Summary
The Dutch electricity grid faces significant challenges in balancing economic growth with sustainability targets. Rapid electrification across industrial, transport, commercial, and residential sectors strains existing grid infrastructure, leading to congestion and transmission bottlenecks. These issues limit the integration of renewable energy and delays critical projects, threatening economic growth. Industries face unpredictable energy costs due to unflexible, non-dynamic power grids, and the housing crisis worsens by grid limitations. Long-duration energy storage (LDES) by innovative batteries offers a promising solution.
The name SLDBatt is derived from Sustainable Long Duration Battery Technology. The consortium was formed in response to the Growth Fund Material Independence & Circular Batteries, coordinated by the Battery Competence Cluster NL (BCC-NL), which aims to build a coherent, national program where innovative battery materials and components, production tech, and recycling approaches are assessed. SLDBatt is a collaboration of three technical universities, a university of applied sciences, three companies specializing in technology development, and two internationally operating energy and chemical companies. The project focuses on developing battery systems that can store renewable energy for 8 to 100 hours. This solves one of the most crucial challenges in the renewable energy transition — providing reliable and affordable electricity, especially when wind and solar power are not readily available.
Regulation and policy are necessary social innovations for long duration energy storage. The BMS team with KiTeS, CSTM and PA partners in collaboration with UT-TNW-CE-PCS investigate the context conditions in terms of regulatory, policy, and socio-technical aspects. There is a lack of proper regulatory and policy frameworks is slowing the development and implementation of sustainable LDES technologies. At the same time, the questions is how the development and deployment of sustainable long-duration energy storage are shaped by socio-technical dynamics, and how can regulatory and policy frameworks facilitate its integration into energy systems.
Partners
Exergy Storage B.V., HAN University of Applied Sciences, TU Delft, Aquabattery B.V., Eindhoven University of Technology, Elestor B.V., RWE Generation NL B.V., Nobian Industrial Chemistry B.V.
See more information on the project website: https://www.sldbatt.nl/
Project duration: January 2026 - December 2029
