IPCEI funding of over 59 million euros to develop the batteries of the future in Trentino

Thanks to an IPCEI (Important Projects of Common European Interest) funding of over 59 million euros obtained from Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK) and Green Energy Storage (GES), Trentino will develop new generation batteries, innovative energy storage systems that will use non-toxic, sustainable and low-cost electrolytes.

The IPCEI EuBatIn – European Battery Innovation project authorized by the European Commission in January 2021, funded  by MISE in March 2022 and launched this year, will end by 2028. In addition to the research and development phase of the new technologies, new laboratories will also be built. These labs will host not only project-related testing but also work of industrial partners.

For FBK, the final result of the project will be the development of a series of technology components related to flow batteries and fourth and fifth generation batteries, as well as an innovative 50 kW/200kWh prototype for both stationary applications for energy storage from renewables and for use in mobility.  The activities will also focus on studying new battery system designs aiming at reducing cost and size, increasing safety and improving environmental sustainability.

In particular, the IPCEI fund obtained from GES amounts to 53 million euros and that obtained from FBK to 6.5 million euros.

The Councillor for economic development, research and work stressed that in this peculiar historical moment, in which the serious energy crisis is challenging not only the markets and touching our daily lives, it is with satisfaction that we greet the excellence of Trentino research, fully engaged in the search for the technologies of the future. FBK is committed to identifying and testing new materials and new technologies that will meet energy needs and, at the same time, are “environmental friendly” and promote the environmental transition that we are called to complete in the shortest possible time.

“The challenge posed by IPCEI projects”, says Fondazione Bruno Kessler’s President Francesco Profumo, “is part of a European strategic positioning dimension, to take a new manufacturing space in issues that the EU recognises as being of strategic importance. It is an epochal challenge in a world competing for resources, for technologies, for markets. It is an opportunity that falls on individual actors and individual territories. As Fondazione Bruno Kessler we are a key player in the supply chain, to accelerate the timline for development, which is to date a value that is even more precious than financial resources. Even more motivating to us is this challenge for the EuBatIn project, linked to the energy and ecological transition, which today is the basis for the expression of our European values included in the Green Deal program and relaunched, in the context of the current situation, also by the REPOWER EU special plan. In support of this, we will provide our best resources and most advanced laboratory infrastructure in the service of building value, technologies, sustainable solutions, and new jobs.”

“With the 53 million contribution to the IPCEI project, ” emphasizes Green Energy Storage president, Salvatore Pinto, “GES will develop its own hydrogen battery: a green technology revolution, top in performance and cost that aims to attack the global energy storage market. The contribution represents the validation of the GES model based on talent, research and innovation adapted to the Trentino region through talent attraction and strategic partnerships with FBK and Manica. GES’s new technological and industrial roadmap will amplify the already significant employment and induced effects on the Trentino region, which will also boast worldwide excellence in the increasingly strategic energy storage industry.”

“FBK, as a technology center,” specifies Luigi Crema, director of the Sustainable Energy Center at Fondazione Bruno Kessler, “will provide support to companies in their research activities to develop new components and systems. We will focus on present and future technological challenges, looking for new materials that are more sustainable and less impactful on supply chains, solutions to improve current technologies and advance those of the next generation. We will work on batteries for stationary applications, such as flow battery technology, through a strategic relationship with Green Energy Storage, and think about next-generation battery solutions, which to date engage the scientific community in a global challenge for enabling the deep electrification of the energy system, decarbonized by renewable energy. We will put our best effort to make our contribution. The total cost of 6.5 M€ will cover the upgrading of the current infrastructure, the construction of new laboratories and costs related to the R&D activities planned in the project. Possible synergies with other funding sources, e.g., IPCEI Hydrogen Technologies, will be exploited to maximize the impact of these initiatives on local, national and European industrial ecosystems.”