Non-Li Sustainable Batteries with European Supply Chains for Stationary Storage (Batt4EU Partnership)

Projects are expected to contribute to all of the following outcomes:

• A European economic base which is stronger, more resilient, competitive and fit for the green and digital transitions, by reducing strategic dependencies for critical raw materials.
• Development of post-lithium cell chemistries with target cell- and system-level cost, safety, energy density and power metrics suitable for the selected stationary energy storage markets.
• Credible projected storage costs of less than 0.05 €/kWh/cycle by 2030, particularly for applications with a (minimum) storage durations of up to 8 hours.
• Set out a clear route to a feasible, European-based supply chain that reduces reliance on critical raw materials, substituting with abundant, non-toxic, inherently safe raw materials and minimises the impact of possible international trade disruptions and customs tariffs, taking account of the requirements for a range of stationary storage use cases.
• Demonstration of system operated in end-user conditions for at least 3,000 hours.
• Projected product cycling life 5,000 cycles in conditions operating conditions typical of the selected application.
• A battery storage solution, that works safely and efficiently across a wide range of ambient conditions.
• A defined concept for demonstrable, highly sustainable, circular manufacturing for the selected battery type, with sustainability measured in terms of recognised economic, environmental, social and ethical metrics.

Non-lithium-based batteries have the potential to provide solutions for integration of renewables by providing energy storage solutions, either stand-alone, or as part of larger grid. Proposals are invited for projects which advance the development of non-Li battery systems, show their potential to be manufactured at scale at a cost the market will bear, and which meet regulatory requirements (including regulations for the recycling/re-use of batteries).

Projects may target any stationary storage applications, from a few kWh in small-scale domestic behind-the-meter units, to many MWh in large utility-scale front-of-meter installations.

Whilst stationary storage packaging constraints may not be as stringent as mobile applications in terms of volume and mass, total cost (€/kWh/cycle) and safety are critical to proving technological and commercial viability. Safety concerns become especially prominent as installation sizes increase due to the huge amount of stored chemical energy.

This topic is open to all non-lithium battery chemistries.

Projects are expected to:

• Develop and demonstrate sustainable and safe non-lithium battery solutions from abundant, non-toxic raw materials, capable of deployment in a large share of stationary energy-storage markets.
• Develop and demonstrate an innovative non-lithium battery technology with energy density and power metrics suited to stationary energy storage applications; and
• Prove the battery system’s sustainability and compatibility with a European supply chain.
• Risks will be demonstrably managed to the lowest possible level and within standard acceptable societal limits for toxicity and safety.

Projects are encouraged to:

• Develop new materials that improve techno-economic performances and/or the ability to meet sustainability targets.
• Show how cell and system design and material improvements optimise techno-economic performance by defining (i) technical and commercial targets, and (ii) quantified success criteria/KPIs by which progress toward achieving the targets may be evaluated during both development and validation phases of the project.
• Demonstrate a credible commercial and technical path, from end-of-project outcomes to a stationary-energy-storage product, and which takes account of future manufacturing and recycling requirements.
• Provide evidence of current and future sustainability, viable European supply chains and rigorous analyses of the complex sustainability and recyclability issues including compatibility with regulation, including recycling regulations.
• Demonstrate minimal towards no maintenance requirements.

BMS development is within scope where relevant but should not be the main focus of the project. In any case, developments of the BMS need to take into account the renewable energy directive and any pending amendments, notably for the requirements for real-time access to the data of the BMS.

Projects which, in addition, demonstrate the suitability of the solution under development for other emerging energy storage markets, such as motive power for off-road and transport applications with similar system requirements are encouraged.

Projects focussed on materials discovery for novel chemistries are out of scope. However, material refinements of known chemistries undertaken to achieve performance, sustainability, safety and cost targets are in scope.

Plans for the exploitation and dissemination of results for proposals submitted under this topic should include a strong business case and sound exploitation strategy, as outlined in the introduction to this Destination. The exploitation plans should include preliminary plans for scalability, commercialisation, and deployment (feasibility study, business plan) indicating the possible funding sources to be potentially used (in particular the Innovation Fund).

Proposals should indicate to which chapters of the Strategic Research and Innovation Plan for chemicals and materials^[1] they will contribute.

In order to achieve the expected outcomes, international cooperation is encouraged for use cases, particularly with India, Africa and Australia.

This topic implements the co-programmed European Partnership on Batteries (Batt4EU). As such, projects resulting from this topic will be expected to report on the results to the European Partnership on Batteries (Batt4EU) in support of the monitoring of its KPIs.

Activities are expected to achieve TRL 6-7 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.

[1]https://ec.europa.eu/info/research-and-innovation/research-area/industrial-research-and-innovation/key-enabling-technologies/advanced-materials-and-chemicals_en