The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Germany, has recently announced the investment of a further €100m in battery research, aiming to increase battery life expectancy, enhance production and improve battery recycling methods.
The new investment is open to both universities and non-university research institutions. The BMBF will be awarding this funding as part of the umbrella concept ‘Battery Research Factory’. The ministry hopes that four additional battery competence clusters will help to strengthen battery research in Germany along the entire value chain, furthering our understanding of battery life expectancy and battery recycling.
Federal Minister of Research Anja Karliczek explains: “Battery technology is a key technology of the future. It starts with mobility, goes through energy storage in power grids and households, and doesn’t end with industrial applications, medical devices or power tools. The battery is of diverse importance for our innovation and business location.
That is why my ministry has consistently strengthened battery research in Germany and the transfer to industrial application. The battery research landscape in Germany has been reorganised over the past ten years. This work is bearing fruit: Germany is now again a ‘hotspot’ in battery research in the best sense.”
Supporting battery research
The BMBF aims to keep Germany at the forefront of battery research by increasing funding and supporting the transfer to industrial applications through four new battery competence clusters, including:
- Intelligent battery cell production (InZePro): focuses on innovating plant technology, digitisation, Artificial Intelligence (AI) in production and virtual production systems (valued at €30m).
- Recycling/green battery (greenBatt): the goal of this competence cluster is to close material cycles by systematically increasing battery life expectancy and improve battery recycling methods (valued at €30m).
- Battery usage concepts (BattUse): aims to further our understanding of battery behaviour to determine when the second use of battery storage is preferable (valued at €20m).
- Analytics/quality assurance (AQua): this competence cluster was designed to improve the performance of long life and high safety of batteries (valued at €20m).
Karliczek continued: “We are now further strengthening the battery research landscape in Germany with the four new battery competence clusters. The new competence clusters are devoted to important future topics in battery research: from production and usage concepts to recycling and quality assurance. The roof concept “Battery Research Factory” thus paves the way for new and better battery technologies ‘made in Germany’.”
