Global chemical giant BASF is going to build a commercial battery-recycling, black-mass plant in Schwarzheide, a town in Brandenburg, eastern Germany.
Lithium-ion battery Stories June 20
Lithium-ion battery Stories June 10
Automakers are racing to produce electric vehicles, yet few firms currently know how to recycle old EV batteries. Experts at the Argonne National Laboratory, a US Department of Energy science and engineering research center in Lemont, Illinois, are inviting the public to listen in as experts explore the challenges – and solutions – of recycling lithium-ion batteries.
Lithium-ion battery Stories June 9
The mineral graphite, as an anode material, is a crucial part of a lithium-ion (Li-on) battery. Electrek spoke with John DeMaio, president of the Graphene Division of Graphex Group and CEO of Graphex Technologies. Read on to learn what he had to say about why graphite’s so important for EVs, what his company is doing to ramp up US sourcing and processing, and what the graphite supply is expected to be in the next couple years.
Lithium-ion battery Stories May 24
Lithium-ion battery Stories April 19
The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Programs Office has announced a conditional commitment to lend up to $107 million to Syrah Technologies for its Syrah Vidalia Facility in Vidalia, Louisiana. The facility produces a finished natural graphite-based active anode material (AAM), a critical material used in lithium-ion batteries.
Volvo C40 Recharge
Volvo Cars has invested in StoreDot, an Israel-based electric vehicle battery startup, through its venture capital arm, Volvo Cars Tech Fund.
Lithium-ion battery Stories April 7
- KORE Power is now ready to build the first lithium-ion battery factory wholly owned by a US company.
- UnderstandSolar is a free service that links you to top-rated solar installers in your region for personalized solar estimates. Tesla now offers price matching, so it’s important to shop for the best quotes. Click here to learn more and get your quotes. — *ad.
Lithium-ion battery Stories March 31
President Joe Biden will today authorize the use of Title III of the Korean War-era Defense Production Act (DPA) to rapidly step up US production of minerals for electric vehicle and storage batteries.
Lithium-ion battery Stories March 23
Graphex Technologies has entered into an exclusive non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) to form a joint venture with Emerald Energy Solutions to construct and operate a graphite processing facility in Michigan.
Lithium-ion battery Stories March 21
Big-battery manufacturing is ramping up to power EVs, but what will we do with the batteries when they’re dead? There’s a lot of money going into battery recycling companies, but equally important is how those companies actually procure the batteries in order to recycle them. Electrek spoke with Leo Raudys, the CEO of Call2Recycle, about how the Atlanta-based company closes the loop between producers, consumers, and recyclers and makes it easier to get dead e-mobility batteries into recyclers’ hands.
Lithium-ion battery Stories February 15
Most of the materials required for batteries and other clean energy technology are dirty to mine. They’re also mostly controlled by China. Can a recycling technology startup change that?
Electrek spoke with Megan O’Connor, cofounder and CEO of Nth Cycle, a Beverly, Massachusetts-based developer of a recycling technology that extracts critical metals from batteries for a second life, about how to enable a clean, domestic, and streamlined supply of critical minerals for the clean energy transition. Nth Cycle’s technology was developed at Harvard and Yale universities.
In April, Nth Cycle received $3.2 million in seed funding led by Boston-based clean energy venture capital company Clean Energy Ventures.
Lithium-ion battery Stories January 27
StoreDot, an Israel-based electric vehicle extreme fast charging (XFC) battery startup, today announced that it has advanced technology that extends the life span of batteries, making them highly effective not only during the vehicle life span, but also for second-life applications.
Lithium-ion battery Stories January 5
In what it claims is a “world first,” British Lithium has produced lithium at pilot scale from the mica in granite in its new government-backed pilot plant near Roche in Cornwall, England.
The lithium-ion batteries found in most modern EVs and hybrids tend to lose energy capacity as they cycle (get charged, get spent, and get re-charged). That happens because small bits of lithium can be cut off from the battery’s electrodes during the charging process. But, a team of DOE and Stanford scientists say they’ve been able to make this “dead” li-ion reconnect, partially reversing the unwanted loss of energy capacity and extending lithium battery life by 30%.
Lithium-ion battery Stories December 20, 2021
As the electric car revolution ramps up, so does the need for critical minerals used in batteries, such as graphite. According to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, there will be a global graphite deficit starting in 2022, and demand from the battery sector is expected to rise 30% annually until 2030. The US has no manufacturing plants that can supply automotive-grade graphite at scale. Meanwhile, China controls 84% of the global supply. Electrek spoke with Don Baxter, CEO of Ceylon Graphite, about how graphite is used in EVs, the supply chain issue, and how EV battery manufacturers can successfully source the vital mineral.
Lithium-ion battery Stories December 6, 2021
Researchers have developed a prototype lithium-ion battery that uses water as an electrolytic solution. The water replaces a flammable organic solvent.
Lithium-ion battery Stories November 24, 2021
More than 1 million electric vehicles are now driving on US roads. What will happen when those cars go out of service? The plan is to recycle their batteries.
Lithium-ion battery Stories November 10, 2021
StoreDot, an Israel-based electric vehicle battery startup, today claimed that it has become the first company to produce silicon-dominant extreme fast charge (XFC) cells for electric vehicles on a mass production line.
Lithium-ion battery Stories October 22, 2021
Amsterdam-headquartered global auto manufacturer Stellantis and South Korean battery maker LG Energy Solution announced a joint venture on October 18 to produce battery cells and modules for North America. Now Stellantis has today announced yet another battery production partnership, with Samsung SDI.
Lithium-ion battery Stories October 20, 2021
StoreDot, an Israel-based electric vehicle battery startup, today announced that it will open an R&D innovation hub in the US to speed up the development of solid-state batteries.
Lithium-ion battery Stories October 7, 2021
In today’s Electrek Green Energy Brief (EGEB):
- Scientists have taken another step toward making Li-ion battery recycling economical.
- The “world’s largest” floating wind farm is being planned off the coast of Scotland.
- Canadian clean energy company Amp builds a microgrid for a Native American tribe.
- UnderstandSolar is a free service that links you to top-rated solar installers in your region for personalized solar estimates. Tesla now offers price matching, so it’s important to shop for the best quotes. Click here to learn more and get your quotes. — *ad.
Lithium-ion battery Stories September 24, 2021
In today’s Electrek Green Energy Brief (EGEB):
- Two Arizona-based companies team up to produce batteries and convert truck fleets to electric.
- US hydropower generation is forecast to decline 14% in 2021 as a result of drought.
- UnderstandSolar is a free service that links you to top-rated solar installers in your region for personalized solar estimates. Tesla now offers price matching, so it’s important to shop for the best quotes. Click here to learn more and get your quotes. — *ad.
Lithium-ion battery Stories September 22, 2021
In the UK, two electric vehicle manufacturers, academics, and a battery analytics specialist company are collaborating on an electric vehicle battery research program designed to predict battery life span – and they say they’ve succeeded.
Lithium-ion battery Stories September 8, 2021
Lithium-ion battery development and production is rapidly escalating worldwide, yet there’s no standard when it comes to battery designs, materials, and chemistries. And that affects the ability to recycle Li-ion batteries – a vital final stage of their life cycle. But this may be about to change in the US.
Lithium-ion battery Stories September 7, 2021
In today’s Electrek Green Energy Brief (EGEB):
- Denmark’s and Scandinavia’s largest offshore wind farm was inaugurated yesterday.
- A judge denies another bid to halt excavation at the largest-known lithium resource in the US.
- UnderstandSolar is a free service that links you to top-rated solar installers in your region for personalized solar estimates. Tesla now offers price matching, so it’s important to shop for the best quotes. Click here to learn more and get your quotes. — *ad.
Lithium-ion battery Stories August 18, 2021
Zambian president-elect Hakainde Hichilema won a landslide victory in the country’s election last week, beating the incumbent, Edgar Lungu. Hichilema’s plan is to ramp up mining in particular to jump-start Zambia’s economy – and provide the rapidly growing electric vehicle battery industry with crucial cobalt and copper.
Lithium-ion battery Stories August 4, 2021
Current US battery production falls woefully short in the face of rapidly growing demand for electric vehicle and storage batteries.
The US has only a small number of domestic, large battery manufacturing factories, including Tesla’s Gigafactory that operates in partnership with Japan’s Panasonic. And just last week, KORE Power announced it will build the first lithium-ion battery factory wholly owned by a US company, in Arizona.
Both innovation and domestic battery production needs to scale quickly and efficiently, and the battery skills gap, among other things, need to be tackled in order to do that. Electrek spoke with Dr. Greg Less, technical director at the University of Michigan Battery Lab, about what the US needs to do to meet that demand.
Lithium-ion battery Stories July 29, 2021
During its “Tech Zone” online launch event, global battery maker CATL introduced its first-generation sodium-ion battery, as well as an AB solution that integrates both sodium-ion and lithium-ion cells into one pack. While this first generation of sodium-ion cells is not here to overtake traditional lithium-ion batteries, they do present a number of benefits for charging, maintaining energy, and helping to promote cleaner energy.
Lithium-ion battery Stories July 16, 2021
Clean energy may mean less mining for coal, but it also means more mining for minerals such as cobalt for use in alloys and batteries, tellurium for solar cells and semiconductors, and germanium for transistors in electronic devices.
Lithium-ion battery Stories July 7, 2021
In today’s Electrek Green Energy Brief (EGEB):
- Maine’s governor permanently bans offshore wind in state waters in a compromise.
- ION Energy raises $3.6 million with the participation of Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund.
- UnderstandSolar is a free service that links you to top-rated solar installers in your region for personalized solar estimates. Tesla now offers price matching, so it’s important to shop for the best quotes. Click here to learn more and get your quotes. — *ad.
Lithium-ion battery Stories June 23, 2021
The European Commission (EC) and the Batteries European Partnership Association (BEPA) have announced a memorandum of understanding to research and develop battery technologies for production in Europe. The co-programmed partnership is being called BATT4EU, and it’s aimed at bringing value and competitiveness to the EU’s battery chain.
Lithium-ion battery Stories June 22, 2021
This video tells the story of cobalt and its importance to batteries and electric cars.
Lithium-ion battery Stories June 10, 2021
In today’s Electrek Green Energy Brief (EGEB):
- NanoGraf claims it has enabled the highest-energy density 18650 cylindrical lithium-ion cell in the world.
- The US clean energy transition could create up to 600,000 jobs for American workers by 2030.
- UnderstandSolar is a free service that links you to top-rated solar installers in your region for personalized solar estimates. Tesla now offers price matching, so it’s important to shop for the best quotes. Click here to learn more and get your quotes. — *ad.
Lithium-ion battery Stories June 9, 2021
The Biden administration is keen to boost battery manufacturing on home soil as soon as possible. But in case you didn’t notice, the Democrats and Republicans are at loggerheads in Congress on Biden’s huge infrastructure plan. So here are four steps the Department of Energy is going to take right now to boost EV and clean energy storage battery production in the US.
Lithium-ion battery Stories June 4, 2021
Researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia have figured out how to extract lithium, an essential part of electric vehicle batteries, from seawater in a more cost-effective way.
Lithium-ion battery Stories May 13, 2021
Researchers at Harvard’s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) have developed a lithium-metal, solid-state battery they claim can hold significantly more energy within the same volume of traditional lithium-ion batteries while charging in a fraction of the time. While this is welcomed news around a potentially world-changing technology, questions surrounding cost effective scalability remain uncertain.
Lithium-ion battery Stories April 8, 2021
In today’s Electrek Green Energy Brief (EGEB):
- Battery materials and second-life battery recycling trailblazers just secured millions in VC funding.
- The Biden administration wants to replace fossil fuel subsidies with clean energy incentives.
- Community solar marketplace PowerMarket launches a redesigned website.
- UnderstandSolar is a free service that links you to top-rated solar installers in your region for personalized solar estimates. Tesla now offers price matching, so it’s important to shop for the best quotes. Click here to learn more and get your quotes. — *ad.
Lithium-ion battery Stories March 29, 2021
California-headquartered green power solutions company Jackery is officially releasing the Explorer 1500 on April 5 – its largest solar generator yet. The company asked Electrek if we’d like to try it out, so Jackery sent me a review unit, and I happily put it to the test. Here’s what I found.
Lithium-ion battery Stories February 5, 2021
Electric vehicle sales seem to be growing by the minute in the US. Although they still only have a tiny corner of the auto market cornered, astronomical valuations of industry leaders like Tesla offer a glimpse at the potential of a virtually nascent market. In order to bring costs down even further to entice consumers, the US has plans to amplify battery production on its home soil over the next decade. With global competitors miles ahead, does the US have the technology, or more importantly the resources, to gain ground in the EV battery market?
Lithium-ion battery Stories December 15, 2020
Researchers from the Tokyo University of Science have taken another step in the ongoing quest to bring next-generation sodium-ion batteries to market. They have achieved a higher-energy density in sodium-ion batteries than in lithium-ion batteries.
Lithium-ion battery Stories June 11, 2020
Michelin’s Movin’On Summit was held virtually last week, and five sustainable mobility companies won its Startup Challenge because they stood out as being able to move from “ambition to action.”
Lithium-ion battery Stories April 28, 2020
SK Innovation, a South Korean battery supplier for Volkswagen and Ford, said on Tuesday it will spend $727 million to build a second EV battery plant in the United States. Construction is expected to begin in July, with battery production slated to start in 2023.
Lithium-ion battery Stories April 23, 2020
John Goodenough, the co-inventor of the lithium-ion battery, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2019. But two years earlier, he announced that he made a breakthrough on a solid-state battery that could mean the end of internal-combustion cars. Goodenough, now 97, is self-isolating from the coronavirus and working on Nobel-related commitments. But the job of commercializing the potential breakthrough is being carried forward by the public utility Hydro-Québec.
Lithium-ion battery Stories February 21, 2020
Researchers at the University of Michigan this week published a paper titled, “Strategies to Limit Degradation and Maximize Li-ion Battery Service Lifetime.” The goal was to examine the best strategies for extending battery life, including for EV batteries. In the project, which was conducted in cooperation with the Responsible Battery Coalition, an industry association, researchers compared the owner’s manuals for electric cars with academic research.
Lithium-ion battery Stories January 20, 2020
In today’s Electrek Green Energy Brief (EGEB):
- Qatar to build an 800 MW solar farm with Total and Marubeni.
- A Tokyo University of Science team are developing potassium-driven rechargeable batteries.
- Cleantech Group announces its Global Cleantech 100, the companies most likely to make an impact.
Lithium-ion battery Stories January 15, 2020
Tesla is reportedly in talks with mining giant Glencore to secure a supply of cobalt, a controversial mineral used to produce Li-ion batteries used in most electric vehicles today. expand full story
Lithium-ion battery Stories December 5, 2019
In July it was announced that LG Chem was working on a potential new billion-dollar US battery cell factory for electric cars. Today in a security filing in South Korea, LG Chem confirmed that investment, and that GM will invest another billion.
Reuters reports that the location is expected to be in the area of Lordstown, Ohio, where GM (pictured in Detroit) recently sold its factory to an EV startup affiliated with Workhorse. This follows news earlier this week that Piedmont Lithium received an important federal permit to proceed with its lithium mine in Gaston County, North Carolina — the second in North America. Looks like Interstate 77 will be America’s hot new lithium corridor.
Lithium-ion battery Stories November 6, 2019
Volvo Cars announced today that it would become the first carmaker to implement global traceability of cobalt by applying blockchain technology. The Swedish carmaker said that it reached an agreement with its two global battery suppliers, CATL of China and LG Chem of South Korea, to trace cobalt supplies starting this year.
