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<p>The Government has directly supported energy storage through research and innovation
funding. This support includes current funding from BEIS for an energy storage cost
reduction project, led by Nissan Motor Manufacturing (UK) Ltd, which is looking at
reducing the cost of stationary energy storage by developing cost effective, large-scale
processes for grading and sorting 2<sup>nd</sup> life Electric Vehicle batteries.
This project is due to be completed by end March 2021.</p><p> </p><p>There are several
projects being funded as part of the Collaborative Research & Development (CR&D)
activity of the Faraday Battery Challenge working on the development of the technical
aspects of remanufacture and understanding the economic viability of using electric
vehicle batteries for second life applications. These range in focus from diagnostic
techniques to establish the suitability of batteries for a second life application
and inform warranties for the second life devices, to developing effective methods
of remanufacture which includes optimising the initial battery design for remanufacture.
Second life applications are also a topic of research in the Faraday Institution (FI)
supported Recycling of Lithium-Ion Batteries (ReLIB) project, with a cohort group
established from the participants of the Collaborative Research & Development
(CR&D) and FI recycling and second life projects to share learning in this area.
The business cases for the types of electric vehicle batteries which are suitable
both physically and from an economic perspective for second life applications are
under development across the industry. These applications are dependent, among other
factors, on the rapidly changing cost of new batteries and the value and efficiency
of recovering the materials compared to the cost of remanufacture. Discussions are
active with industry and researchers on this topic, both as part of the recycling
and reuse cohort as well as conversations with companies and organisations across
the UK, covering topics such as data handling and sharing to enable assessment of
battery health at the end of EV life. The UK is also actively engaged in the World
Economic Forum Global Battery Alliance and European Battery Alliance working groups
in recycling and reuse.</p><p> </p><p>These innovation projects exploring second life
battery use will help to provide information on the proportion of electric vehicle
batteries which could be cost-effectively diverted to secondary use.</p>
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