The need for clean and sustainable energy-independence is one of the most pressing challenges facing the European Union (EU) today. The EU has declared its intention to make Europe the world's first climate-neutral continent by 2050, and the EU's "Fit for 55" plan aims to reduce emissions by at least 55 % by 2030. The EU's "Fit for 55" plan aims to reduce emissions by at least 55 % by 2030. As a result, battery demand in Europe is forecasted to reach a staggering 450 GWh in 2030. Building an advanced European battery value chain is essential to achieving this while maintaining a robust transport and electricity infrastructure.
Quickly developing new battery designs to meet the diverse needs of many different customers requires a lot of data and testing.
The current paradigm for battery testing is fragmented, time-consuming, and expensive. To fully characterize the performance of a battery cell requires a wide variety of both destructive and non-destructive tests, some of which can last for months or years.
Our goals are to standardise, automate and accelerate the battery testing process. This will be achieved through several novel approaches. Key new developments in the project will be:
- standard semantic data models for battery testing, which can be read and understood by both humans and machines
- a digital-twin infrastructure linking experimental testing rigs with simulation-based virtual testing workflows and allowing for automatic triggering of tests
- data-driven approaches to support intelligent design of experiments and tailored testing workflows
- reliable new models for predicting battery lifetime and safety within system-level infrastructure.
Delivering publicly available, open-source solutions will also be a key objective of the project. These developments are expected to streamline testing workflows, enhance the quality of results, and make digital battery testing accessible to the broader battery community.
The DigiBatt consortium is comprised of a wide range of stakeholders from researchers, battery manufacturers, battery testers and battery system integrators. It brings together world-leading institutions, who have the capacity to make the DigiBatt vision a reality. Partners in the project are: SINTEF (coordinator), DLR (German Aerospace Center), Vrije University Brussels, Virtual Vehicle Research, Corvus Energy, Forschungszentrum Juelich, AVL, FREYR and The University of Oxford.
DigiBatt's collaborative approach and its commitment to digital innovation means it will be crucial in advancing battery technology for the benefit of all of Europe.