https://www.elektroniknet.de/elektronik/power/den-asiaten-auf-den...

https://www.elektroniknet.de/elektronik/power/den-asiaten-auf-den-fersen-161031.html

translated from German with a couple of inaccuracies

After long dominance of Japan, South Korea and China in the cells, German companies are now starting to catch up. Several gigafactories are being planned, and in the foreseeable future large-scale production is to start. This could significantly reduce dependence on imports.

Finally, there is movement in the battery scene. Until now, Germany has been very cautious about large-scale investments in cell production. The motto was: Yes, take no chances - secure to the utmost. The preparations for an entry into a local cell production have therefore been endlessly long.

But own cell production is the last missing link in the otherwise well closed value chain. Research, raw material procurement, systems engineering and applications have been well represented for a long time. It would be pointless to start small in cell production. To become competitive with East Asia, the scale must be very large.

After long discussions between (too) many partners, the Terra E project was developed in Germany. Electronics reported on it [1]. In the meantime, the company has been taken over 100% by the BMZ Group, a global producer of battery systems of all kinds, who wants to build a German cell production with Terra E by 2020.

In addition, other projects are starting, initiated in other continents. Because in America, Asia and also Australia you think differently - far more risk-averse. So Terra E suddenly got strong competition from LiStrom , a previously completely unknown company. Behind this is the Australian large-scale company Magnis Resources, which was previously purely focused on raw materials exploration and has been using them for a few years.

The company is one of the world's largest suppliers of graphite, an indispensable material for the anode of lithium-ion batteries. To produce them, the company acquired the necessary know-how from two renowned US researchers with many patents: Prof. Stanley Whittingham and Shailesh Upreti. LiStrom is planning three gigafactories:

• In Townsville, Australia, with a capacity of 15 GWh per year;
• In the US in the state of New York, also 15 GWh;
• In Germany with 32 GWh, there under the name LiStrom.

The location of the German Fab will be located in North Rhine-Westphalia in the Lippe-Emscher region, embedded in a suitable industrial environment in order to exploit synergy effects. The construction should begin in 2019, the production in 2020. Because in the current cell technologies such as NMC (nickel manganese cobalt) and NCA (nickel cobalt aluminum), the Asians already have a difficult to catch up lead, LiStrom does not want to get into this, but puts on one new technology - on battery cells with solid electrolyte.

In addition, other large-scale production facilities are being built in Europe: The Chinese company CATL is building in Saxony, Northvolt in Sweden, Samsung in Hungary, LG in Poland. Liacon and Custom Cells, both spin-offs from the Fraunhofer ISiT in Itzehoe, run smaller production lines specializing in niche applications.

There will be no shortage of customers for the cells. There are already countless companies that buy cells and put battery systems together, tailor-made for each customer. Demand is growing enormously, the fastest in the solar home storage sector, with nearly double the annual increase, and household and garden small appliances, growing at 30 to 35% per year. Then follow e-bikes and wheelchairs. The demand for cells for electric cars has so far only increased by 21% per year.

If local production then begins massively, it will have a tremendous impact on much of the economy. A large number of suppliers and customers profit from this - many small and medium-sized companies, which in future will be able to get cells much easier, even in small quantities. The German engineering and plant construction companies also see this as very positive.

They are exporting a lot to the Far East, but they also want more customers in the domestic market to get feedback on improvements in a shorter time. The previously difficult to bridge spatial and cultural differences between East and West would then lose weight. Instead, uncomplicated ways of communication could open up that promote close networking between many partners.