Battery Summit 2021: much needed cooperation between research and the battery industry

Lifeng Liu is currently the Leader of the Nanomaterials for Energy Storage and Conversion (NESC) group at INL. Dr. Liu focuses his research on the development of new nanostructured materials and their applications in electrochemical energy storage and conversion including water splitting, solar fuel production, lithium-/sodium-ion batteries, and supercapacitors.

Batteries play a central role in Europe’s transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Versatile and high-performance batteries reduce the carbon footprints of the transport sector, stabilise the power grid and support a broad range of strategic industries including medical devices, ICT, aerospace and advanced robotics.

To accelerate the transition, batteries must exhibit ultra-high performance beyond their capabilities today. The next-generation batteries need to possess energy and power performance approaching theoretical limits, outstanding lifetime and reliability, enhanced safety and environmental sustainability, and smart functionality.

Furthermore, to be commercially successful, these batteries must be able to be cost-efficiently produced in high volume. This calls for intimate cooperation of the research community and battery industry along the whole value chain, addressing R&I challenges towards green mining, sustainable processing of raw materials, discovery of battery materials and interfaces using artificial intelligence, integration of smart functionalities in battery cells, low-cost, sustainable and environmentally-friendly manufacturing processes and associated tool development based on digital twinning, responsible end-of-life management (secondary use, recycling, etc.), and training and reskilling of workforces.  

The large lithium resources existing in Portugal and to a lesser extent in Spain, provide both countries with excellent opportunities of creating significant added value, by going beyond sole mining activities and building up a more complete battery ecosystem along the full value chain. This Summit will bring together various stakeholders including policymakers, professionals, and key Iberian and European industrial players, showcasing the competences and ongoing initiatives and debating how to orchestrate sustained and robust growth of the European battery industry.

Join us at the Battery Summit on 22-23 March 2021. It’s a FREE Online Event!

Learn how we are already building this new future. Competitive sustainability is necessary for green transport, clean energy and to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.