Recording of Tuesday, June 18, 2024 | The smarter E Europe | Conference Program | Language: English | Duration: 8:50 .
Wilhelm Löwenhielm, an employee at Northvolt, a Sweden-based battery manufacturer, discusses his work with energy storage systems. Northvolt caters primarily to the automotive sector but also supports industrial vehicles and energy storage applications. The company’s first gigafactory in Skellefteå is set to expand its annual capacity from 16 gigawatt hours to 60 gigawatt hours within a few years. Löwenhielm recently transitioned into working on sodium-ion technologies but emphasizes the continued relevance of lithium-ion technology for long-duration energy storage. He notes that despite recent remarkable cost reductions for lithium-ion cells and an oversaturated market driving prices down further, lithium-ion remains highly bankable due to its decade-long operational data. He highlights challenges such as competitive pricing pressures from Chinese manufacturers and stresses the importance of anticipating future market needs rather than focusing solely on current profitability. While acknowledging the limitations of batteries for extremely long durations, he believes that both lithium-ion and emerging sodium-ion technologies will continue dominating the market over the next decade due to their efficiency and scalability advantages. Sodium-ion batteries are poised as a promising alternative by mitigating issues related to critical raw materials and price volatility seen in lithium variants. This new technology could establish a lower-cost benchmark without relying on scarce resources like cobalt or experiencing drastic price fluctuations tied to lithium carbonate costs. In summary, while fostering innovation in various battery technologies is crucial for enabling grid transitions away from fossil fuels, Löwenhielm sees significant potential in enhancing existing solutions like lithium-ions alongside developing scalable alternatives like sodium-ions.
Automated summarization by AI Conver
Wilhelm Löwenhielm
Senior Director ESS
Northvolt
Sweden
Long-duration energy storage (LDES) is undoubtedly a key enabler for achieving net-zero. However, despite a wide range of technology providers claiming cost competitiveness and other advantages over lithium-ion batteries, the latter continue to dominate new deployments in Europe and elsewhere. So what's holding LDES back? What is needed to enable more widespread adoption? And when will the age of LDES finally arrive?In this panel, experts will provide an assessment of the suitability of LDES for today's market, the barriers that exist and the requirements and likely timeline for LDES to finally become mainstream.
Further Talks of this session:
Speaker
Dr. Oliver Schmidt
CEO
dvlp.energy
Germany
Speaker
Susan Taylor
Senior Analyst
S&P Global
Speaker
Julia Souder
CEO
LDES Council
Belgium
Speaker
Laurent Segalen
CEO
Megawatt-X
United Kingdom
Speaker
Jan Andersson
Director, Global Market Development
Sumitomo SHi FW
Finland