Battery Show Europe 2017: Europe must play bigger role in...

Battery Show Europe 2017: Europe must play bigger role in battery industry

INDUSTRIAL MINERALS - By Martim Facada
Published: Monday, 10 April 2017

Delegates at European battery show in Germany last week forecast a promising future for the European battery industry as they tackled topics ranging from the European SET-Plan, growth opportunities, market forecasts, second life batteries, recycling and alternative type of batteries.
The mood among attendees of The Battery Show Europe in Sindelfingen, Germany, 3-5 April was one of general optimism with many expressing confidence in Europe's ability to compete with the US and China in the growing battery sector.
The European Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan), which aims to accelerate the deployment of low-carbon technologies in order to reach the European Union's decarbonaisation goal, will help the continent take a bigger share of the global battery market, Lois Brett an EU representative told delegates in the opening session of the conference.
The general feeling during the conference was that of commitment towards the decarbonisation process of the European and world economies, but many expressed the need for faster progress.

	Column 1
0
1	From left to right: Wolfgang Bernhart, Roland Bergers; Nicolas Schottey, Group Renault; Chong Jon Cha, LG; Lois Brett, European Commission.

Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL) chief technology officer Bob Galyen, said "we are already there" when asked about how "realistic" is the the EU's SET-Plan to reach the decarbonisation of the European economy by 2020, a topic often mentioned during the show.
Less spoken about where the battery raw materials costs as attendees and speakers mostly focused their attention on the European battery manufacturing growth opportunities, second life batteries, new technologies and recycling.
Robert Stanek, representing P3 North America Inc, spoke about the positive trend of locating battery production plants in Europe, citing LG and Samsung's plans to do so, as examples.
Many agreed that as the second largest regional market, allocating new battery and cell production facilities within Europe will promote new jobs in the region as well as reduce time and potentially production costs.
EU and local government subsidies to boost the growth of the European battery sector alongside the anticipated increasing demand in the European market were given as the major promotors of this trend with many foreseeing the construction of more battery and cell manufacturing facilities in Europe.
Battery Recycling
Two other often mentioned topics were second-life batteries and recycling.
Experts representing BMW and Nissan, Albrecht Pfeiffer and Yesica Romeo respectively, addressed the need for reusing EV batteries, another hot topic treated during the show.

As part of what should be the normal battery life-cycle, both emphasised the need of reusing EV batteries as second-life stationary batteries. Doing so maximizes battery profitability and usage as well as reduces waste and production costs, many agreed.

Indeed, Umicore’s head of battery recycling, Maarten Quix, told attendees that Umicore intends to recycle as much as it can as part of their commitment towards the environment.

Saying that "the evolution of recycling is taking decades whereas the evolution of the newest smart phones took only years, implying the creation of huge amounts of waste".

"We are not concerned with the cobalt and nickel prices to run our business", he added, when asked about how important were the mineral prices to the profitability of the recycling business.
Battery technology

Alternative types of batteries, cells and technologies was another another key topic at the conference.

While many alternative battery types were highlighted at the show CATL's Galyen pointed out how hard it would be to make a change from today’s lithium-ion batteries into the alternative batteries proposed by different developers saying "Li-ion batteries took over 30 years to scale up and to be used by major battery manufacturers".
"It takes a lot of time to go through all the protocols to enable new batteries for public use independently of if these behave perfectly in a laboratory environment", he added.

Positive outlook
Overall, presenters and delegates attending the Battery Show were united in their sunny outlook for the sector.
In an industry that often looks towards Asia for its growth story EV, battery and cell manufacturers in attendance in Germany expressed optimism with regards to the growth and future of the EV industry within Europe, anticipating a very promising outlook for the continent.