including Ghana, Bangladesh, the Philippines and Costa Rica.
LeadBattery360° members are also part of the technical working group that is updating the existing Basel technical guidelines for the environmentally sound recycling
A lead battery industry initiative to clamp down on informal recycling is now firmly in the international spotlight, as G7 leaders hear how the newly-formed LeadBattery360° alliance can help tackle environmental and energy security challenges
of used lead acid batteries that are now somewhat outdated and do not adequately represent good practice.
They also provided the technical input into standard operating procedures (SOPs) for responsible lead battery recycling that are currently being incorporated into regulatory standards in Ghana and evaluated in other countries, including Nigeria
“We all want to see an end to informal and substandard battery recycling and manufacturing where it exists, and the LeadBattery360° initiative provides a platform to help countries where this is a problem to improve through practical support and sharing best practice,” says Binks.
“The guiding principles of the initiative set the standard for the entire lead and lead battery value chain, ensuring that companies that are members of the four associations supporting the program continue to meet the already high standards in place to protect people and the environment.”
Binks says a big problem in many LMICs arises when battery producers sell into a country and do not consider how the used batteries will be collected and recycled. This is one of the issues being tackled by the new programme. Extended producer responsibility that makes the producer or importer liable for end-of-life product management is sadly lacking in many LMICs. This allows informal recyclers to operate — often selling the valuable
raw materials they recover to lead producers and battery manufactures based in other regions and at the same time leaving the LMIC with the pollution problem.
To help tackle this issue, battery companies that are members of LeadBattery360° will, as part of the program’s guiding principles, be required to ensure that battery markets they sell into have the capacity to manage recycling in a responsible way.
Over the longer term, the objective is to widen the membership of LeadBattery360° to include other battery associations beyond the US and Europe.
Binks says that having a fully-fledged program, with its own distinct identity,
will also make it easier in applying for funding from international bodies and agencies.
Meanwhile, Binks says: “Those with the responsibility for regulating lead smelters in some countries have no idea what measures are required to protect the health of workers, local communities or the general environment.”
“We can give them the tools to help them better regulate these facilities.”
Such a tool is the SOPs that were developed by the battery industry including the ILA, BCI, EUROBAT for Sustainable Recycling Industries (SRI) and Germany’s Őko-Institut environmental research organization.
In Ghana, the government is now in the process of adopting the SOPs as part of its regulatory permitting regime.
The program has been underpinned with training from experts including ILA’s lead battery recycling consultant Brian Wilson and industry veteran Mark Stevenson.
Training in LMICs will be another key feature of LeadBattery360° and for which the program will be applying for funding from companies, governments and international institutions.
Over the longer term, the objective is to widen the membership of LeadBattery360° to include battery associations beyond the US and Europe
The G7 is now looking at lead battery recycling as being a global challenge and LeadBattery360° can represent the full value chain, rather than just the lead industryG7 called for workshop on reducing lead exposure in developing nations. Photo: German federal government/Steins
Floods that swept through Florida in the wake of Hurricane Ian created a “ticking timebomb” of fire-prone lithium EV bat teries, a top state official warned on October 10.
Florida has been reeling from devastation wrought by the category four hur ricane, which first made landfall on September 28.
State chief financial offi cer and fire marshal, Jim my Patronis urged federal transport safety chiefs to urgently assess fire risks associated with saltwater on EVs, saying firefighters need more support to deal with an inevitable increase in fires associated with
electric-powered vehicles.
Patronis said in a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administra tion (NHTSA): “I joined North Collier Fire Rescue to assess response activi ties related to Hurricane Ian and saw with my own eyes an EV continuously ignite, and reignite, as fire teams doused the vehicle with tens of thousands of gallons of water.
“Subsequently, I was in formed by the fire depart ment that the vehicle once again reignited when it was loaded onto the tow truck. Based on my conversations with area firefighters, this is not an isolated incident.
I am concerned that we may have a ticking time bomb on our hands.”
Patronis said much of the existing federal guid ance on disaster response involving submerged ve hicles does not account for the risks associated with the exposure of lithium car batteries to saltwater.
He wants the NHTSA to require EV manufactur ers of the dangers related to vehicles impacted by storm surge, and said his office would distribute that information in Florida as soon as it became avail able.
The phenomenon of EVs catching fire after expo
sure to tropical storms was first noticed in Novem ber 2012 when 16 Fisker Karma vehicles caught fire and burned to the ground after being submerged by saltwater from Hurricane Sandy’s storm surge. Each parked car in Port New ark, New Jersey was worth around $100,000 each and provoked one of the earli est debates on the electrical safety of EVs.
Patronis has also asked for guidance on whether personal protective equip ment used by emergency rescue teams effectively protects first responders from poisonous gases asso ciated with EV fires.
A rulebook that aims to shed light on the true levels of greenhouse gas emissions involved in the battery materials supply chain for electric vehicles — and improve confidence in the environmental credentials of transport systems — has been made public by the Global Bat tery Alliance.
The move comes as governments scramble to tackle shortages in sup plies of key EV battery materials — amid warn ings by analysts that more carbon-intensive mining is needed to supply lithium ion battery manufacturers because recycling alone cannot meet demand.
The GBA acknowledges that the battery value
chain is “still relatively opaque and associated with issues such as high CO2 emissions and envi ronmental degradation”.
However, the GBA says the release of the first public version of its Greenhouse Gas Rule book, compiled with risk management consultancy Sphera, aims to improve the calculation and track ing of the greenhouse gas footprint of lithiumion batteries in electric vehicles.
GBA co-chair and CEO of Germany-based chemi cals group BASF, Martin Brudermüller, said the rulebook was needed to foster greater transparency and give industry players the means to “decisively
drive down the environ mental impact of their processes” globally.
GBA board member Julia Poliscanova, who is also senior director for vehicles and e-mobility at the EU’s clean transport campaign organization, Transport & Environment, said: “Sus tainably produced batter ies are essential to wean the world off fossil fuels. But regulators and society at large expect to know where the materials come from, how the batteries were made and how many carbon emissions they have released.
“The rulebook will en sure that data is gathered consistently so we can have confidence in the claims made by global manufac
turers.”
The GBA, which has its roots as an initiative launched in 2017 by the World Economic Forum, comprises 110 internation al organizations represent ing industry, academia and governments dedicated to the sustainable devel opment of battery tech nologies through respon sible trade and supporting global anti-corruption practices.
East Penn Manufacturing president and CEO Chris Pruitt laid bare many of the myths that surround the debate over lead and lithium batteries at the European Lead Battery Conference in France last month (see elsewhere in this issue).
China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology has held a ground-breaking ceremony for a RMB14 billion ($1.9 billion) battery manufacturing complex in the country’s Henan province, the company announced on September 28.
CATL did not disclose the expected manufactur ing capacity of the plant, to be built in the indus trial city of Luoyang, but said it would enhance its market coverage in China’s central and west ern regions.
The project has the support of Luoyang’s municipal authorities, with which CATL is working to promote “the ecological construction of the new energy indus try”, including battery production, the company said.
The announcement was the latest move by CATL to ramp up its domi nance of battery manu facturing for the EV and energy storage systems
markets.
On August 12, the company confirmed plans to invest more than €7bn ($7.1 billion) in building a 100GWh lithium ion battery production plant on a greenfield site in Hun gary — its second such facility in Europe.
CATL said that, subject to shareholder approval, initial construction of the Debrecen plant would start later this year.
Last month, CATL an nounced that cobalt and lithium used in a battery cells supply deal with Germany’s BMW would be sourced from “certi fied mines”.
The move to head-off potential criticism over sustainability and human rights issues came on the same day the companies announced a multi-year agreement on the supply of next-generation cylindrical battery cells to power BMW’s ‘Neue Klasse’ electric vehicles starting from 2025.
Electrovaya is to build its first US lithium ion bat tery gigafactory at an esti mated cost of $75 million in the state of New York, the company announced on October 3.
The 137,000 ft2 facility near Jamestown will add to the firm’s existing Cana dian facilities and produce batteries for a range of products including electric trucks and buses.
The Empire State Devel opment agency is provid ing up to $4 million of tax credits to support the proj ect at the site of a former electronics manufacturing plant. Electrovaya said the facility is also set to benefit
from additional federal and state funding.
CEO Raj Das Gupta said the gigafactory would open in phases, starting late 2023 and eventually produce more than 1GWh of batter ies annually using “100% renewable energy”.
The plant will help Elec trovaya to increase manu facturing capacity, improve supply chain security and overall gross margins, Das Gupta said.
State governor Kathy Ho chul said the project would create up to 250 jobs and support New York’s plans to establish a national hub for battery innovation and manufacturing.
Indonesia is considering imposing an export tax on nickel — a move that could further ratchet up costs of a key material for electric ve hicle batteries, the country’s president confirmed on Au gust 18.
Joko Widodo told Bloom berg News the levy was under consideration by the government.
Widodo had said in a speech on August 16 that Indonesia should capital ize on its position as a “key producer in the global lithi um battery supply chain” to boost domestic investments in battery production and clean energy technologies.
According to the Inter national Energy Agency’s (IEA) Southeast Asia En ergy Outlook 2022, pub lished in May, Indonesia and the Philippines are the two largest nickel produc ers in the world.
“Nickel supply chains are likely to be significantly af fected by policy develop
ments and other events in Indonesia,” the IEA said.
Meanwhile, Indonesia and the Philippines’ share of global production has risen considerably since 2010, from 25% to around 50% in 2021. The IEA said this share is set to expand further in the coming years, as they are expected to be responsible for around 70% of global production growth over the period to 2025.
Batteries International re ported in February that Taiwan-based Foxconn, also known as the Hon Hai Technology Group, was in vesting in producing elec tric vehicle batteries and energy storage systems in Indonesia, under a memo randum of understanding signed with Indonesia’s Ministry of Investment, state investment agency BKPM, energy firm Indika Energy and battery-swap ping technology company, Gogoro.
Japan’s government un veiled targets on August 31 to expand the annual domestic production of electric vehicle and en ergy storage batteries to 150GWh by 2030.
Ministers also want to see 30,000 workers trained up to support the country’s fu ture battery manufacturing industry and supply chains.
The government said it need new educational pro grams introduced at tech nical institutions to help attract a new generation of workers to the batteries sector.
Japan’s Ministry of Econ omy, Trade and Industry (Meti) said a panel of ex perts would have the task of formulating a national battery strategy, as the country launches a fresh push to counter strong
competition from bat tery manufacturing rivals across Asia.
Meti said the goal in cluded achieving “fullscale commercialization of all-solid-state batteries by around 2030”.
The panel will work with battery industry leaders in Japan to agree on a specific plan by the end of March 2023.
The ministry said the gov ernment would step up sup port for Japanese companies that can secure battery ma terials supply chains such as forging alliances and part nerships with mineral-rich countries worldwide.
But Meti said it would be up to private Japanese com panies to also raise capital on the markets to take part in large-scale investments in battery projects overseas.
Strategic Power Projects said on October 3 it had received planning permission for a 200MW battery storage sys tem in Ireland, amid fears of looming electricity black outs.
The application for the €140 million ($136 million) Dunnstown project, ap proved by national planning authority An Bord Pleanála, is the country’s single largest battery planning application to date, Strategic Power said.
Managing director Paul Carson said: “Security of supply and electricity black outs have sadly become pre dictable headlines in Irish news titles, north and south.
“Battery-based energy storage is part of the solu tion. It can be quickly de veloped, is very cost effec tive and is the backbone of modern, resilient, and decar
bonised energy systems.”
Carson said the new fa cility “won’t solve Ireland’s storage problems on its own, but if the positive decision is a sign of things to come, then that is very positive news for the people of Ireland”.
Energy Storage Ireland head Bobby Smith, whose organization represents Ire land and Northern Ireland’s energy storage industry, said: “The invasion of Ukraine and our dependency on im ported fossil-fuels means electricity consumers have seen dizzying increases in their bills and the worst may yet be to come. Energy stor age allows us to fully har ness our renewable energy resources and replace expen sive, polluting, fossil fuels.”
Last October, UK battery storage operator Gresham House announced a partner
ship with Strategic Power to develop a solar and battery storage pipeline across Ire land with a combined capac
Liberty Energy said on September 6 it had made an undisclosed investment in sodium ion battery tech developer Natron Energy.
Natron plans to use the funds to speed up production of its Prussian blue sodium ion electrodes chemistry, towards launching what it described as mass production of sodium ion batteries.
ity of more than 1GW.
Strategic Power said its BESS projects all utilize lithi um ion battery technology.
On May 4, Natron said it was teaming up with lead batteries giant Clarios to manufacture what they said would be the world’s first mass-produced sodium ion batteries.
Freyr Battery said on August 30 it had signed a binding agreement to supply 38GWh of LFP battery cells to Japan’s Nidec Corporation between 2025 and 2030.
Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre has laid the cornerstone of Morrow Battery’s battery cells gi gafactory on the country’s south coast in a ceremony on September 26.
Støre said Battery Fac tory 1, under construction in Arendal, was essential to government efforts to make Norway an “attractive host country for sustainable and profitable activity along the entire battery value chain”.
Morrow has teamed up with Siva — the Industrial Development Corporation of Norway — in establish ing a joint company to build the 30,000m² plant in four phases with construction company Veidekke, at a cost of NOK400 million ($38 million).
The factory will have an annual production capac ity of 1GWh of battery cells when it starts up, with total capacity planned to reach 43GWh on completion of all four construction phases. The complete gigafactory
is expected to be ready by 2028.
Morrow’s batteries will use LNMO cathode mate rial, which it said eliminates the need for cobalt, reduces the use of nickel and lithium and maximizes use of “read ily available and manga nese”.
Morrow said on Septem ber 15 that Swiss tech group ABB had been chosen as a non-exclusive preferred supplier of technology for its gigafactory.
The firms signed two memorandum of under standing agreements, paving the way for ABB’s Energy Industries unit to use Mor row’s lithium batteries in energy systems for a range of applications and indus tries, including e-mobility, hydrogen, offshore wind, oil and gas and utilities.
ABB’s scope of supply may include electrical equip ment, automation, robotics, cyber security, security sys tems, and digitalization, Morrow said.
The two companies will also collaborate on projects to deploy sodium ion batteries in energy storage systems to provide backup power for Liberty’s electric pumping systems used by companies working in the oil and natural gas exploration and production sectors.
Liberty president Ron Gusek said: “The careful evaluation of sources of energy storage for our power-dense operations led our team to determine that Natron’s sodium ion batteries are a safe, costeffective solution that is already being utilized in industrial applications.”
Natron co-founder and CEO Colin Wessells said: “Our partnership with Liberty dramatically accelerates Natron’s expansion into oil and gas markets with the introduction of battery storage in the completion services industry.”
Natron claims its battery technology is ideally suited to support pressure pumping applications with highly variable power load requirements.
The sales deal is worth in excess of an estimated of $3 billion to Freyr from 2025 to 2030, based on projected raw material prices.
The cells will be produced at Freyr’s planned ‘Giga Arctic’ plant in Mo i Rana, Norway and the deal includes an option to “upsize” to 50GWh of cells during the period and to potentially expand supplies further beyond 2030.
The agreement builds on an earlier, conditional offtake agreement between the companies, for 31GWh of cells.
Freyr and Nidec have also entered into a joint venture agreement to develop, manufacture and sell energy storage systems using modules and packs produced by Freyr.
The partners said battery modules production is expected to be integrated into Freyr’s activities at the Giga Arctic plant.
Nidec is a leading manufacturer of highefficiency electric motors that is expanding its reach into the ESS market.
PM lays gigafactory cornerstone for Norway’s ‘battery future’
An investigation has been launched into the cause of a Tesla Megapack bat tery fire at PG&E’s Moss Landing battery storage facility in California, the utility told Batteries Inter national on September 28.
Tesla and PG&E is joint ly conducting the probe into the Elkhorn lithium ion battery plant fire, of which the utility said it became aware at the BESS at 1.30 am local time on September 20.
A spokesperson said safety systems worked as
designed when the fire was detected and automati cally disconnected the bat tery storage facility from the electrical grid.
A preliminary report filed with the California Public Utilities Commis sion said there were no in juries to onsite personnel and property damage to the battery was “expected to exceed $50,000”.
Elkhorn has multiple safety systems and proto cols in place for fire pre vention and mitigation including an incident com
China is preparing to un veil a raft of new measures to tighten regulations for electric vehicle battery recycling in the country, state media reported on September 16.
The government wants to “strengthen national and industrial standards” and promote “technologi cal breakthroughs in the dismantling and efficient recycling” of used batter ies, according to Ministry
of Industry and Informa tion Technology official, Huang Libin, as report ed by the Xinhua News Agency.
Huang said environmen tal protection and greater efficiency in the use of bat tery materials was key to “ensuring the sustainable development” of what China terms the new en ergy vehicles industry.
According to Huang, more than 190 businesses
mand centre at a “safe dis tance from the batteries”, the spokesperson said.
Tesla and PG&E broke ground for the 182.5MW/730MWh BESS plant on July 29, 2020. At that time, the partners said the Moss Landing facility would be the larg est utility-owned storage system of its kind in the world.
The development agree ment allowed Tesla to in crease the size even fur ther, to a total of 1GWh in total.
Finnish technology group Wärtsilä said on Septem ber 26 it had been select ed to supply two lithium iron phosphate BESS units for the Cayman Islands by the Caribbean Utilities Company (CUC) — the utility’s first energy storage facilities.
have established in excess of 10,000 EV battery re cycling collection points nationwide as of the end of last month.
Data released by the ministry on August 3 said China’s production of new energy vehicles increased by 120% in the first half of this year compared to the same period last year.
The data estimated that the country’s combined production of lithium ion batteries for the first half of the year exceeded 280GWh — a year-onyear increase of 150%.
Spain’s CEMA Baterías an nounced on September 19 that it had acquired an un disclosed “large stake” in solar-storage specialist AlgeBat.
A CEMA spokesperson told Batteries International the deal would expand the lead and lithium battery distribution firm’s market presence, in particular with opportunities to support projects combining solar power generation with bat tery storage.
Cádiz-based Alge-Bat spe cializes in the distribution and assembly of industrial solar installations through out western Andalusia.
CEMA founder and CEO Rafa Fernández said: “Our teams share the same vision and values and we can con tinue to learn a lot from each other, exchange knowledge and expand our frontiers.”
CEMA imports, exports and distributes battery brands from firms such as Monbat, Varta, Trojan and
US Battery.
In March, CEMA an nounced it had invested more than €1.5 million ($1.7 million) to build one of the biggest battery distribution centers in the Iberian region in Seville.
On completion, the center will cover an area of more than 6,000m2, with the capacity to house a total of between 225,000-500,000 lithium ion and lead batter ies arriving from Asia, Eu rope and the US.
Wärtsilä will deliver the 10MW/10MWh GridSolv Quantum systems under an engineering, procure ment, and construction contract, which it said would help CUC almost double its renewable energy capacity on Grand Cayman, the largest of the three Cayman Islands.
The energy storage systems should become operational in mid-2023.
Until now, the network connected electricity gen eration sources on Grand Cayman comprised 161MW of imported, diesel-fuelled genera tion and about 14MW of solar photovoltaic generation.
The island’s first com mercial solar project was commissioned in 2017.
CUC is a privatelyowned electricity gen eration, transmission and distribution utility that owns an installed generat ing capacity of 161MW. It is the only electric utility on Grand Cayman, which has a population of around 65,000.
CUC’s customer ser vices and technology VP Sacha Tibbetts said the BESS installation would be “a crucial step for CUC to integrate more renewable energy into the grid.
“Once this project is completed, we anticipate savings on fuel costs and improved reliability of services for our custom ers on Grand Cayman.”
LiNa Energy announced plans on September 28 to expand development of its solid-state sodium battery tech in India, including establishing a presence in the country in partnership with innovation support agency Social Alpha.
UK-based LiNa said it will work through Social Alpha’s ‘Clean Energy In ternational Incubation Center’, which is a joint
initiative of India’s govern ment and Tata Trusts and supported by organiza tions, companies and agen cies including India’s De partment of Biotechnology.
The battery tech devel oper plans to oversee bat tery cell testing and future pilot projects from India.
As part of the collabora tion, LiNa will establish a presence in India to opti mize its product develop
Italian energy tech compa ny Energy Dome is to con duct a feasibility study into the use of its ‘CO2 Battery’ at one or more renewable power project sites oper ated by Ørsted, the compa nies said on September 27.
The partners signed a memorandum of under standing that included an option to develop multiple 20MW/200MWh of Ener gy Dome’s energy storage units — potentially start ing construction of the first project at an undisclosed location in continental Eu rope in the second half of 2024.
The partnership follows Energy Dome’s June 8 an nouncement that it had completed its first commer cial demonstration facility at Sardinia, Italy, and was working on a new com mercial utility-scale facility in Sardinia, under a part nership with Italian energy company A2A.
Energy Dome says its technology “can be de ployed just about any where at less than half the cost of similar-sized lithium ion battery storage facilities and have superior round-trip efficiency, with no performance degrada tion over a 25-year life cycle”.
The company says its technology “does not in volve scarce and environ
mentally challenging raw materials like lithium.
Instead, it uses carbon di oxide and off-the-shelf components to charge and discharge power from four to 24 hours, enabling re newables to serve as fullydispatchable daily energy resources”.
CO2 is used in a closedloop charge/discharge cy cle as a storage agent, the firm says. Before charging, gaseous CO2 is kept in a large dome structure.
During charging, electric ity from the grid is used to compress the CO2 into liq uid form, creating stored heat in the process. Dur ing discharge, the liquid CO2 is evaporated using the stored heat, expanded back into its gaseous form, and used to drive a turbine to generate electricity.
Ørsted, majority owned by the Danish state, devel ops, builds and operates facilities including offshore and onshore wind farms, solar farms and energy storage plants.
Ørsted VP Europe On shore Kieran White said: “We consider the CO2 Battery solution to be a promising alternative for long-duration energy stor age. This technology could potentially help us decar bonize electrical grids by making renewable energy dispatchable.”
ment for the India market and oversee battery cell testing and future pilot projects.
LiNa started work on its battery technology in 2017 as a spin off from Lancaster University. The company says its batteries are ideally suited for the Indian market as they do not require liquid cooling or refrigeration systems that are typically needed for lithium ion systems in high temperatures.
The firm says the batter ies contain no “conven tional critical materials used for battery manufac
turing”, such as lithium, cobalt, manganese, or graphite.
Last December, UK sodi um-ion battery tech devel oper, Faradion, announced it was being acquired by a subsidiary of India’s Reli ance Industries, Reliance New Energy Solar, for £100 million ($135 mil lion).
Reliance said it would use Faradion’s tech at its proposed energy storage gigafactory in India — one of four such facilities in Jamnagar — for which the company announced plans in June 2021.
Materials technology and recycling group
Umicore announced the inauguration on Sep tember 21 of its cathode materials production plant in Poland.
Nysa will provide ad vanced cathode materi als for advanced lithium battery cell manufactur ers, with annual produc tion capacity set to reach 20GWh by the end of 2023 and 40GWh in 2024, with the poten tial to rise to more than 200GWh in the second half of the decade.
Meanwhile, Umicore reaffirmed plans to build a precursor and cathode active materials facility in Canada and to expand its existing ca pacity in Asia, to achieve a global production capacity of more than 400GWh by 2030.
Nysa is “fully pow ered” by renewable electricity generated by a nearby onshore wind farm, the company said.
Construction of the cathode materials plant began in 2019 and pro
duction started in July.
CEO Mathias Mie dreich said: “With this gigafactory, Umicore is leading the way in bat tery materials in Europe offering key ingredients for a responsible and sustainable value chain for electric transport.
“Its state-of-the-art product and process technologies comple ment our metals refining and cathode precursor production facility in Finland as well as our world-class R&D and pioneering battery recycling activities in Belgium.”
Umicore announced in June 2020 that a €125 million ($142 million) loan from the European Investment Bank would partly pay for its invest ment in the project.
On May 10 this year, Umicore formally opened a global R&D centre for cathode materials in South Korea — next to the company’s existing R&D and cathode materials production plants in Ch’onan.
UK legislators have been urged to back draft legis lative proposals that could see lithium ion battery storage sites designated as “hazardous” — and sub ject to tough new fire safe ty and planning controls.
If enacted, the propos als could influence future regulatory development in other areas of the world as investment in battery stor age projects gather pace, industry insiders have told Batteries International.
Former government minister Maria Miller told the House of Commons on September 7 that ex isting regulations did not require battery storage planning applications to be referred to the Environ ment Agency, the Health and Safety Executive or the fire service but, un der her proposals, these agencies would become statutory consultees in the planning process.
“We need lithium ion battery storage facilities,
but they must be seen cor rectly for what they are: highly complex, with the potential to create danger ous events and hazardous substances.”
Meanwhile, Miller urged the government to an nounce “an immediate review” of battery storage projects already grant ed planning permission, along with existing bat tery storage plants, “to en sure that they do not pose a threat to residents or the local environment”.
“We cannot allow lithi um ion battery storage fa cilities to continue as they are and become another legacy fire issue, with all the risks that that entails to the lives of the people we represent and the envi ronment we want to pro tect,” she said.
“Lithium ion batteries are “innocuous when they function normally, but if they fail and thermal run away occurs, there is a complex chemical reaction.
“The only way to stop a battery fire is to cool it down with a constant stream of water and wait for the fire to go out, which might take days, creating huge quantities of water containing high ly corrosive hydrofluoric acid and copper oxide — by-products of battery fires,” Miller said.
“These toxic chemicals cannot be allowed to seep into watercourses, because they would cause immense environmental damage.”
Miller said that while only a handful of battery storage facilities were al ready operating in the UK, more are scheduled to come on stream and 366 projects are under construction or awaiting planning permission.
She said the National Fire Chiefs Council was also calling for battery storage developers to en gage at the earliest oppor tunity with local fire and rescue services.
Iron-based flow battery company ESS is to deploy up to 200MW/2GWh of long duration energy storage in the US under a multi-year agreement announced on September 20 with the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD).
ESS said it will deliver a mix of its Energy Ware house and Energy Center systems to be integrated with SMUD’s grid, start ing in 2023.
ESS plans to set up fa cilities for battery system assembly, operations and maintenance support and project delivery in Sacramento, while also establishing a “center of
excellence” to train and expand the workforce for long duration energy storage technology in partnership with higher education institutions.
The facility will create “a state-wide skilled tal ent pool to help build and maintain California’s fastgrowing LDES resources”, ESS said.
An ESS spokesperson told Batteries Internation al that exact details about the number of systems that will eventually be de ployed will be announced later. However, the 2GWh figure takes into account the storage duration of the systems, which is four to 12 hours.
The addition of 2GWh of storage, when coupled with renewable energy sources, is equivalent to removing 284,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year and will provide enough energy to power 60,000 homes for 10 hours, ESS said.
SMUD’s CEO and general manager Paul Lau said: “Long-duration battery technologies move SMUD’s 2030 zero carbon plan forward by expand ing our dispatchable renewable energy resourc es and opening doors to innovation, job training and development oppor tunities in the green energy sectors.”
Miller also told MPs of international incidents involving lithium battery storage facilities, includ ing the April 2019 fire at Arizona Public Service’s 2MW/2MWh McMicken energy storage facility in Surprise, Arizona, where she said fire officers “suf fered life-changing injuries when the unit exploded”.
That incident prompted concerns among regulators about the use of lithium batteries at utility scale.
In 2020, the state of New York amended building fire safety standards to in clude specific regulations relating to the design and installation of energy stor age systems. However, ac cording to the New York Solar Energy Industries As sociation, stringent fire de partment regulations still “prohibit the use of most energy storage systems”.
Miller said: “Thermal runaway events occur in almost every country in which battery storage is used. Even South Korea, a pioneer in the development of large-scale battery stor age, experienced 23 major battery fires between 2017 and 2019.”
Miller, the MP for Basing stoke, presented her pro posals under the 10-minute rule bill — which allows backbench MPs to make their case for new legisla tion.
She secured enough sup port among fellow MPs for the proposals to move ahead and to be given a sec ond reading in March 2023.
However, a spokesperson for Miller’s office told Bat teries International on September 22 that Miller was continuing to discuss draft legislation with col leagues, which could see the proposals raised in par liament again before the end of this year.
As a confluence of economic and energy crises hits Europe, CRU lead market analyst Neil Hawkes says difficulties hurting the lead sector were a key topic of discussion during LME Week
Hawkes: The threat of more smelter cuts hung over the LME talks, with lead producers waiting to see how much of an increase they can secure in next year’s contract premia before taking any action
The fate of several lead smelters was uncertain as this issue of Batteries International went to press, as it emerged that four European facilities were being placed under review for potential temporary closure as the region grapples with the combined economic and energy crisis fuelled by the Russia-Ukraine war.
Mining giant Glencore was understood to be reviewing the immediate future of its Portovesme subsidiary’s lead smelting and refining operations in Italy, against the backdrop of escalating energy costs in the country — although the company declined to comment.
It was also understood that upcoming planned maintenance activities at Portovesme, in Sardinia, were being delayed until the review into the sustainability of operations
is concluded. Meanwhile, Ecobat is believed to have also put smelters in Austria and Germany under review, after confirming it was going ahead with the suspension of lead production at its plants in Italy, starting from October 1, in the wake of “extreme energy prices and other excessively burdensome costs” in the country.
CRU’s Neil Hawkes says Italy is feeling the impact of the wider European energy squeeze on margins more than most.
This was demonstrated by the fact that Ecobat had idled its two secondary lead smelters in Italy before anywhere else.
Hawkes says the difficulties hurting the lead sector were a key topic of discussion during LME Week — the annual gathering of the global metals
However much European lead demand might slow next year, the demand downside will be limited by the recession-resilient replacement automotive lead battery sector
community in London that ended on October 28.
However, he says that while a cloud hangs over how much European lead demand might slow next year, the demand downside “will be limited by the recession-resilient replacement automotive lead battery sector”.
“While the margin squeeze is real and applicable to all and not just four smelters in this region, it should be noted that these ‘reviews’ to cut more lead production in Europe all came ahead of LME Week, which typically marks the starting gun for 2023 lead contract negotiations to begin in earnest.”
“The threat of more smelter cuts will hang over these talks, with lead producers waiting to see how much of an increase they can secure in next year’s contract premia before taking any action.”
Germany’s Stolberg smelter, which Trafigura is acquiring from Ecobat, was also yet to restart at the time of this issue going to press — as we report in our news pages elsewhere — because Trafigura was still awaiting the completion of formalities and final approval from EU authorities.
Hawkes thought that Glencore would wait until later this year before making any decision on whether to temporarily halt operations at Portovesme.
“During LME Week we heard that the lead line at Portovesme was still running,” he says.
“Due to Glencore idling the primary zinc smelter at Portovesme since the start of this year, we think refined lead production has slipped from just over 40,000 tonnes last year to just under 40,000 tonnes this year, as it has lost some interconnected feed from the primary zinc smelter.”
Hawkes thinks Glencore would wait until later in 2022 before making any decision on whether to temporarily halt any Portovesme operations
But Portovesme is still operating a secondary zinc line, which produces an estimated 50,000 tonnes of secondary zinc annually.
“If Portovesme were to shut, it would only serve to further constrain European production and keep this regional lead market tight.”
In a third quarter production report published on October 28, Glencore
said overall group lead production of 116,800 tonnes was 31,100 tonnes (21%) down on the comparable 2021 period.
According to Glencore, the declines in lead — and zinc — production reflected “increasingly complex logistics and supply chains due to secondary impacts of the RussiaUkraine war”.
The company said its Nordenham zinc smelter in Germany was being placed on care and maintenance from November 1 and “reviewed periodically having regard to the economic environment”.
However, the group’s Nordenham lead smelter remains operational.
Global demand for refined lead metal is forecast to increase by 0.8% to 12.42 million tonnes this year after rising by 4.6% in 2021, according to forecasts published on October 24 by the International Lead and Zinc Study Group (ILZSG).
Demand for refined lead metal is expected to increase by only 1.4% to 12.60 MT in 2023, the group said.
Meanwhile, world lead mine supply is set to remain “more or less unchanged” this year at 4.6 MT, but output is expected to rise in 2023 to 4.7 MT.
Increases in Brazil, India, Mexico, Pakistan and Sweden this year will be largely offset by a substantial fall in Australia, ILZSG said. Reductions are also anticipated in Greece, Kazakhstan and Peru.
Global refined lead output in 2022 is expected to fall in a number of countries, most notably Russia, Ukraine and Germany (where the reopening of the Stolberg smelter has been delayed) and Italy — following Ecobat’s suspension of two secondary smelters with a combined capacity of 80,000 tonnes per year.
Production is also forecast to fall in South Korea, Turkey, the US and Australia, where Nyrstar has started a planned 55-day maintenance outage at its Port Pirie smelter.
ILZSG said its forecast rise in global supply in 2023 will be driven mainly by increases in Brazil, India, Kazakhstan and Australia — where Galena mining’s new 95,000 tonne per year Abra mine is expected to be commissioned in the first quarter.
Most incidents of fires in various products using lithiumion batteries, including electric vehicles, occur while charging. The main reason for this is that the negative electrode material (graphite or mixed silicon) continues to inflate (Figure 1) after repeated charging cycles, shortening the distance between the positive and negative electrodes.
This results in the effective distance between these electrodes becoming shorter than the original design due to electrode burrs or metal particles, increasing the risk of an internal short circuit.
From a fire protection perspective, insulation tests of lithium-ion battery cells should involve checking the distance between electrodes, rather than measuring insulation resistance.
From the air breakdown voltage versus distance data (Figure 2), we can see that, even if the distance is as short as several μm, the breakdown voltage is higher than 350V, so the insulation withstand voltage test should be conducted at a voltage higher than 350V. Testing for the occurrence of breakdown or flashover enables effective assessment of whether the insulation distance is sufficient (Figure 3).
In addition to fires, another hazard to be considered is excessive self-discharge caused by conductive impurities (leakage current) inside the separator.
The testing voltage of this part need not be too high and it takes a long time for the actual leakage current to become apparent.
Chroma 11210’s +Flash test function provides two-stage intermittent high and low voltage tests, which allow customization of timing sequence, sampling
integration time, measurement ranges and defective judgment conditions — fully meeting the requirements of these two aspects of insulation quality inspection for lithium-ion battery cells.
Taking the lithium-ion battery test as an example (Figure 4), the first flash test voltage is for electrodes gap detection. The reference air breakdown voltage (>350V) should be set higher than the effective electrode distance to be detected to check high-risk products that are not shortcircuited. The focus is to detect whether insulation breakdown or electrical flashover occurs due to abnormal electrode distance during high-voltage measurement and the overall test time is short.
The purpose of the latter insulation resistance test is to detect abnormal electronic leakage current. It uses about 5~10 times the working voltage of the lithium-ion battery (about 2.5V~4.3V) to detect the stable leakage current and so prevent excessive self-discharge when the battery reaches the end of the production process. Generally, a longer dwell time is required.
The Chroma 11210 battery cell insulation tester uses unique electrical flashover detection technology — and its built-in +Flash test function for lithiumion batteries (dry cells) — to detect the sufficiency of the effective insulation distance before electrolyte filling, as well as to detect any abnormal electronic leakage current.
This effectively reduces the risk of lithium-ion battery fires and prevents products with potential insulation defects from entering the next production stage or even the end market.
Figure 2. (left) Relationship between air breakdown voltage and distance
Figure 3 (below) Electrical flashover during testing
An international investment push for energy storage in Africa is underway, lighting the way to a new era of electric-powered economic prosperity, as the continent’s leaders are told minerals and technology are the ‘low-hanging fruit’ to revitalize growth
Africa is ripe for development as a key player in the global batteries industry by expanding activities to exploit the region’s minerals wealth and energize an African industrial renaissance, ac cording to leaders of major institu tions.
As this issue of Batterues Interna tional went to press, the World Bank Group announced it planned to “ac celerate the pace of electrification” across the continent, by directing in vestments that would principally tar get renewable energy projects under pinned by battery storage.
At current rates of electrification, more than half-a-billion living in subSaharan Africa (SSA) will still be with out electricity in 2030 unless the cur
rent electrification pace is tripled, the World Bank said.
According to latest projections re leased on November 9, the bank said only eight SSA countries would achieve universal electricity access to electricity by 2030 — and some could take more than a century to “fully electrify”.
The bank, together with other lead ing global financial institutions in cluding the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, the International Finance Corporation and develop ment agencies, will promote private investment in distributed renewable energy (DRE) systems to electrify tar geted areas quickly and efficiently.
DRE systems generally involve a
solar photovoltaic plant paired with battery storage, the bank said. In ru ral communities, these systems can be invaluable to homes, businesses and health care facilities, to name but a few, that have no connections to na tional or regional grids.
“DRE’s can be easily installed, are reliable, and do not require the large investment needed to build a utilityscale power plant,” the bank said.
And in a rallying call to manufactur ers and developers of energy storage systems of all chemistries, govern ments and investors, the bank said it was ready to coordinate funding for projects to “solve Africa’s immediate needs, while developing DRE solu tions that can be applied globally”.
Meanwhile, Jerry Ahadjie, chief minerals officer of the African Nat ural Resource Management and Investment Centre — part of the African Development Bank (AfDB) — said battery precursor produc tion and two and three-wheel elec trical vehicles were part of Africa’s “low-hanging fruit”. He urged na tions across the region to develop a homegrown strategy to exploit opportunities to serve the batteries market for EVs and energy storage systems worldwide to their fullest extent.
Ahadjie told Batteries Interna tional that the AfDB is now leading the preparation of a ‘green minerals strategy’ for Africa in collaboration with partners including the African Union (AU) and the UN.
The AfDB hosted an event in July that brought together experts to examine how Africa could become a hub for manufacturing lithium ion batteries to store energy and electrify the transport fleet.
Marit Kitaw, interim director of the AU’s African Minerals Develop ment Corporation, told the AfDB webinar that mineral-based indus trialization in Africa was critical, but said this required “bold indus trial policies” to spur demand.
Meanwhile, Wale Shonibare, di rector of the AfDB’s energy finan cial solutions, policy and regulation department, said finance needed to be “mobilized” to accelerate the de velopment of battery storage and battery technologies for e-mobility.
“We have to put financial vehicles in place because the cost of capital is a challenge,” he said. Shonibare also called for pan-African policies to kickstart battery supply chain projects including harmonized standards, tax relief and free trade between countries in the region.
Meanwhile Demitta Gyang, sen ior advisor on customs and trade facilitation at the African Conti nental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) secretariat, said the agency would be an invaluable partner for project developers.
She said the AfCFTA agreement itself aims to support intra-African trade, from which the battery and electric vehicle value chain could benefit. “The agreement provides for a better business environment, by ensuring that bureaucratic bot tlenecks and time and cost are re duced as goods move within the continent.”
The African continent has finally “arrived”, in the sense that the world can expect to see more de velopment across the region over the next couple of decades, Fink said in an exclusive interview with Batteries International.
“The attention that has been paid to developing the continent has been gaining momentum. There are some crosswinds right now — in terms of the macroeconomic en vironment and rising interest rates, which are going to slow the avail ability of capital, especially for de veloping countries and emerging projects.”
Fink says the continent cannot be immune from the global economic slowdown, but there is momentum nonetheless in terms of a need for and investment in battery storage.
In that sense, Africa is becoming the “new frontier and one that still has a lot of development poten tial”.
We can expect to see that over the next decade or two, regardless of the negative impact of short-term disruptions in the flow of financial support, says Fink.
“I do think the underlying sig nals are there, in spite of the Covid aftermath and the Russia-Ukraine war and so on.”
“As population increases addi tional infrastructure always needs to be put in place, whether that’s for energy storage or transporta tion systems, so you will see de mand for more battery usage there in the months and years ahead.”
Fink says batteries have always followed population growth. “We’re not reinventing the wheel here. The reality is that where you see large population centres, you will see a need for battery manu facturing and consumption across all applications. I truly believe it’s that simple.”
In addition, as one of the lesserdeveloped continents, Fink says Af rica is now a region “primed for in vestment battery manufacturing”.
But he says incentivization will be key in attracting partners for local manufacturing, while ensuring that political and commercial interests do not create obstacles that might discourage private investment in increasing localized production.
The continent cannot be immune from the global economic slowdown, but there is momentum in terms of a need for and investment in battery storage’
Sorfin Yoshimura president Scott Fink says while Africa is being buffeted by the same economic crosswinds chilling the rest of the world, it is a region filled with opportunities to expand the battery supply chain — and the industry should take notePicture Credit: Magda Ehlers/Pexels
As a battery manufacturer rep resentative that has been a supply chain service partner to the industry for 40 years, Sorfin Yoshimura has immense expertise.
“As a global operation, most bat tery manufacturers around the world buy something from us,” Fink says. “That could be consumables or large production lines for grid making. We tend to work with most companies making lead acid bat teries and have done so for a long time.”
Fink says his company constantly “takes the temperature of the in dustry” and will put support offices and infrastructure in a country when “deemed valuable by the local mar ket”.
“Our margins are tight, so I can’t just create a whole mass of expense to get the feedback I need to evalu ate that. I typically do that in a re sponsive way. For example, if the market says there is value in ware housing something locally and trad
ing it in the local currency to the lo cal marketplace, then I will put that infrastructure in place.”
Sorfin’s sales into the African mar ket are currently handled primarily by the company’s office in France, which has responsibility for the wid er EMEA region.
“Our sales team is selling into Af rica from France, but I would expect we would have an office and ware housing facilities in Africa in the fu ture,” he says.
Like any other company doing business in any part of the world, Fink says it’s a case of putting the right building blocks in place.
“In the end it comes together. We’ve done this a multitude of times. It’s just a matter of whether
or not the local marketplace really wants and needs a product and ser vice. At the moment businesses want the least-cost materials and parts, so we work to keep things lean for prices to suit the end user.”
On the question of whether more battery materials could be manufac tured in the African market, Fink notes there has been a “robust” lead batteries presence in the region for decades, such as in the North Afri can rim as well as in South Africa, Central Africa, Botswana in South ern Africa and Kenya in East Africa.
“Those manufacturers continue to produce lead batteries en masse and that is clearly expected to boom in the decades ahead.”
Sorfin’s customers on the continent can be found in countries such as Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and Alge ria, where there are major lead bat tery manufacturing operations.
There could be “options” to devel op more localized supply chain pro duction in Africa to serve the lithium ion sector, as opposed to exporting raw materials, but Fink points out that would require major manufac turing initiatives.
However, while there is a “clear need” for more batteries on the con tinent, he says it will be interesting to see how African nations take the next steps, whether they opt to ex pand production of batteries of all chemistries on the continent and what opportunities that might mean for importers and intra-African trade deals.
Whatever happens, Africa presents “lots of opportunities for any bat tery chemistry”, as the continent is no different to the rest of the world in needing increased access to ener gy storage, Fink says.
“I believe without question that energy storage systems can improve the lives of society everywhere.”
Tunisia’s Nour is one example of the endurance and growth of lead battery manufacturing in Africa. On April 27, Italian lead recycler STC confirmed it had been awarded a $5 million contract to supply a lead battery recycling plant to Nour. STC, whose parent company is Bulgarian battery manufacturing group Monbat, said the deal was agreed following Monbat’s formal acquisition of a 60% stake in Nour, announced earlier that month.
Whether for e-mobility, electricity storage or back-up power for essen tial services, Fink says there are a “whole host” of reasons for invest ment in the manufacture and de ployment of energy storage systems on the continent, adding: “Batteries do ultimately improve the quality of life.”
African manufacturers continue to produce lead batteries as they have for years and that ‘is clearly expected to boom in the decades ahead’
“Our sales team is selling into Africa from France, but I would expect we would have an office and warehousing facilities in Africa in the future”
bfs batterie füllungs systeme GmbH info@bfsgmbh.de
Mitterweg 9/11 | 85232 Bergkirchen | Germany bfsgmbh.de | +49 8131 36400
As global financial institutions eye opportunities to support battery manufacturing and raw materials mining across Africa, the region is already a hub of investment activity, as Batteries International’s snapshot of projects from across the region shows…
Chinese investors have signed an agreement that will set Zimbabwe on the path to becoming a significant producer of lithium ion and estab lish a $2.8 billion battery metals industrial park, Zimbabwe’s president Emmerson Mnangagwa announced on September 16.
Mnangagwa said his landlocked southern Af rica nation was among others in the region that intended to carve out a share of the continent’s minerals wealth to boost the economy.
In addition to produc ing lithium and nickel, the 50km2 site earmarked for industrial development at Mapinga, northwest of the capital city of Harare, will host a battery metals
park and eventually create more than 25,000 jobs, the president claimed.
China-based backers Eagle Canyon Interna tional Group and Pacific Goal Investment are the government’s investment partners for the project.
Mnangagwa said at the signing ceremony for the project: “The mines-toenergy park will augment my government’s thrust of value addition and beneficiation of minerals, as well as bolster the cru cial role that the minerals value chain plays in the national industrialization agenda,”
“It is set to mark the in ception of a lithium ion battery chain in Zimba bwe (and) place us among the world’s producers of lithium ion batteries.”
Mnangagwa has spo ken of aiming for a $12 billion mining industry in Zimbabwe within the next few years.
According to research
Canadian mine de velopment company
NextSource has said it expects to complete the first phase of construc tion and start mining in November at its Molo graphite project in Madagascar.
Completion of plant commissioning on the is land nation, off the East African coast, is expected before the end of 2022, followed by a ramp up period prior to declaring
commercial production, the company confirmed.
Phase 1 of the Molo mine is designed to oper ate at a production ca pacity of 17,000 tonnes per annum.
President and CEO Craig Scherba said the project would support the company’s plans to become a key producer of graphite anode materi als for the international EV batteries market.
Meanwhile, Scherba
said the company had selected a location for its first battery anodes facil ity — although it would not reveal details until late 2022.
NextSource said on October 25 that it planned to build a series of such facilities, with modular production capacities, “each to be strategically positioned to serve key markets in Asia, North America, and Europe”.
and analysis firm Statista, overall existing produc tion of lithium in Zimba bwe amounted to 1,200 tonnes in 2021. Statista said figures have fluctu ated, with a peak pro duction of 1,600 tonnes recorded in 2018 and a low of just 417 tonnes in 2020.
The World Bank’s Zim babwe Country Economic Memorandum, published in October, said mining firms do have the poten tial to attract significant foreign direct investment to modernize production and beneficiation.
However, the report warned that difficulties in repatriating profits “due to macroeconomic condi tions and deficiencies in the mineral legislation”, in addition to problems in processing licences, have historically prevent ed large-scale investment from abroad.
“In an increasingly competitive environment, Zimbabwe’s ability to compete successfully in both domestic and for eign markets requires up grading and modernizing equipment and technolo gies,” the report said.
Nevertheless, despite various economic set backs, the report said Zimbabwe regained low er middle-income country status in 2018 and aspires to become an upper mid dle-income country by 2030.
Zambia and the Demo cratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are in talks to final ize plans for a partnership to jointly develop batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage systems, Batteries International has learned.
A spokesperson for the UN’s Economic Commis sion for Africa (ECA) said detailed discussions — fol lowing the signing of an agreement earlier this year — will pave the way for bi lateral cooperation on de veloping “the battery value chain”, as well as boosting ties between the nations.
Meanwhile, the coun tries are setting up a DRCZambia Battery Council to oversee the implementa tion of the agreement.
Zambian president Hakainde Hichilema and his DRC counterpart, Felix Tshisekedi, will sit on the council’s executive body.
Hichilema said the initial agreement to start manu facturing EV batteries, signed on April 29, was a key milestone towards al leviating poverty and had “removed shame from Af rica” over its role in being an exporter of “cheap raw materials”.
“Africa has for long been viewed as a source of raw materials but the narrative is now being changed,” he said.
DRC president Felix Tsh isekedi said Africa “has to be the master of its own destiny”.
The two countries are home to at least 80% of minerals required for EV battery production, ECA.
Director of the ECA’s subregional office for Central Africa, Jean Luc Mastaki, said the DRC and Zambia had a golden opportunity to move from their his toric status as exporters of cheap raw materials to become manufacturers and suppliers of battery precur sors and related services.
“Adding value to the bat tery minerals, through an inclusive and sustainable industrialisation, will defi nitely allow the two coun tries to pave the way to ro bust, resilient and inclusive growth,” he said.
Mastaki said the coop eration agreement would also underpin the develop ment by the Congolese and Zambian schools of mines and polytechnics of an Af rican centre of excellence on electrical battery skills.
Canadian mining and metals group First Quan tum Minerals said in May it had approved plans for a $1.25 billion expansion of the company’s Kansan shi copper mine in Zambia as a result of what CEO Tristan Pascall said was “increased confidence” in the country’s investment climate.
The expansion and as sociated Enterprise nickel project will extend the mine’s life for another two decades, Pascall said.
“The low-cost, highgrade Enterprise nickel project is well placed to supply the rapidly growing
electric vehicle battery sec tor. The approval of these two projects is an impor tant milestone for the com pany’s path towards re sponsible production growth of the metals need ed for the global green en ergy transition.”
Renewables developer
EDP said on November 15 it would support nine more projects with total funding of €1 million ($1 million) that promote ac cess to renewable energy in remote and vulnerable communities in four Afri can countries — Mozam bique, Nigeria, Angola and Malawi.
The funding, guaranteed by the Access to Energy (A2E) Fund, will support
the use of decentralised solar and battery energy storage technologies for nearly 160 applications for projects to help mater nity hospitals, micro-elec tric grids, solar systems for agricultural produc tion or cold storage in markets.
EDP said Nigeria, with four projects, and Mo zambique, with three, are once again the countries with the most proposals
selected in the fourth edi tion of the A2E Fund.
In the three previous editions, the fund has already provided a total of €1.5 million to support 20 projects across Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania.
EDP executive board member Vera Pinto Pereira said: “Access to electricity is crucial to ensure the security and development of any community — and is an impactful issue in many remote communities or in more vulnerable situations in sub-Saharan Africa. Our commitment, now reinforced with the funding of nine more projects, is to continue contributing to facilitate this access to clean, safe and low-cost energy in these communities, and thus promote energy inclusion.”
African renewables devel oper CrossBoundary En ergy has started work on a $10 million project to construct two solar and battery storage projects in Nigeria, in what the com pany said will be one of the largest such develop ments for a business in the country.
CrossBoundary an nounced on November 2 that the projects are for the Heineken-owned Ni gerian Breweries’ (NB) Ibadan and Ama brewery plants in Oyo and Enugu States.
As part of the agree ment, CrossBoundary will expand the existing renewable energy system at Ibadan from a 66kWp solar PV plant to a hy
brid solar-storage facil ity comprising a 3MWp solar PV system and a 2MW/2MWh BESS.
The company said that Germany-headquartered DHYBRID Power Sys tems has been contracted to design and supply the BESS and hybrid control units for both projects.
CrossBoundary did not specify the battery chem istry involved, although DHYBRID says its BESS products use lithium ion battery technology.
CrossBoundary will fi nance the development and construction and will operate both facilities as part of a 15-year solar services agreement with NB. Under the agreement, NB will only pay for solar power produced, receiving a single monthly bill that incorporates all mainte nance, monitoring, insur ance, and financing costs.
The company’s first solar project at the Ibadan brewery was commis sioned in 2021.
A new $25 million boost has been announced for a fund targeting early-stage equity financing to devel op, construct and operate renewable energy projects in North Africa and other regions.
The Strategy Emerging Market Climate Action, backed by the European Investment Bank and Al lianz Global Investors (Al
lianzGI), said the invest ment has been made into Alcazar Energy Partners II — a fund that also sup ports projects in the Mid dle East, Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
AllianzGI said on No vember 14 that Alcazar has a target size of $500 million to invest in onshore wind and solar photovoltaic, with additional potential
investments in hydropower, biomass or battery-based electricity storage or other low-carbon technologies.
Tobias Pross, CEO of Al lianzGI, said: “Emerging markets are where the money for climate adapta tion and mitigation is need ed most and where it will have a much more immedi ate impact than in devel oped countries.”
Australia-based mining group Askari Metals has unveiled plans to expand its presence in the bat tery materials market by acquiring a 90% stake in Namibia’s advanced Uis Lithium-Tantalum-Tin Project.
Askari said on October 25 that it had entered into a binding heads of agree ment with Namibia-based LexRox Exploration Ser vices — signalling its in
tention to “evolve into a focused lithium explo ration and development company”.
Askari executive director Gino D’Anna said: “This project not only boasts exceptional lithium min eralization but is located less than 230km from the deep-water port of Walvis Bay. Infrastructure in this region is readily accessible with a well-maintained network of roads direct
to site as well as access to power and water.”
D’Anna said the compa ny is planning to conduct a reverse circulation drilling campaign of up to 10,000 metres to test the miner alisation of the pegmatites beneath the surface.
Acquisition of the 114km2 project is subject to the approval of share holders, who are expected to meet in late December or early January.
The Alliance for Green Infrastructure in Africa (AGIA) was launched on November 9 to raise up to $500 million to pro vide early-stage project development capital for initiatives ranging from solar and green hydro gen projects to venture capital schemes includ ing energy storage and e-mobility, the African Union announced.
In addition to the AU, AGIA partners include the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Euro pean Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the French Development Agency, The Rockefeller Founda tion, the US Trade and Development Agency and the African Sover eign Investors Forum.
According to the AU, the project development capital “will build a ro bust pipeline of bankable projects — projected to generate up to $10 billion worth of invest ments in green infra structure — starting with the pre-feasibility stage all the way through to commercial and financial close”.
AfDB president Ak inwumi Adesina said: “The needs in Africa are simply enormous. Africa needs infrastruc ture financing, estimated at between $130 billion to $170 billion a year, with an infrastructure financing gap of up to $108 billion a year. But most of the infrastruc ture for Africa is yet to be built. This presents an enormous opportunity to get it right. Build green infrastructure that is climate smart and that is climate resilient.”
New ‘Alliance’ pledges $10bn for investments
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a grant of $2.5 million to the Mozambican govern ment to develop renewable energy resources — includ ing a study into developing battery energy storage sys tems at up to 10 sites in the country.
The grant, from the Sus tainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA), which is administered by the AfDB, is being used to implement the Mozambique renew able energy integration program.
The funding will also help the country’s power utility in providing finan cial support for technical,
economic, environmental and social feasibility stud ies for the development of a solar floating power plant in the Chicamba res ervoir.
Daniel Schroth, direc tor of the bank’s renew able energy and energy efficiency department, said on October 14: “Given that Mozambique is one of the most highly climatevulnerable countries in the world, the project will help build a more sustainable
and resilient power genera tion infrastructure.”
Schroth said that with the support of SEFA, Mo zambique’s capacity to integrate larger shares of variable renewables will in crease its efforts to become a major regional electricity supplier.”
The AfDB is a key player in the energy sector in Mo zambique, which the bank says is increasingly affected by severe and sudden cy clones, storms, and pro
longed drought periods.
According to the bank, the country is a net ex porter of electricity despite low access rates (57% in urban areas and 13% in rural areas). With 187GW, Mozambique “has the most significant power genera tion potential in southern Africa, thanks to untapped resources in coal, hydro electricity, gas, wind, and solar energy”.
Hydropower accounts for about 81% of installed power generating capacity. But the bank says natural gas and renewable energy sources are set to take a growing share of Mozam bique’s energy mix.
that Mozambique is one of the most highly climatevulnerable countries in the world, the project will help build a more sustainable and resilient power generation infrastructure.”
“Given
In an updated report focused on the eight countries in the greater Horn of Africa region — defined by the Interna tional Energy Agency (IEA) as Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda — the Parisbased body is calling on countries in the area to step up regional collaboration to expand the use of clean energy systems.
The region represents nearly a quar ter of sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP and is home to some of the fastest growing economies, despite the fact that many ar eas face ongoing conflict and instability.
According to the IEA’s figures, pub lished in its October Clean Energy Transitions in the Greater Horn of Af rica report, energy consumption has grown at 3% per year over the last decade, but the region remains energydeprived. Half the region’s population lacks access to electricity and only one in six people have access to modern cooking fuels.
But as is often the case in even the most developed nations, some are more equal than others.
For example, Kenya has one of the highest access rates in sub-Saharan Af rica, while other countries lack central ised grid infrastructure altogether.
Total energy demand in the region was 120 million tonnes of oil equiva lent in 2020 — less than the combined
energy consumption of Belgium and the Netherlands, but with 10 times the number of people, says the IEA.
And the fact that bioenergy (often in the form of firewood and agricultural waste) meets around 80% of overall demand across the region, indicates the substantial positive impact extensive deployment of battery energy storage could provide.
According to the IEA, large hydro power projects in Ethiopia, Sudan, and Kenya dominate the power mix today but the region’s potential for solar, wind and geothermal is “massively underutilized”.
But energy infrastructure has strug gled to keep pace with the region’s growth, with the IEA noting that grids remain unreliable, many countries are still dependent on costly fuel imports and utilities are under financial duress”.
Today, 140 million people in the greater Horn lack access to electricity — more than the population of Mexico, accord ing to the report.
The picture is improving in that, on average, eight million have gained ac cess to electricity supplies every year since 2010.
But progress has stagnated as utilities cut back on infrastructure investment in
the face of escalating debts, after taking on losses to keep bills affordable during the Covid pandemic. Power providers are also grappling with higher energy costs following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The IEA estimates that around five million more people live without access to electricity as of 2021 than did before the pandemic.
However, there is still, as the IEA says, cause for hope. Ethiopia and Kenya together accounted for 30% of global solar home systems and solar appliance sales in 2021. These countries, along with Uganda, are also “front-runners in Africa for mini-grid expansion”.
Governments have made conscious efforts to provide supportive regulatory and policy frameworks for the off-grid sector, which have led to a high uptake of stand-alone solar systems, from lan terns to multi-appliance solar and bat tery systems.
In Somalia, a country without a na tional grid, an active off-grid market has been developed and Eritrea “has reached nearly universal access in cit ies”.
Under its existing STEPS (stated poli cies scenario) the IEA says 110 million people in the region are still expected to be living without electricity in 2030. However, the agency says there is every opportunity for the Horn to have uni versal access to electricity in 2030, but that requires more work.
All countries in the region need poli cies to attract and enable investment to enable a “massive uptake of renewable energy”.
Achieving full access to modern ener gy across the continent by 2030 would require investment of $25 billion annu ally, which the agency says is compa rable to the cost of “just one large lique fied natural gas terminal investment”. Current investments fall far short of these levels. In 2019, they amounted to just 13% of the average needs for 20222030 in the case of electricity and 6% for clean cooking.
A modern mix of clean energy in the greater Horn of Africa can power an economy twice as big as today’s with just 30% more energy, providing universal access to electricity and limiting emissions, says the International Energy Agency
Results-based financing for off-grid op tions could provide a flexible source of funding for companies and could miti gate the rising cost of off-grid technolo gies in the region, the IEA said.
“As the costs of solar power and bat teries in the medium term are expected to fall globally, new business models and efficient devices such as electric pressure cookers can also help increase access to clean cooking.”
According to latest agency data, the African average for electricity prices is $0.14 per kWh for grid-connected elec tricity. However, across the continent as well as in the greater Horn region, pric es within countries are highly variable.
In Kenya, the private sector is becom ing increasingly active in the country’s public transport system and the govern ment has set a target of electrifying 5% of its vehicle stock by 2025.
EV and finance start-up BasiGo is working to bring electric buses to public bus operators in Nairobi. Bus owners would then use a ‘pay-as-you-go’ model to pay for battery charging.
The company announced $6.6 mil lion in new funding in November led by
Mobility54, the corporate venture capi tal arm of Toyota Tsusho, together with others including Trucks VC, a transpor tation-focused venture capital fund in Silicon Valley and Novastar Ventures, a global venture capital firm supporting entrepreneurs who transforming mar kets in Africa.
Separately AROAM, a SwedishKenyan company initially focusing on domestic production of electric mo torcycles and off-road vehicles, has in troduced its first African-designed and manufactured electric bus in Kenya.
The IEA says that investing in local manufacturing and assembly of twoand three-wheelers, including motor and pedal ones, countries could create millions of green jobs for African na tions’ young populations.
“However, serious challenges still need addressing in the EV sector. Strengthen ing and improving the reliability of the distribution grid is a major one. In ad dition to tax incentives for the import of EVs and their components, measures in support of a conducive EV start-up ecosystem are likely to scale up growth and catalyse investment in the EV sec tor,” the agency’s report says.
Meanwhile, the East African Regional Energy Project, as part of the African Development Bank’s Desert to Power Initiative, aims to develop a “harmon ised” renewable energy policy for the East Africa Sahel countries — notably Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan — with the financial support of $5.5 million from the bank.
Desert to Power plans to speed up de ployment of solar systems with associ ated battery energy storage at scale in the 11 countries of the Sahel region — Burkina Faso, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Ni geria, Senegal and Sudan. The IEA says these countries, which have some of the world’s best potential for solar energy, have the lowest electricity access rates globally.
If Africa is serious about maximizing its exposure to the resource sector over the coming decade, a clear strategy relating to nickel, copper and lithium will be critical, writes Craig Brewer, co-head of origination at Absa Corporate and Investment Banking
Africa has enjoyed a significant windfall from the rebound in global commodity prices with coal, iron ore gold and platinum group met als coming to the party. However, a limited focus on downstream ben eficiation and limited investment in industries which support the com modity ecosystem will catch the continent out down the line.
With the rise of new energy tech nology, governments on the con tinent are now turning their atten tion to the potential offered by this cluster of battery metals and it will be interesting to see how they ap proach this opportunity.
Invariably we expect a rise in some form of ‘resource national ism’ as countries attempt to rebuild their balance sheets in a post Co vid-19 world, but forward-thinking decision-makers and investors will be looking for countries which can think longer-term.
What we need to be wary of is cre ating this narrative that it is people versus profits and rather start de veloping a framework that aligns a combination of environmental, so cial and governance (ESG) metrics which sees all stakeholders benefit ing from the upside.
In South Africa, global oil giant Shell was interdicted from conduct ing exploration work off the west coast of South Africa with environ mentalists arguing against the im pact on the local communities and wildlife in the area. While this rul ing was greeted by much fanfare, the news headlines in the following days and weeks bemoans the fact that South Africa is facing record unemployment, the average con sumer is being crushed by record
oil prices as a result of the war in Ukraine and the country can’t gen erate enough power to deliver any meaningful economic growth.
This perfectly encapsulates the challenge that African governments face: Unless there is a strategic ap proach to all three elements on the ESG matrix, they cannot deliver sus tainable growth that will benefit all stakeholders.
While the explorative nature of the Shell project meant that there were many unknowns, the current debate and outlook for the coal sec tor will be informative to determin ing which countries understand the importance of integrating a proper ESG framework.
There has been extensive lobby ing from those focused on the ‘E’
It’s impossible to release capital for large projects without a proper governance framework
side of the equation arguing: “Coal is dirty and bad, Renewable ener gy is clean and good” – this was a very comfortable narrative until the point that Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine and much of Europe found itself facing its own energy security crisis.
In the Euro area, the unemploy ment rate sits at just under 7% — in South Africa, the latest employment statistics show a 35% unemploy ment rate and youth unemployment is at 65% in certain communities. With the coal sector employing one out of every five people in the min ing sector and creating over 90,000 jobs, what will the social impact be if we simply elect to stop all invest ment in the coal sector?
Communities in Mpumalanga, Limpopo and the Free State are all big beneficiaries of coal mining ac tivities and simply adopting a view that projects in this sector shouldn’t be funded is not conducive to eco nomic growth.
This segues into the ‘G’ part of the equation.
While there has been a big push to change South Africa’s energy mix, one has only to look at the risk mitigation independent power producer procure ment programme announced in 2021. The purpose of this had been to introduce 2,000MW of private sector capacity into the grid across 11 successful bidders — a year down the line, none of these proj ects have gotten out of the starting blocks due to various legal challenges.
Whether you are private sector capital, a bank, or a development finance institution, it is impossible to release capital for large projects if a proper gover nance framework is not in place.
Understanding all three legs of the ESG matrix will be critical when it comes to growth of the bat tery metals such as nickel, copper and lithium and it needs to be viewed through an African lens. How can we seize this opportunity with broad-based ben efits for all stakeholders?
The Russia and Ukraine crisis is going to funda mentally change the commodity market for years to come. As Europe is rapidly discovering, sanctions have limited impact when you are dependent on Russia for much of your energy security.
The western world will no longer want to rely on Russia for key commodities, yet for the foreseeable future is beholden to them due to the rich resources within Russia. Whether it is microchips which re quire neon (50% of global supply is from Russia) to palladium (45%) which is used for exhaust systems to mobile phones to potash and nitrogen (20%) used for fertilizer, the West will take time to lessen its dependence on Russia, which will make for an interesting tension between global nations.
Resource-rich Africa can benefit here, but only if there is a clear roadmap for investors to follow.
F r o m s i m p l e c l a r i f i c a t i o n s t o s e r i o u s e m e r g e n c i e s , S T C s k i l l e d t e a m i s a l w a y s a v a i l a b l e t o p r o v i d e a d v i c e t h r o u g h p l a n t s u r v e y s o r r e m o t e a s s i s t a n c e .
T h e “ P r o b l e m S o l v i n g ” a t t i t u d e a n d f l e x i b i l i t y o f S T C T e a m i s o n e o f o u r m o s t p r e c i o u s a n d d i s t i n c t i v e s k i l l s . A m o n g t h e o t h e r s , w e o f f e r :
O p t i m i z a t i o n a n d i m p r o v e m e n t o f e x i s t i n g p r o c e s s e s p r e s a l e s s u p p o r t p r o j e c t m a n a g e m e n t e q u i p m e n t c o n s t r u c t i o n c o n s t r u c t i o n m a n a g e m e n t a f t e r s a l e s s e r v i c e s a n d s p a r e
a
m a n a g e m e n t e n g i n e e r i n g s e r v i c e s p r o c u r e m e n t m a n a g e m e n t t r a i n i n g o f p l a n t o p e r a t o r s R & D a n d l a b o r a t o r y s e r v i c e s
Craig Brewer, co-head of origination at Absa Corporate and Investment Banking The Absa Group, which is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, is one of Africa’s largest diversified financial services groups with a pres ence in 15 countries.
C o n t a c t o u r e x p e r t s f o r i n q u i r i e s a n d t e c h n i c a l d e t a i l s a t i n f o @ s t c i t a l y c o m
WE LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING FROM YOU www.stcitaly.com
The CEO of vanadium redox flow battery brand CellCube, Alexander Schönfeldt, says the company ex pects to make “further announce ments” before the end of 2022 on the progress of its business activities in Africa and Australia, following the deal unveiled earlier this year to open a “gigawatt-sized pipeline” for the company in energy-starved Southern Africa (see Batteries International is sue 124).
Under the terms of the deal be tween CellCube brand owner Enerox and London-listed renewables devel oper Kibo Energy, CellCube’s energy storage systems will be deployed in selected “target sectors” of the region as part of a rolling five-year frame work agreement.
Talking to Batteries International shortly before this edition went to press, Schönfeldt was keeping tight lipped about the next steps forward, but in terms of the overall investment potential for energy storage projects in Africa, he says there is increasing support “for building up a local val ue chain” involving the manufacture and sales of made-in-Africa systems.
And while Schönfeldt’s role is to fly the flag for CellCube’s battery tech alone, he says Africa will benefit from having access to a range of battery chemistries and associated technolo gies for the time being, stressing that he is unafraid of the competition.
“I think Africa needs everything at the moment and I would say it’s too early for consolidation. If you really
want to speed up the use of energy storage to help achieve industrial production and climate goals, then every technology is going to be need ed.”
“Some regions in Africa may be looking more at the hydrogen space and others are moving towards bat teries,” he says.
Fuelling demand is a desire for se curity of energy supply for homes, businesses and essential services. In addition, Schönfeldt says countries want to expand the use of renew
able power supplies to avoid load shedding — interruptions of electric ity supply — which are endemic for towns and cities fortunate enough to have access to a power grid
Schönfeldt understands calls from African leaders seeking greater homegrown production of energy storage systems, using the expertise of inter national partners where necessary.
“CellCube’s position is that we want to put our own manufacturing operations in Africa, Australia and South America and we support any other activity that supports our strat egy.”
“As CEO, my position is there is a strong demand for local value chains and this can help developing coun tries to actually have a better share in the value chain overall. This is also beneficial from an ESG perspective.”
African nations should be encour aged if they desire to source and process materials on the continent, because it adds to the environmental benefits, Schönfeldt says.
“Why send materials produced in Africa to other regions such as Asia for processing, then ship it on to the US or Europe for further process ing?”
“Africa needs everything at the moment and I would say it’s too early for consolidation. If you really want to speed up the use of energy storage to help achieve industrial production and climate goals, then every technology is going to be needed.”
Early in 2020, INBATEC and KUSTAN combined our talents and manufacturing expertise to create a new company focused on engineering excellence. As one team, we are industry leaders in the lead-acid formation process.
Going forward, we focus beyond just acid recirculation to be your consultant for formation solutions.
Our Threefold Mission Is Simple.
• Quality Engineered Solutions by working with our customers to provide all aspects of a formation system that leads to you meeting your specific formation goals while focusing on operator safety.
• Process Innovation that pushes the lead-acid industry forward with products and services that help you build and form batteries safer, less expensively and with the highest quality possible.
• Satisfied Customers over the life of our equipment. We listen and consult when offering a system and then partner with you through the years to responsively maintain safety and the highest production standards.
“We’re still maintaining and sup porting that business and supplying GreenSeal to the lead battery indus try, but today, the majority of our focus is on using our EverGreenSeal technology as we expand into the en ergy storage space,” Shaffer says.
BOX-BE enables ABC to expand its position as an energy storage suppli er, with the units referred to as ‘bays’ — fully-contained, sealed and secure enclosures comprising the batteries, safety systems, the electrical systems and the BMS.
The bays can be connected in paral lel and this is where the focus of the company’s marketing lies at present.
In the US, the system meets the ini tial requirements for installers and developers to apply for tax credits under the US Clean Energy Inflation Reduction Act and ABC was focused exclusively on the US market for BOX-BE. But not for long.
“We’re not big enough to go glob al but we are talking to potential partners to take it not just to India, but Asia and Europe,” Shaffer says. “We’re already doing the outreach but it’s still early in the process. We’re building the business against supply agreements.”
The good news for Advanced Battery Concepts came just as this magazine went to press. ABC and Indian battery giant Exide Industries had agreed to work together in a potential landmark deal for the industry and the region.
The firms plan to commercialize — manufacture and sell — ABC’s BOXBE battery energy storage systems in the Indian marketplace.
Although the agreement is a nonbinding letter of intent, it is yet anoth er validation of the potential bipolar batteries have in disrupting the exist ing market landscape.
It’s also a vindication of the per sistence and determination of ABC’s founder Ed Shaffer who set up the company in 2008. The firm first came to prominence in 2017 with the first
allocation of licences for the then new bipolar GreenSeal battery technology. But more about that later.
Less than a year after launching the company’s HEES Home Energy Stor age System — powered by its patented GreenSeal bi-polar battery technology and winner of BCI’s 2022 Innovation Award — the focus of Shaffer and his team is now on a new product.
‘BOX-BE’ (Box of Bipolar Energy), says Shaffer, is invented to meet the need for responsible energy storage and with proven lead battery technol ogy under the hood.
The updated battery chemistry has its foundations in GreenSeal, which was the brand that was the flagbear er of ABC’s bipolar battery licensing program launched in 2017.
The new product is still being tested internally. Shaffer says: “In 2023 we are going to be installing these sys tems in the field to demonstrate what we say and know they can do.”
Shaffer says he already has advance orders that will soon be readied for dispatch to customers across the US. ABC expects to deploy about 10 of its new progeny in the new year.
“We already have projects lined up for those,” he says.
The first supply agreement is tar geting a commercialization date of 2025, allowing time to secure inter connector agreement approvals.
“By getting BOX-BE into the field next year we can then start to get the performance data that we need to build a plant and then our projec tions are looking toward gigawatthours of BOX-BE sales in 2025, he says.”
Just a year after winning BCI’s Innovation Award for a new ESS product, Advanced Battery Concepts is ushering another into the market. Ed Shaffer talks to John Shepherd about his firm’s latest invention, ABC’s overall mission and the importance of…
“In 2023 we are going to be installing these BOX-BE systems in the field to demonstrate what we say and know they can do”
Shaffer says that the ‘bays’ are for a variety of applications and not all are to be operated by utilities. “That said one is a utility company that has a gas turbine and they want to see how we can help them monetize spin up and spin down situations.”
Another one is for a wind repower (dismantling or refurbishing existing wind turbines and commissioning new ones) project, which Shaffer said will investigate the ability to recoup energy storage under wind clipping conditions.
“A separate project is more of a tra ditional one, involving solar panels needing help with providing energy storage.”
The company is also starting from a low-volume production line out of its plant in Clare, Michigan, which Shaffer says would need further in vestment to ramp up production fa cilities.
“That’s what our capital raise is for, if you know anyone who has got $50 million to “100 million to invest…” However, Shaffer says the company has ruled out a deal with a ‘blank check firm’ — a special purpose ac quisition company or SPAC.
“We’re not looking at that. At the right time, we will make a decision on how best to monetize our compa ny through an IPO or just keep run ning it as we are.”
In terms of pricing models for BOXBE, Shaffer says the company is con sidering options, including a leasingstyle scheme, where customers pay a set amount every month that has the advantage of providing ABC with a regular stream of income.
However, despite the focus now on BOX-BE and EverGreenSeal, Shaf fer says ABC also expects to make some major announcements in the first quarter of 2023 on new licens ing partners for its GreenSeal batter ies line.
“Covid slowed us down on that front, just as it did everyone, but we are back out there and re-engaging,” he says.
For Shaffer and his team, it’s “all about the numbers and the business potential” and he says the opportu nities for expanding into the energy storage space are 10-fold when com pared to the existing lead battery in dustry.
“GreenSeal was our first-genera tion technology where we focused on how to build a bipolar battery that could be manufactured at scale and remain cost effective. It was deliber
ately focused on the traditional lead battery industry.”
Shaffer says ABC’s pitch to market was by offering a different approach to the manufacture of group 31 (deep cycle) batteries — and to save money in the process.
“Again, during Covid, we had time to sit and think about a few things and so we thought more about the energy
storage business opportunities and knew they would be huge,” he says.
The new EverGreenSeal batter ies are designed for disassembly. The main components of the battery are separated and introduced back into the battery production cycle to be processed into new batteries.
ABC says the spent leady materials are converted to a “starting paste”
ABC designs the systems with a limited depth of discharge to avoid active material degradation and ensure it achieves the life requirements of its customers. The system is designed to cycle between 100% to 40% state-ofcharge. Customers see constant capacity delivery every cycle while ABC monitors end of discharge voltage. The systems are designed to work daily and will experience very little float or stand situations.
ABC does not let the batteries stand at discharged state for extended periods of time. The company says that at a certain point, it knows end-of-life is approaching and replaces the entire BOX-BE bay quickly to minimize any disruption to customers. All of its economics are based on actual ‘use energy’.
BOX-BE is a large secure steel box loaded with EverGreenSeal bipolar storage batteries wired in series along with related electronic
components to make a stand-alone, or modular add-on, stationary unit providing high power and energy for long-duration discharges from a selfcontained, self-regulated DC electric storage container. Each unit is a DC battery pack that can store and deliver 341kWh of electrical energy, daily, at power delivery rates up to 1.8MW. The existing price indication is around $300 per kWh installation with maintenance costs of $12 per kWh annually for the system’s lifetime.
ABC said on September 15 that a recently-proposed BOX-BE modular installation at a remote site integrated with a solar field combines three BOX-BE units for storage of just over 1MWh, which is “enough daily energy for the planned headquarters operation to be selfsufficient, achieving their objective to create one of the greenest facilities in the state independent of any other source of energy”.
“At the right time, we will make a decision on how best to monetize our company either through an IPO or just keep running it as we are”
elements through a proprietary pro cess owned by ABC. There are no lead fumes or external wastes.
“Instead of grinding batteries up and then pyrometallurgically reducing the spent lead materials back to lead metal, we thought ‘what if we could disassemble the battery and collect the active materials, then instead of turning it back to lead, just return it to lead monoxide’?
“Remember that 90% of the lead that we use is lead monoxide, for the paste, they have very little lead metal in them and we use thin lead foils.”
Shaffer and his team figured out a way to build Box-Be units that was rugged enough and sealed well enough for large-scale stationary applications that could be disassembled at end of life and turned back to PbO with, he says, almost zero waste.
“As industry veteran Don Karner said, batteries don’t die, they are mur dered and he is right — so we also own and control the battery moni toring system and have total control, including remote monitoring. We’re watching it all.”
In terms of how EverGreenSeal is expected to evolve and what will hap pen to GreenSeal, Shaffer says you can’t build the former without the lat ter.
The details of what goes into and what happens inside the battery tech remain confidential, save for noting that EverGreenSeal takes everything that GreenSeal has but with extra at tributes. “You can build GreenSeal without EverGreenSeal but not the other way around,” he says.
Shaffer insists that the technology
powering BOX-BE is also an impor tant challenger to lithium ESS con tenders. “We’re out there marketing a technology that is essentially respon sible energy to meet the most demand ing of requirements.”
BOX-BE is more economically via ble, running at 25%-30% lower costs than lithium alternatives, Shaffer says. A demonstrable commitment to what he says is social responsibility is part of the equation too: “This is a major factor and safety is put first and foremost,” he says.
“As we’re using a lead chemistry with aqueous electrolytes, it’s impos sible for our battery under thermal runaway conditions to auto ignite. Trust me, I’ve done the math and it just can’t happen.”
The all-important ESG benchmark ing has been done by ABC too and might be regarded as an added USP for the newcomer to the battery stor age marketplace when it comes to global sales potential: recyclability and reuse.
Shaffer says all the materials that make up BOX-BE — plastic, lead and sulphuric acid — are readily available to all and not just affluent countries.
“These are materials that are avail able from non-conflict regions and we will be proud to offer this technology to all kinds of communities, wherever they may be in the world.”
And the ability to recover, clean and reuse plastic components after inspec tion means that more than 98% of all the materials can enjoy a second life and beyond in subsequent BOX-BE bays.
“Our replacements cost is extremely low because we are re-using materials, so it’s a great benefit,” Shaffer says. “That’s why I love lead chemistry, be cause 90% of all batteries derive from secondary lead and they work just as good as primary lead.”
However, unlike with its GreenSeal bipolar tech, Shaffer says the compa ny has already decided it will not be licensing out EverGreenSeal.
“We want to get it into the market first, to show how well it works.
“We’ve engineering drawings for scaled production equipment to make a GreenSeal battery every 1.45 min utes or so, but we had to capitalize that and it forces your licensees to be very patient.”
This time, with EverGreenSeal, Shaffer says ABC wants to clearly demonstrate that “everything works. Then we’ll consider partnering with people, maybe not through licensing
but through a franchise kind of rela tionship.”
The dominance of lithium in the en ergy storage market means potential customers for BOX-BE are first told that they are being offered lead bat tery technology.
“I get that all the time and no, people are not always receptive to it,” Shaffer says. “We still have to overcome a lot of scepticism on the ability of the lead industry to meet the demands of en ergy storage.”
“We have to work hard to say we have an advanced technology and that we build the battery in a different way and because we do that, we can reduce production costs, offer lon ger cycle life and here’s the data. We spend a lot of time dealing with that.”
Shaffer says he is out in the financial markets daily raising money for the inevitable expansion of ABC’s pro duction plant and related projects and while potential investors “love a new battery chemistry unobtanium, when they are told it is lead-based they’re like ‘what’…!”
“But that’s just something we have to work through — and we are.”
Shaffer reveals that ABC secured its first, as yet unnamed, customer for BOX-BE after successfully being cho sen over a Tesla ESS system.
So could ABC grow to become the ‘Tesla’ of the lead grid storage busi ness?
“That’s my goal.”
Nuveen, the $1 trillion global investment manager of TIAA Investments led a Series B growth equity round in ABC in October 2020.
The undisclosed investment was the first from the Nuveen Global Impact Fund, a private equity vehicle formed earlier that year to make direct investments in high growth companies that seek to address climate change and contribute to inclusive growth.
David Haddad, co-head of Nuveen Private Impact Investing, said at the time that ABC’s technology improves the performance, cost, and resource intensity of lead-acid batteries while preserving full recyclability.
“We believe high-performing lead acid batteries will play an important role as electrification continues globally.”
ABC expects to make major announcements in the first quarter of 2023 on new licensing partners for its GreenSeal batteries line
The path to taking any infrastructure project from the drawing board to commercial operation is fraught with challenges, but firms bringing new BESS tech to market can find it more difficult than most. However, a
partnership with global insurance provider Munich Re is underpinning the international development of iron-based flow battery firm ESS.
Mounting energy crises around the world, fuelled largely in part by Rus sia’s war with Ukraine, has focused at tention more than ever on the need for a shift to encouraging the development of innovative sources of clean electric ity generation.
Battery storage and in particular long duration energy storage (LDES) tech nologies have become increasingly at tractive to policymakers and utilities.
LDES solutions often mean introduc ing new technologies to markets that have become accepting of the domi nance of lithium ion battery tech.
The risks and bankability of new technologies have made it difficult to achieve a breakthrough.
However, the arrival of one of the world’s leading providers of reinsur ance, primary insurance, and insur ance-related risk solutions in the en ergy storage market, Munich Re, could be turning the tables in the favour of new entrants to the market.
Sebastian Scholz, of Munich Re’s Green Tech Solutions unit, provides B2B primary insurance for large in dustrial clients — particularly in the renewables sector.
Now Scholz heads a team focused on
the energy storage market and whose first customer after launching its insur ance scheme is US-headquartered ironbased flow battery company ESS.
“We entered into the energy storage market in around 2019 but we did so having already had more than 10 years of experience in insuring long term product and performance warranties for new technologies, particularly in the green energy space,” says Scholz.
Munich Re had been a driving force
in insurance for solar, onshore and offshore wind manufacturers, so the move into energy storage was regarded as a complementary one.
“We know the ecosystem and many of the players and the need for storage and in particular LDES.”
The relationship with ESS grew from a conversation at a trade fair in North America.
Scholz said it quickly became appar ent that Munich Re’s service could be a gamechanger for ESS.
“That’s how it started and since then ESS has been on a tremendous growth path.”
Munich Re offers what it describes as a backstop for ESS’s long-running war ranty promise and Scholz says the risks that come with it are “pretty similar across different technologies in renew ables”.
“We decided to translate our knowl edge into the energy storage space — it’s worked with ESS and other players and we are now building a growing insurance book in this sector.”
Scholz says the company is “particu larly technology centric” and technolo gies that are candidates for Munich Re’s books are examined in detail be forehand.
“We also hire market experience, for example we have electrochemists in the team. We also have folks from the en ergy storage industry that work for us and they do the technical due diligence that comes with insuring an energy storage asset.
“Technical due diligence is the entry point for such a technology-oriented insurance product. That’s what we did with ESS and we’ve been insuring them ever since.”
Scholz is coy, largely because of a number of commercial non-disclosure agreements, about the names already on Munich Re’s battery insurance books.
The company insures players in what he describes as the “more exotic corner of the market — which still is redox flow technology of different sorts” — but it supports “plain vanilla players” too, such as those selling containerized lithium assets into the market, Scholz says.
But there are no battery technologies or chemistries that would be ruled out for insurance guarantee coverage. All would be considered on a customerby-customer basis.
Green Tech Solutions is on a “good growth path… our successful business model is simultaneously enabling the energy transition”.
Scholz acknowledges that while en ergy storage insurance is a growing niche business, it has the scope to ex pand alongside other initiatives, such as insurance for AI projects, which is already being pursued by Munich Re colleagues.
How policies are devised “AI is increasingly involved in the op eration of energy storage assets, such as to make use of arbitrage,” he says.
“Thorough due diligence” is the es sence of work before Munich Re adds a customer’s technology to its books.
“We have developed risk assessment questionnaires for the various technol ogies we look at considering a number of factors such as cell chemistries.”
Based on the findings of the com pany’s technical advisers known as risk analysts in insurance lingo, the next stage is opening in depth talks with the customer.
“That’s what we did with ESS cofounder and CTO Julia Song, who was our technology partner for discussions revolving around ESS’s technical due diligence,” Scholz said.
Only then can Munich Re start to structure a policy based on technical risk and on talks with the future client
about how much risk should be placed on the insurer’s books.
In a world where concerns about se curity of supply in the battery materi als supply chains are a dominating fac tor, that is not an influencing factor as far as Munich Re is concerned.
Scholz says there is no coverage for any impact on delays to supply of a battery’s ‘fuel’. But there is ‘delay-instart-up’ insurance for larger scale en ergy storage investment projects.
“What we currently focus on is the point when the asset comes into op eration. And as we know, they are sup posed to be in operation for 10, 15 or in some cases 20 years. We cover en dogenous risks over the duration of the lifetime of the asset.”
11 that the company had doubled its annual production capability to 500MWh with the addition of a new manufacturing line in the second quarter of this year.
He revealed the US-based firm expects to have its next fully automated line up and running in the fourth quarter, taking annual capacity to 750MWh — “tripling where we started the year”.
On the operational front, Dresselhuys said ESS continued to “battle various supply issues” with components for its Energy Warehouse units, which have slowed its production schedule.
However, Dresselhuys said while the firm is sticking to its original plan of shipping 40 to 50 Energy Warehouse units this year, “we would likely be near the low end of the range and possibly below it, depending on our ability to resolve these supply chain issues”.
But he revealed a “landmark deal” would see the company delivering more than 1GWh of storage systems to Australia-based Energy Storage Industries Asia-Pacific (ESI) in the next five years.
ESI has already placed multiple orders for more than 70 EW units,
which ESS began shipping in July, Dresselhuys said.
“In the coming quarters, ESI will ramp up facilities in Queensland, Australia, that will take key components that ESS will ship from our Oregon factory such as energy modules and proton pumps and assemble them with the balance of plant.”
Dresselhuys also welcomed the signing in the second quarter of a contract to deliver an Energy Center storage system to Tampa Electric Company (TECO) in Florida.
This installation will support TECO’s Big Bend Solar Project, which powers 3,300 homes. The Energy Center which should ship early next year, will be able to provide up to 10 hours of total capacity and is intended to be used for solar peak shifting, and fossil fuel displacement.
An additional layer of protection — solvency coverage — is available to offer support and confidence in large scale developments, such as in cases where a technology provider might go out of business and a valid warranty claim occurs in the future, be it in con nection with the product or perfor mance.
Scholz said developers can then turn directly to the insurer for a financial in demnification.
“This really speaks to the bankabil ity aspect that financiers do want to see when they invest in these types of new technologies.
“On this very aspect, the fact that Munich Re has been operating since 1880, with our credit rating backstop ping the warranty promise, ensures projects are viewed as bankable.”
ESS: ‘Insurance is an enabler’
For iron-flow storage firm ESS, as one of the relative ‘newcomers’ on the LDES scene (although the company has been developing its systems since the early 2000s), Munich Re’s support has been key to its expansion in the US and Europe.
Europe director, Alan Greenshields, praised the leadership of Munich Re in showing support for the challenges facing new technologies coming in to the market “where financeability is a big issue”.
“They have created a path for com panies such as us by defining the in surability of new technologies that can contribute to combating climate change,” he says.
Risk mitigation and management is “probably one of the biggest single el ements” private sector developers and utility customers look at because “they are always looking for what could go wrong”.
“An insurance product that is cover ing part of the tech risk is a huge thing from their point of view. It’s also an enabler from going from early-stage deployment up to making the product ready for mass deployment.”
Greenshields says he thinks policy makers and utilities have been encour aged to see the private sector turn to non-lithium technologies
“They are interested in trying some thing new and excited about the fea tures of the product and that’s the status ESS had in 2015. We had small numbers of our products going out for trials.”
But what global decarbonization policies need now is mass deployment, Greenshields says.
“And whether it’s a private sector developer, power utility or any other large body seeking to enact mass de ployment the financeability of their project is the important thing and is a completely different focus from the point of view of the customer.”
The real value of the kind of policy provided by Munich Re is in those early stages of deploying a new tech nology or entering foreign markets.
Greenshields says the huge balance sheets of major Asian companies has been a key driver in the deployment of massive amounts of lithium, “even though there are concerns about dura bility and fires”.
“It will take ESS sometime to have a balance sheet to anything as close as theirs, so this insurance offered by Munich Re is essential for the scaleup.”
Greenshields says the need for a major ramp-up of LDES systems is a key building block to building sus tainable energy policies that can make the most of the intermittent nature of renewable power generation such as solar and wind.
“But technology is only part of it — a big part is funding.”
Such funding has to come from the private sector such as pension funds, which have shown a zeal to invest in energy storage.
However, funds will expect to get a reasonably safe return on their invest ments and insurance is “an invaluable part of that equation”, Greenshields says.
In a report published last June, the International Energy Agency said in vestment in battery energy storage was expected to more than double to reach almost $20 billion in 2022.
From a low base, there is rapid growth underway in spending on
some emerging technologies, “notably batteries” and other clean tech sys tems such as carbon storage, the IEA said.
It could be argued that despite the frequent reports of fires caused by the propensity of thermal runaway in lithium ion battery storage systems, it might seem surprising that the chemis try has continued apace.
However, as Greenshields says, the deep pockets of the largely Asian bat tery behemoths behind vast numbers of lithium BESS projects around the world has comforted customers.
The financial fire blankets that es tablished battery makers can rollout to quell concerns of utilities and oth ers in the event of explosions and other such incidents involving energy storage systems has been a major influencing factor.
But the entry of Munich Re into the battery insurance market appears to be signalling a wind of change in favour of new technology players.
Champagne corks popped, canapes nibbled and delegates mingled. That was the scene as ELBC 2022 kicked off with the evening reception on September 6 in Lyon, France. But most importantly the mood was more than just positive. There was an air of excitement at this the first chance for the international lead battery business to meet face-to-face since Vienna’s meeting in 2018.
In the run-up to the plenary sessions it was as if we had returned to the pre-Covid normal and the relief was palpable.
“As ever it’s a good start to ELBC,” one delegate told Batteries International. “But the best thing about this isn’t the food or the drink but rather it’s the chance to meet old friends again (and rivals too). And, of course, make new friends as well.”
In effect, however, ELBC 2022, had started the day before when the Consortium for Battery Innovation, the research wing of the ILA, introduced its so-called Battery Academy — a series of talks and presentations looking at the fundamentals of the science behind lead battery technology.
Given the huge range of people within the industry, the agenda was varied, as were people’s reactions to the lectures. Most comments were positive but there was an overall perception that the depth of information being provided was sometimes too complicated and sometimes too simplistic.
Oddly enough this is a criticism levelled at the full agenda of most conferences and finding a happy medium is going to be elusive if not impossible.
The idea of a battery academy has been around for a long time. Chloride, the former shell of the once international giant, introduced such a course in the mid-2000s. GS Yuasa has developed a modular online one in English that is now being developed into other languages, Battery instruction and training has also long been established in Canada with Isidor Buchmann’s Battery University with its set of tutorials. And, in the last decade Shmuel de Leon has initiated many series of seminars looking at different aspects of the battery business.
The addition of a new academy, presumably a permanent feature of the work of the ILA/CBI in future has distinct positive possibilities but many delegates said the addition of extra days to attend battery events was detrimental to business and a series of online modules might make better sense.
The conference proper started with a bang on September 6 as Andy Bush, opened the plenary sessions. He was followed by a stunning presentation by Chris Pruitt, CEO of East Penn, that detailed, with a sober analysis, that the lithium pathway to world dominance was not as clear-cut as many suggested. (See boxed item.)
Further analysis of the future lead market from Avicenne, painted a slightly more sombre picture which was modified by a detailed analysis by Neil Hawkes from CRU as well as a highly informative presentation from the ILZSG on Chinese government policy on the use of lead in batteries in the country.
There were three other stand-out presentations to the first morning’s meetings.
There was one landmark moment with the announcement of the WGBI — Women in the Global Battery Industry with Mac Engineering’s Julie McClure detailing the creation
of the group and relating, for the first time to a European audience, the importance of its function. (See separate
The next landmark moment came when Alistair Davidson, director of the CBI, revealed details of three lead projects it had won and been funded — two in Africa (see full details elsewhere) and one $3.5 million
microgrid with the US military in Missouri.
This has been a clear vindication of the strategic vision Andy Bush had several years ago when he repurposed the existing ALABC offshoot into the Consortium for Battery Innovation, an organization that came into life just four years ago at the Vienna meetings.
East Penn president and CEO Chris Pruitt pulled no punches in a wide-ranging presentation, looking dispassionately over the role that lead and lithium will play in future energy technologies. His US perspective had a universal quality to it.
He laid bare many of the myths that surround the lead-lithium debate. Many of these include the (incorrect) line that electricity that charges battery packs is produced using zero carbon sources. Or that the US grid will be capable any time soon to have the transmission network to supply the country’s EV needs. (It won’t — and by a very long mark.)
He said the industry should be unafraid of challenging the narrative surrounding recycling, noting that while lithium recycling techniques are still in their infancy – and might often appear to be a byword for dismantling — lead has an internationally-established network of battery collection and a near-100% recycling record.
The jury was still out to see if lithium batteries could be easily recycled.
He urged industry leaders to focus on the demands of consumers, pointing out that whatever the diktats of governments and regulators to encourage the take-up of lithium batteries, it will be consumers that have the fate of the technology’s future in their hands.
He said a January 2022 study from Deloitte indicated that 69% of US consumers said their powertrain preference for the next vehicle was an ICE car, compared to a range of HEV, PHEV and BEV alternatives.
There was a similar finding in south-east Asia (66%), while Germany came in at just under 50% in favour of ICE vehicles.
Range anxiety continues to be a concern. US motorists said they still expected a fully-charged battery electric vehicle driving range to be north of 500 miles, while those in China, Japan and India are content with a range of around 250 miles.
The lead industry must play a leading role in the mobility and energy evolution and continue to have a strong voice at the table, Pruitt said.
Women in the Global Battery Industry kicked off their global recruitment drive at ELBC in an afternoon drinks reception on the first day of the conference. ILA chief Andy Bush welcomed this as a momentous, first European outing for the group, which is approaching its first full year of programming and activities.
WGBI president Julie McClure, who is also chairman of MAC Engineering, addressed the first full day of the conference ahead of giving an update on activities and plans for the future at the group’s own meeting on the ELBC sidelines.
Batteries International publisher Karen Hampton was among the speakers at the WGBI
meeting, which was followed by a networking reception sponsored by Hollingsworth & Vose.
Nick Starita, H&V president, energy solutions and new ventures, said the company was “proud to support the WGBI mission to promote and develop the growth of women professionals in the battery industry, both at events like ELBC and through membership and leadership in the organization”.
H&V quality manager Helen Keeling said: “Being a member of the WGBI is great for networking with fellow professionals and helps us grow within the industry. The WGBI is a great support and helps promote women professionals in the battery industry.”
“We needed to go beyond running a technical research body into one that could find a commercial expression,” Bush told Batteries International on the sidelines of the conference.
Certainly for a start-up to have come from nowhere to finding commercial funding and being able to prove its worth in a tangible way is a remarkable achievement. The CBI continues to grow and has some 120 members across the whole battery value chain.
The morning was capped by a favourite moment for the veterans of the industry — the announcement of the International Lead Award. This is given to those who have made a sustained and sizeable contribution to the health of the industry. Over the years this has read like a Who’s Who of the great and the good in the business.
Because the last ELBC was a virtual conference it wasn’t possible to have a proper awards ceremony so this year there were two winners.
The two picked by the judging committee were Eckhard Karden and Mark Stevenson, each were popular choices and universally respected. The selection was different from previous years, Eckhard, who is now regarded as a senior statesperson in the industry works for Ford, the automotive giant. Mark is also particularly revered both for his encyclopaedic knowledge of lead in recycling and alloys but also — like Eckhard— for his ready willingness to help explain some of the more complicated issues that face the industry. For full details see our People News section in the early pages of this issue.
As ever among a large field of presentations — parallel sessions were the norm for most of the three days of the business — new innovations and trends were seen to emerge. Two of which are mentioned here.
The first of which was the indication that the CBI was starting to flex its muscles and prove that progress in technology could have commercial benefits too, At the conference, the CBI’s research manager Carl Telford explained how a consortium of international partners including the CBI had won a €10 million ($9.9 million) call within Horizon Europe, the EU’s flagship research and
innovation funding instrument. This is the first time lead batteries have been involved in securing funding under Horizon Europe.
Now entering the contractual agreement phase, the project will deploy lead battery technology at the heart of two innovative pilot energy storage systems for African nations.
The funding bid was the first made by the CBI and its partners under the Horizon programme, it will see the ‘LoCEL-H2’ (low-cost, circular, plug and play, off-grid energy for remote locations including hydrogen) projects deployed in off-grid communities in Zambia and Ivory Coast.
At the core of each project will be lead battery electrolyser components — a so-called “battolyser” — paired with renewables for electricity generation and a hydrogen solution for clean cooking in isolated communities without access to a power grid.
The technology behind the
battloyser is more advanced for lead batteries than other chemistries and opens up a potentially promising income stream for other projects.
The Horizon funding followed news that the CBI and Loughborough University had drawn up proposals for two additional, separate projects in the East African nation of Malawi.
Another piece of news was the announcement by ArcActive’s CEO Stuart McKenzie that the firm’s pioneering carbon fibre technology would be on the market in two years. The innovative electrode architecture will help shape the future of batteries not just for the automotive sector but energy storage systems too.
ArcActive’s technology has been tested and slowly advancing since the company’s founding in 2007. For the past seven years many commentators have believed that once finalized the new electrode architecture will
become a new standard for the industry.
McKenzie revealed that the company has now produced a business case for the US market — where its current focus lies — which shows cash savings in the realms of $50 per car for those using ArcActive batteries.
“We’re working with an adviser who used to be the CEO of one of the large US/China OEM JVs but we also have an eye on the European and Chinese markets.”
ArcActive has now gone from making cells in New Zealand to working with partners making batteries on production lines in the US, Europe and China and Japan.
The gala dinner on the Thursday evening was well received and the sight of up to 100 batterymen and women boogying on the dance floor at the end is almost certain to haunt the memories of the more sensitive elements of the battery industry.
27th International Congress for Battery Recycling, ICBR 2022 September 14-16, Salzburg, Austria
The recycling industry is in the spotlight as never before, amid concern over the sustainability and supply of raw materials supply to power the lithiumled gigafactories springing up worldwide. But delegates were also keen to address the reputational damage being done to the industry
The International Congress on Battery Recycling would, it’s fair to say, not be a ‘must do’ fixture on the calendar of the titans of the lead battery industry.
As worthy as ICBR is — indeed it’s now a grand old presence on the global convention scene, having held its 27th outing in Salzburg, Austria in September — and is a natural home for the what-to-do-with-lithium cognoscenti.
However, if anyone from the lead battery industry did give ICBR 2022 a miss, they missed a performance that ended up singing, impromptu, the virtues of lead recycling verse by verse in a manner to make their hearts sing — and full credit to the conference organizers for being so inclusive as to include it in their postconference presentations that are still available online.
Mark Bedford, battery materials director for Johnson Matthey, had just finished his presentation, during which he detailed a litany of hazards and difficulties that the lithium battery recycling sector needs to address as a matter of urgency.
A member of the audience then said: “I bet it makes you miss the good old times of lead acid batteries.”
Pointing out that lead batteries are still very much alive and kicking, Bedford said: “It strikes me that the lithium ion battery is like a mini chemical factory. It has so many challenges attached to it.
“But the lead acid battery industry has shown the way in respect of having had very serious issues
connected to it (in the past) such as the toxicity of lead.”
However, some of the technology and capability that’s been delivered by the lead acid battery recycling industry over the years is “exemplary, because it has a great reputation”, Bedford said.
“It certainly offers the highest recovery rates of any industry in the world, we can learn something from lead acid.”
Bedford had earlier warned ICBR delegates that they “really have to contend with” the issue of thermal runaway of lithium ion batteries.
While “mitigating technologies” are being developed as the nascent lithium recycling industry moves ahead, he said chemical hazards were “less well understood”.
Nonetheless, chemical hazards need the same degree of attention in devising safe processes, such as for the handling and recycling of end of life Li-ion batteries, he said.
Bedford also warned that, in the European Union, increased occupational exposure limits for lithium are looming and the risks from a range of battery materials used in lithium battery technology must be taken seriously.
But as if sensing that delegates had been subject to a little too much doom and gloom, he ended with some encouragement: “I don’t want to be unduly pessimistic. As an industry we have fantastic capabilities in terms of our understanding and engineering around the construction and operating of (recycling) processes.”
However, Bedford was not alone in speakers that seemed determined to ‘keep it real’ and not pull any punches when it came to facing up to the problems the lithium recycling industry knows deep down that it faces. This was to their credit.
Conference steering committee chairman Arie de Jong, director of Dutch recycling services company Stibat Services, noted that the capacity for recycling lithium batteries in Europe was still “very limited” and not being helped by escalating energy costs that were placing a “huge burden” on the sector.
He warned that much work remained to be done on safety issues — and bemoaned the fact that too many lithium batteries were being discarded along with general waste, leading to battery fires breaking out in household waste recycling centres that in turn gave the industry a bad name.
Another speaker revealed similar problems were engulfing Japan. Atsushi Terazono, of the National Institute for Environmental Studies of Japan, said fires caused by lithium ion batteries at domestic waste collection sites had become, in his words, “a hot issue”.
Only last year, two companies had to recall non genuine lithium ion batteries for use in cordless
vacuum cleaners from well known manufacturers that were at risk of igniting even when being stored and not in use, Terazono said.
“One company even went bankrupt and therefore was unable to recall its product, leaving it to municipalities and the public to deal with the problem,” he said.
He said many stores were reluctant to host collection points for primary batteries and even when they do, more needs to be done to educate the general public to use them.
He said authorities at a local and national level in Japan are now discussing ways of tackling the issue, not least because some LIB products are not regulated by any laws.
‘Firefighting’ was a common theme and taken up by another keynote speaker, Christian Holzer, representing Austria’s federal ministry for climate action, environment, energy, mobility, innovation and technology.
He said insurance companies were increasing their charges and technical requirements and requiring general waste recycling companies to adopt new fire detection measures and invest in fire safety equipment.
“Some insurance companies are pulling out of the waste industry altogether, so fire protection is becoming a major factor in the development of waste management,” he said.
“We live in a time of fundamental changes and challenges, with a climate crisis the aftermath of covid, combined with increasing political and economic instability,” not to mention the impact of high inflation ratcheting up the cost of raw materials, he added.
Austria’s view, said Holzer, was
that the world needs to reduce its consumption of battery raw materials by increasing recycling and in turn reduce the impact on the carbon footprint left by transporting raw materials to-and-fro for processing and eventual use.
He also called for a more transparent analysis of the “entire EV value chain” — focusing on the extraction of raw materials right up to the production of batteries and subsequent recycling.
“More due diligence is needed,” and Holzer said the industry had to address increasing environmental concerns about lithium extraction in Argentina and cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Several speakers referenced the EU’s upcoming Batteries Regulation, which will overhaul existing laws and tighten requirements for battery recycling.
However, European Commission policy officer Cesar Santos cautioned that it could be some time yet before the long-awaited policy document, said to run to some 100 pages, becomes law.
Santos, who works within the European Commission’s directorategeneral covering the environment and the circular economy, told the conference that political negotiations to finalize the Batteries Regulation were still underway in the corridors of power in Brussels.
As a best case scenario, those negotiations could be concluded by the end of this year. However, if no agreement is reached, that could potentially delay the formal adoption of the incoming rules until the spring of 2023.
But even then, a further four to six months will probably be needed to
The mine, which is the most advanced such project in Europe to date, stretches 1.5km deep. During the tour, delegates learned the basic principles of lithium mining as well as the special features of the deposit in Wolfsberg.
comply with various administrative procedures — not least the translation of the regulations into the myriad of official languages of EU states. So, it could be as late as next autumn before the regulations finally come into force, Santos said. Until then, as one attendee told Batteries International after the event, it’s a case of “do your best, keep calm and carry on”.
The Energy Management Exhibition — EMEX
November 23 – 24 London, UK
EMEX is the UK’s must-attend energy event for everyone wanting to increase their organization’s energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions.
EMEX connects all commercial en ergy consumers with leading experts, policy makers and suppliers. EMEX is more than just an event. It’s a platform where practitioners and experts from various backgrounds and sectors are coming together to share their knowl edge and experiences from successful implementations of energy efficiency strategies.
Whatever the size of your business there is an opportunity to find more ef ficiency in your energy use.
Contact HEELEC Limited E: sales@emexlondon.com www.emexlondon.com
November 23 – 24 Islamabad, Pakistan
The International Renewable Energy Meet is a gathering of leaders and in ternational stakeholders driving the re newable energy transformation.
This keenly anticipated event will bring together the entire renewable val ue chain to discuss the latest technolo gies and solutions, low-carbon energy production, logistics, efficient storage, transportation, hybrid infrastructure, advanced design, research and develop ment, manufacturing and overall devel opment in the field of renewable energy.
Contact M. Ali, White Paper Summits E: project@wpsummits.com www.iremexpo.com
November 29 – December 1
London, UK
The inaugural edition of the London EV Show became the leading interna tional EV event in terms of participa tion & execution.
The London EV Show will once again provide an exclusive platform for influential voices and important players from the entire EV spectrum to convene at the highest level, ex change trailblazing ideas and strate gies on advancing EV adoption and making EVs mainstream globally.
Contact Valiant Business Media E: info@londonevshow.com www.londonevshow.com
International Conference on Lead & Lead Batteries
December 5 - 6 New Delhi, India
The International Conference on Lead & Lead Batteries will present technical presentations by well known over seas and Indian experts. It will focus on lead acid battery manufacturing, latest tech nological developments, environmental regulations & norms, recycling and battery performance and testing.
Contact ILZDA E: ilzda.info@gmail.com www.ilzda.com
— AABC USA
December 5 – 8
San Diego, California, USA
AABC was founded more than 20 years ago to review the status of au tomotive battery technology and pro vide informed glimpses into the future.
The 2022 program will uncover the underlying technical and business is sues that will impact the pace and path of vehicle electrification worldwide.
Join us in San Diego to network with chief battery technologists from leading automotive OEMs, who will share their development trends and projected bat tery needs, as well as their key suppliers who will present their latest offerings and roadmaps for the future.
Contact Cambridge EnerTech E: ce@cambridgeenertech.com www.advancedautobat.com/us
The Smarter E India & Power 2 Drive — ees
December 7 – 9 Gujarat, India
With three parallel energy exhibitions, The smarter E India is India’s innova tion hub for the new energy world. It presents cross-sector energy solutions and technologies and reflects the inter action of the solar, energy storage and electric mobility industry.
The smarter E India addresses all the key areas along the value chain and brings together local experts and in ternational stakeholders in the energy future.
The smarter E India brings together the renowned Intersolar India, ees India and Power2Drive India.
ees India is India’s leading electrical energy storage exhibition. ees India will focus on batteries, electrical en ergy storage technologies and systems attracting investors, utilities, installers, manufacturers and project developers from all over the world.
Contact Kristin Merz, Solar Promotion E: merz@solarpromotion.com www.thesmartere.in/home
World Future Energy Summit — WFES
January 16 – 18, 2023
Abu Dhabi, UAE
The annual World Future Energy Sum mit in Abu Dhabi is the leading global industry event and exhibition for fu ture energy, clean-tech and sustain ability. Bringing together government and business leaders, 800 specialist ex hibitors and 33,500 visitors from 170 countries, it showcases pioneering tech nologies and ground-breaking thinking in energy, energy efficiency, water, solar, waste and smart cities.
Contact RX Global E: worldfutureenergysummit@rxglobal.com www.worldfutureenergysummit.com
EV Battery Technology Conference and Exhibition
February 13 – 14 Long Beach, CA. USA
Battery technology is the future. The world’s emerging appetite is for electric vehicles. The automakers and compa nies for batteries are investing copi ously to construct lighter, denser and affordable batteries. The formation and assembling of the battery is a key factor in performance and cost. But for the future, wholly different chemistries and bigger breakthroughs are expected to emerge.
Electric power is the latest technology that is revolutionizing the auto indus try. There are many kinds of batteries, but lithium-ion is emerging as the dom inating battery technology. However, research and development is continuing into alternative cell chemistries as de velopers strive to provide cheaper, more energy efficient products.
This is the area of focus for the EV Battery Technology Conference and Exhibition 2023. We will provide you with an exclusive platform from which to explore these issues and more in depth. Come and hear at first hand from the influential voices and key players that are driving the EV industry forward.
Contact Meta Tech E: info@metatechevents.com www.evbatterytechconference.com
Intersolar North America
February 14 – 16, 2023
Long Beach, California, USA
Dedicated to accelerating the energy transition #isnaesna23 will bring in stallers, developers, utilities, technol ogy providers, policy makers, and key
stakeholders from around the world together for three days of impactful learning, networking and business.
With a comprehensive conference programme, lively Solar Games compe tition, and immersive exhibit hall expe rience, #isnaesna23 will deliver energy professionals an unmatched oppor tunities to gain critical insights, make meaningful connections and source quality products.
Contact Diversified Communications www.intersolar.us
EV Charging Infrastructure Conference and Exhibition
February 20 – 21 Long Beach, CA. USA
As the world embraces the e-mobility sector at pace, the importance of having access to a robust electric vehicle charg ing infrastructure will be a key enabler to accelerate the take-up of EVs. This event will explore key challenges and issues facing the mobility revolu tion as countries strive to ensure they have a charging infrastructure ‘back bone’ to support the transformation to an electrically-powered mobility revo lution.
Major players from across the EV in dustry will be on hand to share their expertise and provide insight and anal ysis for investors, policymakers, manu facturers and infrastructure developers alike.
From electric scooters to e-bikes EVs and e-buses, all sectors we will have it covered. Join us in Long Beach for what promises to be an invaluable ex perience.
Contact Meta Tech E: info@metatechevents.com www.evcharginginfrastructureconference.com
NAATBatt Annual Conference
February 20 – 23 Arizona, USA.
NAATBatt 2023 will among the lead ing networking and market intelli gence events in the North American advanced battery industry in 2023. Top executives, scientists and inves tors use the NAATBatt annual meet ing to renew acquaintances, network with new companies and hear about the latest technology developments in the industry.
Joining NAATBatt International is a great way to build relationships in an industry that is helping to shape the 21st century, as vehicle technology, re newable energy, light aviation, maritime propulsion systems, robotics, weapons systems, medical devices, consumer electronics and the internet of things will all depend on electricity supplied by advanced battery technology.
Contact NAATBatt International E: info@naatbatt.org www.nac.naatbatt.org
February 22 – 23 London, UK
As Europe grapples with an energy security crisis, net zero targets and increasing amounts of intermittent renewable generation, energy storage continues to play an essential role in the power sector.
The 8th edition of the summit in 2023 will guide the market on how to maximise storage revenues and reduce energy costs.
Contact Solar Media E: energystorage@solarmedia.co.uk www.storagesummit.solarenergyevents. com
RE+ Northeast
February 22 – 23 Boston, MA USA
RE+ Northeast’s primary mission is to deliver on the objectives of both the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) in a way that strength ens the solar energy industry domesti cally and globally, through network ing and education, and by creating an energetic and engaging marketplace to connect buyers and suppliers.
Contact Smart Electric Power Alliance E: customerservice@re-plus.com www.events.solar/northeast/
Published by India, Asia’s next regional superpower, is about to challenge China’s supremacy in economic growth, future investment and cutting edge energy storage technology and manufacture. Read more about, and be featured in, Batteries International’s special publication in our Battery World Series starting this January.
Batteries International is exploring how India is set to become the new world battery superpower.
Scan this qr code to contact Jade
To submit features, advertorials and artwork contact Jade: jade@batteriesinternational.com
Bringing the industry together www.batteriesinternational.com
March 1 – 2
London, UK
The conference will bring together battery recycling industry experts, col lection scheme operators and battery manufacturers to learn, share and dis cuss the current and emerging topics in the sector.
The two-day event offers an insight into the newest recycling technologies, latest updates in policy and regulations, and commercial benefits of recycling spent power batteries.
ACI’s Battery Recycling Europe will also showcase future opportunities in the battery recycling market and blend together inspirational keynotes, infor mative sessions and wonderful net working opportunities.
Contact Active Communications International E: luca@acieu.net www.wplgroup.com/aci/event/battery-recy cling-europe/
The Distributed Energy
March 14 – 15, 2023 Telford, UK
The Distributed Energy Show is a freeto-attend exhibition and conference that will bring together the entire sup ply chain focused on distributed energy resources and provide a comprehensive overview of the array of technologies and systems that can enable them to generate, store, manage and distribute their own power and heat.
Contact Event Partners Danny Scott, Exhibition Manager E: danny.scott@event-partners.org www.distributedenergyshow.com
Intersolar Middle East
March 14 – 16, 2023 Dubai, UAE
Middle East Energy (MEE), Intersolar, and ees, the leading energy exhibitions are joining hands to co-deliver an out standing renewables and energy stor age event at Middle East Energy.
Renewables and energy storage at MEE is the largest gathering of solar and renewable energy industry profes sionals in the Middle East & Africa, of fering the most effective trade focused platform to international manufactur ers and distributors looking to meet regional buyers.
Intersolar and ees conferences pro vide solar and energy industries with platforms for sharing information and strategies. In collaboration with speak
ers, participants and partners, we shape the energy supply of the future.
Contact Solar Promotion www.intersolar.ae/en/home
Battery Japan March 15 – 17, 2023 Tokyo, Japan
Battery technologies are the key to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 as they will largely contribute to the popu larisation of renewable energy and EVs.
BATTERY JAPAN gathers a broad range of technologies, components, materials, and devices for rechargeable batteries development & production. The show attracts professionals from all over the world.
Contact RX Japan E: wsew.jp@rxglobal.com www.wsew.jp/hub/en-gb/about/bj.html
March 15 – 17, 2023 Seoul, Korea
First launched in 2013 in Seoul, Korea, InterBattery is Korea’s leading battery exhibition showcasing various new products and technologies of battery industry.
InterBattery 2023 attracts more than 400 exhibitors(domestic/ overseas) and 1,200 booths including global top corporates of battery manufacturers such as Samsung SDI, LG Energy solution, SK On, CATL.
CHARGE Your Business through InterBattery 2023!
Contact InterBattery Secretariat E: interbattery@coex.co.kr www.interbattery.or.kr/en/
International Battery Seminar and Exhibit
March 20 – 23, 2023
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA
Founded in 1983, the International Bat tery Seminar & Exhibit has established itself as the premier event showcasing the state of the art of worldwide energy storage technology developments for consumer, automotive, military and in dustrial applications.
Key thought leaders will assemble to not only provide broad perspectives, but also informed insights into sig nificant advances in materials, product development, manufacturing, and ap plication for all battery systems and enabling technologies.
As the longest-running annual bat tery industry event in the world, this meeting has always been the preferred venue to announce significant develop ments, new products, and showcase the most advanced battery technology.
Contact Cambridge EnerTech E: ce@cambridgeenertech.com www.internationalbatteryseminar.com
RE+ Texas
April 5 – 6
San Antonio, Texas, USA
RE+ Texas attracts energy profession als from across the solar and storage markets each year. Featuring two days of exhibition, a robust education sched ule and networking opportunities, at tendees will hear from visionary lead ers on what’s next for the Texas clean energy market to propel businesses to the next level.
Contact RE+ Events / Solar Energy Trade Shows E: customerservice@re-plus.com www.re-plus.events/texas
April 20
Silverstone, UK.
The battery industry is going through a power revolution with big technology companies investing heavily in the next generation of battery development and energy storage.
Battery Tech Expo brings together professionals from across the advanced battery technology and energy stor age sector to connect, innovate and do business. The event will provide an opportunity to showcase the lat est products, technologies and services covering battery management systems, EV batteries, battery storage and devel opments including for commercial and mobile power devices.
Contact 10fourmedia
David Reeks
E: david.reeks@10fourmedia.co.uk www.batterytechexpo.co.uk
BCI Convention + Power Mart Expo April 23 – 26 Louisville, KY, USA
BCI brings together the leading lead battery manufacturers and recyclers in North America and around the world, and establishes technical standards for battery manufacturing and actively promotes workable environmental, health and safety standards for the in dustry.
Each year, hundreds of lead battery industry executives gather at the indus try’s premier event, the BCI Convention + Power Mart Expo, for three days of networking and exposure to valuable industry knowledge. Past convention presentations have included global regulatory and legislative updates, lead market analyses, the BCI Failure Mode Study, and industrial and transporta tion batteries outlooks.
The Power Mart Expo allows sup pliers to display products, equipment and new innovations to an audience of senior executives from major battery manufacturers.
Contact Battery Council International E: info@batterycouncil.org www.convention.batterycouncil.org
April 26 – 28 Aachen, Germany
Now preparing for its 15th edition, the conference supported by partners Haus der Technik, Essen, the ISEA Institute, RWTH Aachen University and the MEET Battery Research Centre Mün ster, will bring together engineers and scientists from the entire field of battery technology at the Eurogress in Aachen in 2023. This event is always guaran teed to attract strong participation of young scientists and innovative compa nies among its global audience.
Contact Haus Der Technik — HDT E: hdt@hdt.de www.battery-power.eu/en/
April 26 – 28 Mexico
Solar + Storage Mexico turns the spot light on developments in the energy and solar technology sector, as renew able energy is expected to attract in vestments worth more than $100 bil lion by 2031.
The exhibition is operated by Deutsche Messe, one of the leading trade show organizers worldwide, SNEC PV Power Expo, the world’s leading solar technology event based in Shanghai, China and Solar Power International, the organizers of North America’s leading events and confer ences.
Contact Hannover Fairs Mexico E: info@hmexico.mx www.hfmexico.mx/solarpowermexico
Eagle Oxide 17 Entek 75
Froetek 43
Hadi Offerman 8, 9
Hammond Group, Inc Inside Front Cover, 1 Inbatec 68, 69 IKA 49
Kallstrom 21, 25 MAC Engineering 81, Outside Back Cover Maccor 3
Novanta Photonics Group 63 OMI 92, 93
Penox Group 61
Sashas International 77 Sorfin Yoshimura 73
STC 65
STTS Brazing Solutions 91
Wirtz Group 15, 29 Zesar 37
Late night jinks after conference receptions aren’t new. Especially if drinks are involved. And some of their tried and tested pranks have a proven history of success. The right room number, wrong hotel ploy — recently perfected by one of Batteries International’s newest staff — ‘honest I was just having a blond moment’, he told us after his second encounter.
But what about the supposedly true story of a senior speaker at a conference being led away by his ‘granddaughter’ late at night in an Asian capital? Perhaps she was a tour guide?
Got any dirt on your boss? Call us now with your hotel room details!
Has the impossible happened?
Next September’s Asian Battery Conference is already striking terror into the hearts of North American delegates about fine dining … Cambodian style.
Yes, there are no McDonald’s restaurants in the country. Not one. Yes, KFCs do exist but Cambodia is the only country in the world where the firm is not profitable.
But no need to despair. According to its Facebook page — burgerkingcambodia — there are 10 fast food outlets scattered across the country.
The latest member of the lead battery community is Lewis McKinnon, trainee for business development at CTT Technical. Aged, just 16, Lewis is already hard at work educating his boss Mike Dunn on social media and that new fangled piece of technology called the world wide web. He says: “It’s a bit difficult when Mike says to me every start of the week: ‘I’m on Linkedin now how the heck does it work?’ and he wonders why I start moaning.”
Another day, another lithium blaze.
That seems to be the new normal for New York’s fire chiefs, as they report that they deal with one such conflagration five days a week.
It’s the variety that we like best,” says one chief with a happy smile. “Mostly they’re e-bike fires but we still get laptops and EVs too.
“The EVs are the best fun, because just after you’ve put them out, they self-ignite! Whoosh!
“Sometimes they’re in apartment blocks, sometimes in garages, sometimes in offices too — it keeps us out and about and away from towering infernos, catching jumpers from skyscrapers or cats stuck up trees.”
Batteries International’s intrepid reporter thinks the taxi may have taken him to the wrong hotel
