Industry
In the rapidly evolving energy storage sector, announcements and updates come thick and fast. From acquisitions and funding to new business models, the industry is growing and maturing by the day.
The number of gigafactories breaking ground has soared in recent years as the global rush to develop lithium-ion battery production capacity continues.
In parallel, there is a pressing need to develop a circular economy in the sector but also many open questions regarding safe and efficient recycling.
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Latest News
System integration issues dominate BESS manufacturing defects in 2024, CEA reveals
Clean Energy Associates (CEA) reveals issues in fire detection and suppressions, along with auxiliary circuit panels, and thermal management defects, were key manufacturing problems encountered during its assessments.
24 hours ago
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Falling li-ion battery prices mirror solar photovoltaics trends: Is there a role for second-life batteries before recycling?
Lithium-ion batteries are everywhere, powering everything from consumer electronics to electric vehicles, residential PV storage systems, and, more recently, mitigating curtailment in large-scale wind and solar power plants. EVs are driving large-scale demand for Li-ion batteries which will result in substantial volumes of spent batteries in the near future. This scenario highlights the potential for repurposing EV batteries for second-life stationary applications, which could maximise their value before recycling. However, to fully realise this opportunity, several economic, technical, and regulatory challenges must be addressed and resolved.
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Greece’s Sunlight abandons its gigafactory plans
Greece’s leading battery energy storage business, Sunlight, has agreed to acquire 51% of Lehmann Marine GmbH, a German company that supplies the marine industry with energy storage. Sunlight’s plan for a 20 GWh lithium-ion battery gigafactory in Greece has been abandoned, however.
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MACSE auction: A game changer for Italy’s energy storage sector
With the first auctions for procuring new storage capacity in Italy expected in the second quarter of 2025, Aurora Energy Research has analyzed the internal rate of return for projects supported by the Energy Storage Capacity Procurement Mechanism (MACSE) and found that in certain cases expected returns exceed 9%, providing a high level of revenue security. However, as Aurora’s Maddalena Cerreto tells ESS News, there are also zones where the expected profitability of merchant investments outcomes the MACSE ones.
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S&P Global: Annual battery cell production passes 10 billion, lower prices to stimulate demand
While oversupply remains a feature of the lithium-ion battery production landscape, large production volumes are accelerating innovation and enhancing energy storage competitiveness. S&P Global analysis reveals that balance is likely to return to the global market in the coming years as stationary energy storage and EV adoption continues to accelerate.
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