European Commission chief warns China, US over battery investments

European Commission president Ursula von der Lyen has warned of tough action against China and other countries engaged in “aggressive” moves to lure industrial projects including battery manufacturing away from the EU.

Von der Lyen told the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 17 that it was no secret the EU also feared new US tax breaks were luring gigafactory investments to North America.

“Our aim should be to avoid disruptions in transatlantic trade and investment. We should work towards ensuring that our respective incentive programmes are fair and mutually reinforcing,” she said. “But when trade is unfair, Europe must “respond more robustly.”

Von der Lyen’s warnings came as battery industry leaders warned that at least €100 billion

($106 billion) was needed to avert a potential investments meltdown for Europe’s gigafactory plans, because developers were being lured away by more lucrative deals and incentives in Asia and the US.

She accused China of openly encouraging energy-intensive companies in Europe and elsewhere to relocate all or part of their production with a promise of cheap energy, low labour costs and a more lenient regulatory environment.

China simultaneously gives domestic energy heavy subsidises and restricts access to its market for EU companies, she said.

However, she agreed with critics in Europe that the Commission had to do more to support the bloc’s nascent EV batteries sector, saying there was “a small window of opportunity to invest in clean tech and innovation to gain leadership before the fossil fuel economy becomes obsolete”.

See the special report on the EU’s battery investments crisis starting on page 22.

India’s Exide Industries said on January 4 it had changed the name of a lithium-focused subsidiary company set up under an initial joint venture with Swiss battery firm Leclanché.

Exide said the now wholly-owned Exide Leclanche Energy Private Limited, branded as ‘Nexcharge’, has been renamed Exide Energy Private

Limited.

The move follows Exide’s announcement on December 12 that it was considering proposals to merge the unit with another wholly-owned lithium subsidiary — Exide Energy Solutions (EES) — that was formed to collaborate with China’s SVOLT Energy Technology to manufacture lithium ion battery cells in India.

Construction of the EES gigafactory in Bengaluru formally began on September 27.

Exide CEO and MD Subir Chakraborty said on November 16 the development and sale of lead batteries continued to be the company’s “core business”, despite its foray into the lithium ion sector.

$58bn pledged for long duration storage projects since 2019

Commitments have been made to invest more than $58 billion in long duration energy storage (LDES) projects around the world since 2019, according to analysis released on December 7 by Wood Mackenzie.

If all of the pledges made by governments and companies went forward, it would lead to the installation of 57GW of LDES projects — equivalent to three times the global energy-storage capacity deployed in 2022, says Wood Mac’s Long-duration energy storage report 2022.

The report said projects representing $30 billion are already either under construction or in operation.

However, most LDES technologies are still nascent and developers will “struggle” to scale costeffectively before 2030.

The report also showed what are described as clear geographical disparities in the development of the LDES market. For the Asia Pacific region, the deployment of vanadium redox flow batteries and compressed air energy storage has accelerated rapidly in China, which has been largely driven by strong policy support.

Kevin Shang, senior research analyst at Wood Mac and report lead author said: “In the western hemisphere, the US continues to invest in and build its LDES industry, with companies actively pushing for innovation, and promoting pilot and demonstration projects.”

By contrast, most European countries have been less enthusiastic, said Shang, although the UK government has been an exemption, as it explores the role LDES technologies have to offer, while actively seeking to support industry players.

“Long-duration energy storage technology, with longer durations of eight to approximately 100 hours, holds great promise as a low-cost solution to enable a grid with more renewable sources.”

Wood Mac said support from governments is needed to help lower upfront capital costs, provide revenue certainty, and “generate market signals for investment” and the broader deployment of projects.

However, companies need to create new business models to attract private investors with a view to making profits without subsidies in the long term.

Amara Raja building lithium cells plant in Telangana

Amara Raja Batteries has agreed to a build a 16GWh lithium battery cells factory together with research facilities in the southern Indian state of Telangana, the company confirmed on December 2.

The lead batteries major said the new plant would include a 5GWh battery pack assembly unit, under the terms of a memorandum of understanding signed with the state government.

Amara Raja chairman and MD Jayadev Galla said Telangana would become the company’s ‘giga corridor’, featuring advanced laboratories and testing infrastructure for material research, prototyping, product life cycle analysis and proof of concept demonstration.

He said the partnership with Telangana was “a giant leap for Amara Raja and will bring in the impetus for innovations in sustainable technologies for the whole region, in addition to generating employment opportunities”.

The partnership follows Amara Raja’s launch of a new subsidiary, announced on November 3, to spearhead the addition of lithium ion tech to the group’s lead battery manufacturing operations.

The company said then that a site for the subsidiary’s “multi-gigawatt” battery cells facility would be confirmed soon.

RPC partners BESS firm Eelpower to target UK market

Renewable Power Capital has announced its entry into the battery storage market in Great Britain in a partnership with BESS constructor-owner-operator Eelpower.

RPC said on November 23 that the joint venture will acquire, build and operate utility-scale projects and is targeting up to 1GW of storage capacity with a near-term 240MW projects pipeline.

The partners will take part in wholesale electricity markets and provide ancillary services to the UK’s National Grid.

RPC’s focus on the UK market follows its recent acquisition of a 528MW ready-to-build onshore wind portfolio in Sweden.

London-headquartered RPC was established in 2020 and is backed by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board — operating as CPP Investments.

Since its formation, RPC has committed nearly €1.5 billion ($1.6bn) in acquisitions including wind and solar PV in Spain and the Nordics.

According to RPC, Great Britain represents the largest utility scale battery storage market in Europe with 1.7GW installed by the end of 2021 and with growth forecast to be up to 10GW by 2030 on the back of increases in renewable power generating projects.

Eelpower announced in July that it had bought a 20MW lithium ion storage system from British firm Anesco for an undisclosed sum.

The Rock Farm battery storage system, which consists of 16 1.25MW BYD-made storage units, was developed, constructed and commissioned by Anesco in June.

‘Europe’s largest BESS’ goes online in England

Investment firm Harmony Energy Income Trust, an investment firm announced on November 21 that its Pillswood project, in Yorkshire, UK had gone live some four months’ earlier than previously planned.

The 98MW/196MWh facility is the largest BESS project in Europe by MWh, Harmony said. This is equivalent to power around 300,000 UK homes for two hours.

The project, using a Tesla two-hour Megapack, will provide balancing services to the UK electricity grid network, underpinning energy security and enabling the replacement of coal and gas power stations to renewable power sources.

Pillswood sits next to the National Grid’s Creyke Beck substation. This is planned to be the connection point for Phase ‘A’ and ‘B’ of Dogger Bank, the world’s largest offshore wind farm. Its first phase should go live in summer 2023.

The project was developed by Harmony Energy with construction managed by Tesla. Pillswood will be operated through Autobidder, Tesla’s algorithmic trading platform which has a strong track record. Two of its projects have been the top performers in terms of revenue generation in the UK this past year.

Harmony Energy Advisors director Peter Kavanagh said: “All stakeholders have recognized the importance of achieving energization for this project ahead of winter to ensure the BESS services can be provided during the initial winter months.”

Harmony Energy Income Trust has five battery energy storage systems under construction, set to go live next October and three new pipeline projects which will increase its portfolio to nine projects with a total capacity of 500MW/1GWh.

Canada clamping down on China investments

Canada has ordered Chinese companies to divest their holdings in three Canadian-listed junior mining companies planning to develop lithium deposits, in a bid to safeguard critical battery material supplies for the domestic market.

Industry innovation and science minister FrançoisPhilippe Champagne said on November 2: “While Canada continues to welcome foreign direct investment, we will act decisively when investments threaten our national security and our critical minerals supply chains, both at home and abroad.”

Champagne said the decision had been taken under the Investment Canada Act following a review, supported by the nation’s intelligence services, into Canadian firms engaged in the critical minerals sector, including lithium.

As a result of that process, the government ordered Sinomine (Hong Kong) Rare Metals Resources to divest itself of its investment in Power Metals Corp, which is exploring and developing caesium, lithium and tantalum assets in Canada.

Chengze Lithium International was told to divest itself of its investment in Lithium Chile, which is developing projects in Argentina and Chile.

Zangge Mining Investment (Chengdu) was also required to divest itself of investment in Ultra Lithium — a publicly-traded Canadian mineral exploration company focused on advanced lithium and gold projects in Argentina, Canada and the US.

Champagne said the decision coincided with the finalization of the government’s critical minerals strategy.

“Canada’s critical minerals are key to the future prosperity of our country,” he said.

“Increasing demand for these all-important minerals are presenting Canada with a generational economic opportunity. The federal government is determined to work with Canadian businesses to attract foreign direct investments from partners that share our interests and values.

Power Metals chairman and CEO Johnathan More said on November 3: “While we are surprised by Canada’s stance towards Chinese investment into Canada’s critical minerals industry, it clearly shows that they see the opportunity and assets of Power Metals as too valuable for such foreign investment.”

More said then that Sinomine was looking into the appeal process.

Ultra Lithium said the announcement had been detrimental to its many Canadian shareholders and the company was “assessing its legal and other options to preserve value” for shareholders.

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