Research and development were in focus when academia, industry and other stakeholders gathered for the battery conference NordBatt 2022 at Chalmers at the end of October.
The conference takes place every two years, with participants mainly from the Nordic and Baltic countries, and was this year organized at Chalmers by Professor Patrik Johansson's team, together with Battery Alliance Sweden (BASE) and the Swedish Energy Agency, with support from several of Chalmers' Areas of Advance.
The theme for this year's NordBatt was "From moving electrons to electromobility". This was reflected in lectures on everything from fundamental material research to new manufacturing methods, via shorter talks from several battery manufacturers such as NoVo Energy, Beyonder, and Morrow, to plans and strategies from end users such as Volvo Cars, AB Volvo, Scania and Polestar. Some of the topics discussed were new battery materials and concepts, modelling, studies of how batteries age, and how batteries can be scaled up and recycled.
The purpose of the conference is to exchange experiences and inspire. It also aims to create and strengthen the Nordic-Baltic networks for the entire battery ecosystem including training, skills provision, and equality aspects.
New for this year was that before the NordBatt 2022 conference took off, half a day was dedicated to a pre-conference by and for doctoral students and postdocs, in order for them to create their own networks. In parallel with this, the European research initiative Battery2030+ organised a strategic Nordic-Baltic meeting.
Patrik Johansson“Being able to gather physically again after the pandemic and see how the battery field has grown in just the last few years was a fantastic feeling. From this year's conference, the progress on the battery manufacturing side is really noticeable, and that is good news, not the least for Gothenburg. How other battery technologies advance their positions is also clear, as is how the entire battery value chain is now involved,” says Patrik Johansson.
“Another aspect to highlight is the younger researchers, they are very mature and we really need their excellence going forward – both in academia and in industry.”
The next NordBatt will take place in 2024 and will be organized by Alexey Koposov at University of Oslo.
Read more about this year's conference at the homepage of NordBatt 2022
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- Full Professor, Materials Physics, Physics