News on the H2020 LOLABAT (LOng LAsting BATtery) project

Sunergy is proud to present the LOLABAT project (ongoing grant agreement with the EU)

As scientific and technical coordinator of the project, Sunergy will actively take part in transforming the EU energy market by bringing new performant Ni-Zn battery systems.

If negociations succeed, the project LOLABAT will be awarded a Horizon 2020 program grant of more than 7 M€ by the European Commission to develop the next-generation batteries for stationary energy storage. Out of 44 proposals submitted in this work program (LC-BAT-8-2020), only three were shortlisted and chosen, indicating a success rate of 6.8%.

The project is planned to start in January 2021 for a total duration of 39 months.

In that time, the LOLABAT project will demonstrate a new promising Ni-Zn battery chemistry that has the energy and power densities both highest after LiB batteries with a cost just above lead-acid batteries. All this while profiting from abundant and available raw materials, non-toxic elements, along with high safety, low risk of thermal runaway, limited environmental impact and high recycling potential.

LOLABAT will address properly the requirements of stationary energy storage developing NiZn with impressive lifespan of 4000 cycles for 6 use cases in utility grid and industrial sites. LOLABAT brings together a strong and complementary consortium of 17 European partners from 7 different countries (France, Sweden, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Portugal and Italian) : 7 being R&D institutions (SuperGrid Institute, CEA, Stockholm University, Helmholtz Institute, Cergy University, ZSW and Genova University), 6 SMEs (Bcare, AITEC, Accurec, Optima, InExtenso and Sunergy ) and 4 large companies (EverZinc, EDP, RINA and KME).

The well-balanced and interdisciplinary profiles of the partners covers satisfactorily the entire battery value chain along with the diverse fundamentals R&D fields required in the project. Moreover, an international advisory board, including large companies as General Electric, ENGIE, Orange, Naval Group and Chaowei Power Co., LTD, are involved in the development of the project, so that the use cases developed become real business models.

The NiZn technology developed in the LOLABAT project is a clear solution for Europe to catch up on the battery market dominated today by US or Asian producers. NiZn presents itself as the solution or Europe in the search for better performance along with price competitive and sustainable battery storage solutions. Beyond the research on improved electrochemistry and new battery materials, it is the complete batteries value chain and life-cycle that is considered, from access to raw materials, over innovative advanced materials to modelling, production, recycling, second life, life cycle and environmental assessments.