18 September 2023:
When EU leaders meet in Granada on the 5th of October 2023, the EU’s battery policy will be high on the agenda.
According to a leaked paper held by Reuters, the Spanish presidency of the Council of Europe is set to emphasise the danger of over-reliance on lithium-ion battery and fuel cell imports from China when it addresses EU leaders this October. It notes that this could engender a dependency of “the European energy ecosystem” by 2030 of a similar severity to that which it had on Russia prior to its invasion of Ukraine. With batteries playing a key role in the transition to clean energy, and in meeting the ambitions set forth by the EU in its Green Deal, this is clearly an issue of high importance.
Fortunately, part of the solution is already out there with us.
At FBE, we call on EU leaders to recognise the crucial role of flow batteries in alleviating any dependency, as part of an energy storage diversification strategy which will facilitate both a sustainable transition and security of energy supply. This is highlighted further in our Position Paper on the recent special report by the European Court of Auditors (ECA) on the EU’s industrial policy on batteries, where we called for more funding for promising flow battery technologies, and increased support for diverse battery technologies beyond lithium-ion.
Read more about the ECA’s report and see a summary of our Position Paper here.
