Technology Trending: Community solar, battery production and supply and Japan e-mobility

Scaling up battery production in Europe, advancing e-mobility with battery supply in Japan and a new community solar project in New York, are on the week’s technology radar.

Scaling up battery production in Europe

Romanian battery company Prime Batteries Technology, which produces lithium-ion batteries and tailor-made battery systems for the energy, automotive and industrial sectors, is partnering with the sustainable energy innovation engine EIT Innoenergy to scale up its battery production to 8GWh annually.

Under an investment agreement, Prime Batteries Technology is targeting annual output of 2GWh by 2024 and the 8GWh by 2026.

Vicentiu Ciobanu, chief executive officer at Prime Batteries Technology, says the company is delivering advanced storage solutions to various international customers, with the majority of the orders for 2023 and 2024 already secured.

“Due to growing demand, we need to increase our production capacity. We will do this by further developing our smart factory that at the same time enables us to make batteries at a significantly lower cost.”

As part of the plan, Prime Batteries Technology intends to attract and access new talent.

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Advancing e-mobility in Japan

Continuing the battery theme Japanese vehicle manufacturer Daihatsu, a subsidiary of Toyota, has entered in to an agreement with Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. for the stable supply of batteries for the company’s electric vehicles.

The goal is to promote e-mobility in Japan, with Daihatsu planning to ramp up the production and performance of its EVs, which also will be supplied to certain emerging markets.

Daihatsu also expects the agreement to accelerate its transition to net zero, while CATL regards it as another step in the expansion of its global footprint, which is currently focussed on southeast Asia.

New solar community in New York

A 7MW community solar project has been completed in New York state by Standard Solar, Catalyst Power and SolarPark Energy and is dedicated to Tom Guzek, the founder of the latter, a New York-based community solar project developer.

“Tommy would have been so excited to see this project come to fruition,” said Anne Cassidy, Managing Partner of SolarPark Energy.

“This is his legacy. He would have been honoured to be here today, but he’s here in spirit, I am absolutely sure.”

The project in the town of York is comprised of a single-axis tracker system, which is projected to produce approximately 10.8MWh annually and will allow local residents and businesses to benefit from clean energy savings by offsetting their electricity bills with solar energy.

Support for the project was provided by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), with community projects promoted in New York to support the state to meeting its clean energy goals.