Germany and Poland agree on forging battery production alliance

The governments of Poland and Germany have agreed on pooling their efforts to establish an independent battery production in Europe. At the bilateral German-Polish economy forum in Berlin, Germany’s economy and energy minister Peter Altmaier and Poland’s technology minister Jadwiga Emilewicz tabled a joint declaration that outlines strategic cooperation in several fields of industrial policy and includes a commitment to “investigate possibilities to work together towards the endeavour of forming a project of common European interest in battery cell production.” The minister say batteries are a key technology both for the expected boom in electric mobility as well as for a multitude of other uses for electricity storage devives, such as home batteries in private households. “The ability to use this technology in a large variety of applications and on a large scale is crucial in order to remain competitive,” the declaration says.

Economy minister Altmaier already in February said battery production would be a key component of his bid to secure and create global economic and technological leadership of key German and European industries, an approach backed by a recent study by think tank Agora Energiewende who said that the EU should focus on batteries as one of the most effective ways to improve its climate action record. A report by Bloomberg recently found that Germany's power storage market reached a new record volume of more than 5 billion euros last year.