EMPOWER is an UiO:Energy and Environment Convergence Environment aimed at developing an encompassing long-term strategy on sustainable batteries. The project runs from 2022-2026 and comprises 6 interconnected work packages.
By answering its overarching research question: "How can EV batteries EMPOWER the transition to a net-zero energy system in Norway?", EMPOWER will develop an encompassing long-term strategy towards sustainable EV batteries.
Both the EU’s Green Deal and the EU Circular Economy Action Plan mention the centrality of batteries to sustainable futures. In Norway, transport is the highest greenhouse gas-emitting sector. To reach the vision of a Norwegian net-zero energy system by 2050, the decarbonisation of all transport segments is crucial. While batteries represent a central technology for zero-carbon transportation, they also pose complex socio-ecological problems.
We will propose and evaluate new ways of utilizing and repurposing batteries by adopting the 7R’s of the circular economy (i.e., reuse, recycle, reduce, rethink, repair, refurbish and recover), develop specific legislative proposals for sustainable batteries and suggest solutions for how EV batteries can enable a socio-ecologically sound net-zero energy system by 2050, in line with the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals. To ensure that EMPOWER has a long-lasting impact, the Battery Generation (i.e. adolescents) will play an important part in the project by active participation in the research co-design, which aims to be guided by their vision of a sustainable future. At the same time, with the PhD and postdoctoral researchers embedded in an interdisciplinary research environment, the project will design “interdisciplinary research school” around batteries to replace a single discipline academic education.
UiO:Energy and Environment's Convergence Environments are large and interdisciplinary research projects funded by UiO:Energy and Environment. They aim to strengthen collaboration across the university, and contribute to increased coordination and synergy between researchers and relevant external stakeholders within the field of sustainable energy and the energy transition.
WP1. Towards a sustainable EV battery life cycle. Lead: Maja Van Der Velden
WP1 will provide a sustainability framework for EMPOWER, with a focus on the EV battery life cycle and future battery use. It will take a regulatory ecology perspective, a systems approach to investigating the interactions between four modes of regulation: the design and architecture of batteries (WP2), the laws and directives regulating batteries (WP4), the market of mobility batteries (new and second-life ones) (WP3), and social norms of battery use, now and in the future (WP1, WP3 & WP5). This integrative approach will support the creation of a common language in the project, strengthening our collaboration and enable interdisciplinary outcomes. The interdisciplinary work will be further enhanced by integrative mapping exercises, in which EMPOWER participants engage in a participatory mapping of project results and analysis. Secondly, informed by the EV battery life cycle, this WP will involve youth in designing and exploring future sustainable transport solutions. This WP will address the following RQs: 1) What are the social and environmental impacts in the EV battery life cycle? and 2) How do youth envision their future sustainable transportation?
WP2. Materials and technologies for sustainable EV batteries in a circular economy. Lead: Matylda N. Guzik
Li-ion battery packs recovered from end-of-life EVs present potential technological opportunities for improving both material efficiency and energy systems. Closed-loop recycling processes, where whole EV batteries and/or their constituent minerals and compounds are kept in a perpetual cycle of use and reuse, are getting increasingly important for reducing primary material demand. At the same time, waste EV battery packs can be reutilized as a stationary energy storage solution, facilitating the integration of wind and/or solar energy. This approach is promising but still requires modeling & pilot tests to be broadly implemented.
The RQs to be answered in WP2 are: 1) What is the feasibility of the 7R’s circular economy approach in the sustainable EV battery production & utilization?; 2) New vs. used/waste EV batteries in RES: what are the technical performance differences?; 3) How to improve grid stability & resilience with integrated new vs. used/waste EV batteries during load changes, failures & disruptive conditions?; and 4) How to implement an energy management system for zero-energy buildings by integration of used/waste EV batteries with RES?
WP3. Consumers & Producers: Determinants of preferences. Lead: Beate Seibt
The sustainability of EV batteries depends largely on political decisions to implement more sustainable sourcing of materials and manufacturing, and on producer and consumer choices. WP3 therefore examines the determinants of such choices among EV battery consumers and producers/providers. The majority of studies on EV adoption (e.g. ref16) examine consumer preferences and adoption intentions/ decisions for EVs in general, thus, do not probe respondents for their specific beliefs and attitudes about the sustainability and life cycle of EV batteries. WP3 will try to answer the following RQs: 1) What are the perceived costs and benefits of sustainable batteries across their whole life cycle?; 2) How do consumers make choices for themselves based on these costs and benefits?; 3) How do they form preferences for Norway’s path towards a sustainable future?; and 4) What are EV owners preferences for battery ownership and possible repurposing or recycling?
WP4. A legal framework for sustainable batteries in mobility. Lead: Ele?onore Maitre-Ekern
A strong and coherent regulatory framework is essential to achieve a sustainable circular economy. The EV battery industry is at a critical junction where several new legal and policy measures are either in the making or being substantially revised with significant regulatory development in the period 2020-2022 both in Norway and the EU. The following RQs will be answered in WP4: 1) What laws currently regulate EV batteries in various transportation segments in Norway, the EU and internationally, and more specifically, how is EV battery ownership regulated?; 2) How can national and international regulations help to include EV batteries in a sustainable circular economy and improve social and environmental standards throughout the life cycle?; 3) What specific barriers do battery producers, consumers and recyclers face and what policy strategy can provide the right incentives and communication tools?
WP5. Modelling: Sustainable EV batteries in future net-zero energy systems. Leads: Marianne Zeyringer, Fred Espen Benth
WP5 aims to study the following topics:
1. Changes in electricity demand, opportunities of demand side response & vehicle to grid: How do i) these new spatially and temporally explicit loads from EVs and battery production facilities, ii) the opportunities from demand side response and vehicle to grid change the operation and design of future renewable based energy systems? How much additional battery capacity can be substituted when optimally using EV flexibility?
2. Circular economy: How does a future net-zero energy system look like that considers 1. socio-environmental costs related to batteries (and other low- carbon technologies) and 2. reused batteries?
3. Participatory modelling: How do visions of young people as well as wider stakeholders on points 1 and 2 effect our future energy system design? This will be done in collaboration with other WPs and industry partners via a large national survey and school workshops.
WP6. EMPOWER to Educate: Co-designed research and education. Leads: Crina Damsa, Mary Sutphen
This WP will explore empirically i) how the interdisciplinary team of researchers and practitioners collaborate to generate new understanding of the sustainability concept in relation to EV batteries; and ii) how the collaborative approach we will use in the project, along with the co-design undertaken, becomes embedded in education curricula, taught and learned by young people, (PhD) students and early-stage researchers. WP6 will address the following RQs: 1) How do EMPOWER researchers (WP1-5), who will also be educators in this WP, use research from other WPs in their teaching? In turn, how does their EMPOWER collaboration influence their research or teaching?; 2) How can research-based educational approaches be co-designed, taught and implemented to support young peoples’ learning about sustainable EV batteries?
