Editor's note
International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics
Thursday, 28.03.2024, 17:00
European batteries project: opportunities for Baltics
Demand for batteries in Europe is expected to increase to 800GWh by 2030. Initially,
large part of the battery demand will be in the automotive sector (400 GWh by 2028) and the
batteries will be the fastest growing storage type in the coming years to reach
€ 250 billion in 2025.
On some assessments (Bloomberg New Energy Outlook Report),
about 57% of all passenger vehicle sales by 2040 will be electric and will represent 30% of the global vehicle fleet.
The Commission’s commitment to the “green deal” (adopted in
December 2019) will be soon followed by a European “climate law” and higher CO2
emissions targets for 2030 (about 50%). These policy developments are linked
with the electrification, increased renewable energy sources and consequently with
the increasing batteries’ production and usage. In the core of the EU’s industrial strategy for the 21st
century (to be adopted in March 2020) will be a strategic value chain in
batteries.
Batteries Europe platform
In October 2019, the
Batteries Europe platform elected its governing
board; it will work with the European InnoEnergy project, the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA)
and the European Association for Storage of Energy (EASE).
Research and
innovation is the guiding principle of the European “battery alliance”; it
keeps close contacts with other sectors and through the whole value chain. For
instance, scale-up issues will be solved with active participation of materials
providers and battery manufacturers. Besides, “second use” and
“vehicle-to-grid” issues require strong collaboration between automotive and
energy sectors.
The European
Batteries Alliance follows a success story in other EU’s cooperative sectors,
such as the European Digital
Infrastructure and Hydrogen project.
Reference: Speech of VP M. Šefčovič to Batteries Europe
Governing Board in https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/SPEECH_20_121
The Baltic’s potentials
In the new European batteries’ project the link between
innovation and competitiveness is extremely important in getting fair share of
the growing market for batteries. Presently, the batteries’ production is
concentrated on batteries with higher energy density and better performance by
using new and advanced materials. “Batteries
Europe” project is fully embraced in the EU’s general strategy in research and
innovation, so-called R&I direction. The project is going “to guide”
industry and manufacturing sector in the Baltics.
The Baltic States shall join the others in the European
project by adopting sound technology policies and appropriate investments to
succeed. For example, among most advanced investment policy lines could be
improvements in lithium-based
battery technologies as well as in research for the next generation of solid-state battery technologies.
The following are the EU initiatives in supporting the
Baltic States decision-making:
- The EU Horizon
2020 battery programs to finance long-term research in the Battery 2030+ initiative;
- The EU-member states industrial innovation project “Common
European Interest on battery research”, the so-called IPCEI;
- Interregional
(smart specialisation) innovation partnership on advanced battery
materials: it already includes 28 EU regions and about 10 projects;
- The Business
Investment Platform (BIP, with more than €20 billion) to channel
private funding around innovative manufacturing projects in all segments of the
value chain;
- SET-Plan to coordinate national research and
innovation on batteries.
All of these European initiatives are complementary to the
Baltic States’ authorities. However, some specific measures and efforts shall
be undertaken by the ministries to
achieve maximum synergies, which would secure the maximum share of the EU
funding for the research on batteries. For example, the Baltic States’
leaders and sectoral ministries have to take into consideration closer
connections between “smart specialisation” partnership and research in advanced
battery materials.
The EU institutions, particularly the Commission and Horizon
Europe program, will assist the Baltic States through additional grants and
financing: i.e. during next seven years
funding on batteries will be increased significantly! Already presently,
the Horizon 2020 alone has envisaged grants
in the amount of € 1.34 billion (including 2020) to projects for
energy storage on the electricity grid in the member states and in low carbon
mobility (support for projects in 2019-20 amounted to €114 and €132 million
respectively).
More on global batteries’
issues in the report on “Raw materials, regional distributions, cost analysis
and demand forecasts” in:
https://www.idtechex.com/en/research-report/the-li-ion-battery-supply-chain-2020-2030/697