Li-Ion Batteries for Energy Storage Systems

The challenge of the market

Battery modules for energy storage have very specific requirements that differ from many other markets. One of the key requirements is a long cycle life, meaning that the battery can be charged and discharged many times without significantly losing capacity. For this type of batteries, it’s not uncommon to have 6,000 or more cycles. Choosing the correct cell type requires expertise, plus this expertise is also required when developing a smart BMS to control the operating parameters and achieve the required long cycle life.

Another requirement is flexibility, to allow batteries to be connected together to create larger units and systems to be scaled as necessary. The module is generally high energy of 2 kWh or more, to ensure optimal cost and scalability.

Such batteries are often installed inside buildings and, as mentioned, have significant energy. This means safety is a critical factor. Because of this, LFP (lithium iron phosphate) cells are becoming popular, as they are safer than NMC (nickel manganese cobalt) and NCA (nickel cobalt aluminium). What’s more, they have a higher cycle life. But they do have lower energy density, although this isn’t a crucial factor for this application.

Another challenge is that long term warranty periods like 5 or 10 years are common in this market. Generally speaking, only high-quality batteries made using a well-controlled production process can ensure the feasibility of these long warranty periods.

In the past, many energy storage batteries were manufactured in China, but the current trend of nearshoring promotes the production of batteries locally in Europe, meaning the supply chain can bring some challenges.

The market is expected to grow quickly in the coming years, to help with the transition to a sustainable solar powered energy model and stabilise electric grids with more and more renewable energy sources.

How do we deal with this?

With our strong focus on high quality production processes, refined through our time working with many market leaders, we can guarantee long service life and high safety levels.

Our internal lab, along with collaboration with external laboratories, gives us a competitive edge when it comes to cell selection and product validation, including in-house UN 38.3 certification.

We can design manual, semi-automatic, and automatic production lines to meet demand, while ensuring a consistent, high-quality output. We also have a dedicated team of electronic engineers which can develop customised BMS, optimised for energy storage applications. We also have experience in manufacturing high energy battery packs and modular solutions.

Everything required in the entire process is located under one roof in our Polish plant, plus most components are sourced locally from our network of European suppliers, all of which share our high standards and values.