A €105 million (US$127.6 million) push to develop low-cost, environmentally-friendly lithium-ion battery technology by Sunlight, a designer and manufacturer of batteries headquartered in Greece, will receive €49.9 million in grant funding. Contact online >>
A €105 million (US$127.6 million) push to develop low-cost, environmentally-friendly lithium-ion battery technology by Sunlight, a designer and manufacturer of batteries headquartered in Greece, will receive €49.9 million in grant funding.
Sunlight’s plan has been deemed an ‘Important Project of Common European Interest’ (IPCEI) under the European Union’s European Battery Innovation (EuBatIn) proposal, and the company has been approved to receive state aid from the Greek government under that categorisation.Germany’s Vartaalso received funding from its home government in Julyto pilot the production of large-format lithium-ion cells with€300 million in support to transfer the company's existing lithium-ion technologies to the new format as an IPCEI.
The plan involves the building of a research and development (R&D) facility in Athens, and Sunlight said it will fund the remaining €55.26 million of the total expected cost of €105.26 million. The company already has one R&D facility in Xanthe, Greece.
Sunlight is the first Greek company to be a part of an IPCEI consortium and the country’s Ministry of Development and Investment decided that the benefits of investing in a green future and the innovative nature of Sunlight’s project were worthy of funding, Sunlight said.
A company spokesperson told Energy-Storage.news today that Sunlight wants the lithium battery technologies it develops to play a key role in areas including automated guided vehicles, electric buses and shipping, as well as in “smart storage systems for renewable energy sources”. Whilst the company is technology agnostic, the spokesperson said, the research facility in Athens “will be used to further develop lithium cells”.
It’s a timely announcement, with the EU having just published a set of proposals for the European battery value chain that includes stipulations that makers and suppliers must provide carbon footprint declarations from mid-2024 – and then adhere to maximum carbon footprint thresholds from mid-2027. The proposals also include a wide range of other measures to address concerns over responsible sourcing of materials, sustainability and other issues.
The spokesperson for Sunlight said that “sustainability is a core objective” of the company being awarded the state aid funding, with Sunlight aiming to “adopt design and manufacturing principles that minimise the environmental footprint of batteries”.
“As far as the manufacturing process is concerned, the company plans to evaluate raw material suppliers not only on their quality and price, but also, on the sustainability footprint of their product. They also aim to establish carbon free production lines, through the use of renewables,” the Sunlight spokesperson said.
The facility is expect to create up to 1,500 jobs both directly and indirectly, including employment for specialised scientific personnel, as well as creating collaborative opportunities with academic institutions.
Manufacturer Sunlight plans to invest €30 million to add 1.3 GWh of annual production capacity of lead-acid products by the third quarter of next year. The company will also devote €20 million to expanding its lithium-ion battery assembly lines.
Athens-headquartered battery maker Sunlight has announced a €50 million investment plan, with €30 million of it allocated for the production of lead-acid batteries.
That will give the company “the largest output in the world for motive power lead-acid-flooded products," said Sunlight, adding the investment would see the lead-acid output capability of its fab in Xanthi, northern Greece, rise from 4 GWh to 5.3 GWh per year.
Sunlight also has a 25,000-tons-per-year recycling plant for lead-acid batteries in Komotini from which it aims to source 60% of its lead-acid material requirements. The business owns battery assembly facilities in Verona, in Italy; and in North Carolina, in the U.S.
The balance of the €50 million cash injection will go into lithium-ion battery output, with Sunlight describing itself as a lithium-ion supplier on its LinkedIn page. That €20 million is set to fund 1.7 GWh of annual lithium-ion battery assembly capacity, in the form of three “assembly lines for lithium modules and complete lithium battery systems, as well as one assembly line for prototyping and R&D purposes.”
The raised lithium-ion assembly capacity is expected to enter production before October next year and Sunlight said it has reserved space to more than double its annual output to “almost 4 GWh."
The Greek government will provide €49.9 million towards the cost of Sunlight''s planned lithium-ion R&D center in Athens – with some likely to come from EU funds – after the European Commission''s directorate-general for competition last year approved the subsidy, under the EU''s state aid rules. Sunlight will pay the remaining €55.3 million cost of the facility.
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