This year, the Energy Storage Global Conference (ESGC) organised by CoFBAT partner EASE was held in hybrid form on 19-21 October in Brussels, Belgium. It successfully brought together high-level representatives from industry, researchers and EU policymakers to exchange views on key issues for the storage sector. As an innovative project on batteries which tackles issues of recyclability, cyclability, cost and availability of raw materials, CoFBAT was naturally present at the ESGC as well.
The event was hybrid, taking place physically and virtually for one and a half day. In those two days, CoFBAT had a booth at the venue, and was presented by EASE partners there. The other one and a half day of event was entirely online.
EASE Project Officer Claire Lemaire at the ESGC 2021
Carlos Concepcion Heydorn, coordinator of the project from Torrecid, was invited to be one of the speakers on the third day of the event, in a session titled ‘The Energy Storage Technologies of the Future: Competitive, Green, Safe’. Carlos presented CoFBAT and its goals to a large audience of participants, which also included policy makers. CoFBAT technology was highlighted as applicable in the near future by pointing out a few specific goals. First and foremost was to mention that CoFBAT will enhance market readiness of its technology and aim to advance the technology to TRL 6. This will be done by utilizing the expertise of the whole consortium and ensuring readiness of the technology for diversified use in for example pouch cells, battery storage and car batteries.
Carlos Concepcion Heydorn, CoFBAT coordinator, speaking at a session.
In the break-out room, focusing on the green aspects of energy storage technology, Carlos also had the opportunity to share some of CoFBAT’s details. He specified a move towards storage state synthesis and the use of less to none of liquid materials which reduces affluence considerably, making the battery safer and easier to recycle. This trend should come with a reduction of dependence on materials like cobalt which is CoFBAT’s main goal. He also called attention to the importance of national and transnational projects’ need to involve people from different backgrounds and with different expertise. All in all, the participation was a great success and we hope that the ESGC can increase the awareness of CoFBAT and its goals.
