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The Gigabat project has gathered 16 organisations together to help create ‘gigafactories’ to scale up Europe’s battery production.
A new EU-funded project aims to build up the continent’s battery supply chain and improve current technology.
The Gigabat project aims to increase Europe’s cell battery production capacity from 60 GWh to 900 GWh, through the creation of multiple “gigafactories”. This target aims to meet EU 2030 targets, improve prosperity for the region and help the EU gain technological and industrial independence.
On the technology side, the Gigabat project aims to develop new cell manufacturing machinery for European gigafactories to improve production efficiency. The project highlights this as an urgent issue, due to emissions associated with “typical inefficient battery production”.
Another goal of the project is the promotion of sustainability, through recyclability targets and a reduced carbon footprint. The project has received funding from Horizon Europe and has a timeframe of 42 months.
A total of 16 organisations have joined the project to support the development of lithium-ion battery cells known as “Gen3B”. One of the project coordinators – Iker Boyano – said Gigabat aims to “revolutionise battery manufacturing in Europe”.
“The teamwork and diversified approach used by the 16 partners will ensure industrial independence by utilising machinery built in Europe and optimising the value chain for the battery manufacturing industry,” Boyano said.
“Together, we will promote innovation, enhance battery sustainability and efficiency, and support the European Union’s European Green Deal climate-neutrality goals.”
One of the consortium members is Comau, an Italian multinational that focuses on automation. Comau said its battery cell formation tech will be used in the project to create electric and thermal energy savings of up to 20pc compared to other market options.
The Italian company said its “high-performance cell formation chamber” will be designed to optimise the recuperation and reuse of electric energy and heat to improve efficiency at the gigafactories.
“Europe is moving towards an increasingly self-contained battery production chain and energy-efficient cell manufacturing is key to achieving this goal,” Comau said in a statement.
“Initiatives such as Gigabat, which go hand-in-hand with our technology development strategy and our ongoing dedication to enabling and optimising sustainable automation, will allow us to increasingly cover all phases of the electrification life cycle achieving up to 20pc electric and thermal energy savings.”
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