Lithium-ion batteries are not only important for the mobility of the future, but also for real estate. Real battery parks are needed to temporarily store electricity from variable sources such as solar or wind turbines. The use of batteries in electric cars or used electric car batteries after the replacement or scrapping of the mobile are one solution. Now the Japanese technology group Toshiba is trying to help achieve a breakthrough, specially developed as intermediate storage.

On 19. November the company presented the prototype of a lithium-ion battery with an aqueous electrolyte at a Japanese battery symposium. The model should not only extend the previously short life of previous large batteries to 2000 charging cycles and even with – 30 ° C still work. Toshiba also claims to have solved the problem of fire hazards, so that these battery parks can also be installed in the vicinity of housing developments or in office buildings.

Toshiba’s trick: conventional lithium -Ion batteries achieve their high energy density through the use of a flammable organic solvent. “This flammability often limits where storage batteries can be installed,” explains Toshiba. But Toshiba’s SCiB not only replaces the usual graphite anode with a non-flammable lithium titanate oxide (LTO), it also uses an aqueous electrolyte to reduce the risk of fire.

Large storage batteries With this progress, Toshiba hopes to be able to contribute to a greater spread of large storage batteries in the future. But the market will have to wait a little longer: Toshiba must now develop the technology to commercial market maturity in order to be able to demonstrate test systems to its customers as quickly as possible.

Japan’s leading battery manufacturer Panasonic is moving through an alliance with Norwegian companies closer to its European buyers of batteries for cars. Together with the energy company Equinor and the industrial group Hydro, the Japanese want to examine the establishment of a business with “green” batteries.

The move underlines the growing importance of the European electric car market. In the European Union there are not only ideas to force carmakers to switch to electrified vehicles more quickly. The EU also wants to use subsidies to build a European battery industry in order to reduce its dependence on China and other Asian companies. The plan is quite ambitious: By 2028 the world market share of batteries Made in Europe should go from a meager three to 28 percent rise.

Brandenburg versus Norway Panasonic has to hurry so as not to be left behind in the race for European automakers. Because the market is picking up speed. The US electric car manufacturer Tesla now wants to outperform its “Giga-Factory” built with Panasonic in the USA with a battery production facility in Brandenburg.

Japan has always tried everything possible with electronics – and often the impossible. Every Thursday our author Martin Kölling reports on the latest trends here.

Also Panasonic’s South Korean rival LG Chem is planning big: The Koreans are already producing batteries for Renault and Volkswagen in Poland. According to media reports, the company is now looking for a location for a third plant.

Even in Japan, there is a gold rush atmosphere when it comes to battery production. The country still has several manufacturers. For example, the share price of the relatively small manufacturer GS Yuasa rose by almost a quarter after Joe Biden’s victory in the US presidential election. Because investors sense a turnaround in US climate policy – and with it more momentum for electric cars. (bsc)