JOIN THE NAATBatt DELEGATION AT INTERBATTERY 2026 IN SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA

COEX Convention Center | March 11–13, 2025

InterBattery is Korea’s premier battery exhibition, convening global leaders, innovators, and investors across energy storage, EVs, and advanced battery technologies. NAATBatt will host a curated delegation, offering members exclusive access, increased visibility, and high-value connections in one of the world’s most influential battery markets.

As part of the delegation, participants will be invited to a U.S. Battery Forum, a full-day convening with U.S. and Korean companies, the U.S. Embassy, and key economic development stakeholders. The forum is designed to foster strategic collaboration on battery supply chains, with a particular focus on defense and national security applications, providing U.S. battery companies a rare opportunity to engage directly with Korean partners aligned with defense-related manufacturing, materials, and technology priorities.

With limited spots available, this delegation is ideal for U.S. battery companies looking to deepen partnerships in Korea and position themselves within critical, defense-relevant supply chains.

Click here to register.

NAATBatt 2026 Recycling & Lifecycle Management Workshop

NAATBatt will hold its 9th annual workshop on lithium battery recycling and lifecycle management on July 7-8, 2026, at Michigan State University's MEC Center in Troy, Michigan. The workshop will examine the technologies, business models and economic challenges involved in recycling and reusing lithium batteries in North America. Building a secure supply chain of battery materials in North America may ultimately depend heavily on the "urban mining" of battery materials. Learn about the prospects for lithium battery recycling and reuse in North America and meet the companies and experts that are already doing business in this sector. Watch this newsletter for additional information about the 2026 Recycling & Lifecycle Management Workshop and for the opening of registration for it.

Affordable Power Conference & Expo: Innovative Energy Storage for Grids & Data Center

NAATBatt and NY-BEST are partnering on a new conference and expo focused on the energy storage and power generation needs of data centers and grid operators. Affordable Power Conference & Expo: Innovative Energy Storage for Grids & Data Centers will be held on November 3-5, 2026 at the On Center in Syracuse, New York. The Expo will be a free-to-attend event offering companies providing energy storage and energy generation products to data centers and other microgrids the opportunity to highlight their expertise and meet potential customers. The Expo will be co-located with a conference discussing the policy drivers, economics, and innovative new energy technologies shaping this rapidly growing market. Watch this newsletter for more information about this program and for a link to the exhibitor prospectus.

NAATBatt 2027 Annual Meeting & Conference

It is not too early to start planning for NAATBatt 2027. NAATBatt 2027, the 18th annual meeting of NAATBatt International, be held on February 8–11, 2027, at the Westin Rancho Mirage in Rancho Mirage, California, just outside Palm Springs. The NAATBatt annual meeting features presentations by leading consulting firms and market analysts about various sectors of the battery market, in-person meetings of all 18 NAATBatt communities/committees, short Member Update Presentations by NAATBatt member firms, and simply the best networking available anywhere in the North American advanced battery industry. Mark your calendar and watch this newsletter for updates about NAATBatt 2027.

NAATBatt Lithium-Ion Battery Supply Chain Database

The National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR), formerly the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), has released a major update to the NAATBatt Lithium-Ion Battery Supply Chain Database. Developed in collaboration with Avicenne Energy US, the enhanced edition expands coverage to 1,178 facilities and 1,022 companies across North America. New features include real-time production data, detailed construction timelines, and expanded tracking of upstream, midstream, downstream, and recycling activities. The database is available through an online interface or as an Excel download to support strategic planning.

First launched in 2021, the database remains the most comprehensive directory of North American lithium-based battery companies, organized by product line and including suppliers of goods and services used in battery production. The February 2025 update added NAATBatt member professional service providers serving the industry. Updated twice yearly, the database allows companies to submit additions, corrections, or requests for inclusion directly to NLR.

New NAATBatt Website

NAATBatt’s new website is now live! Visit us at: www.naatbatt.org. Certain information and resources are available exclusively to members, and an account is required to access this content. Employees of all NAATBatt member firms should register to gain entry to the private member portal. The portal contains links to special resources and tools. For a guide on how to register and take advantage of this new NAATBatt member only resource, go to: https://www.naatbatt.org/blog/welcome-to-the-new-naatbatt-website

NAATBatt Communities

NAATBatt has 18 active subject matter committees/communities, offering NAATBatt members a way to hear about new developments in 18 different sectors of the advanced battery industry. And here's the kicker: It costs nothing to join a NAATBatt committee and participate in the community discussions. Just sign up here. NAATBatt subject matter communities are the new "water cooler" of the North American advanced battery industry: the place to hear the scuttlebutt about what is really going on. It makes no sense not to join.

Upcoming Meetings:

• March 12, 11:00 a.m. PT | 2:00 p.m. ET – Workforce Development (Education) Community
• March 19, 10:00 a.m. PT | 1:00 p.m. ET – Sodium Battery Community
• March 19, 11:30 a.m. PT | 2:30 p.m. ET – Cybersecurity Community
• March 19, 1:00 p.m. PT | 4:00 p.m. ET – Battery Safety Community

Member Press Releases

Intertek announced that its Swedish laboratory, Intertek Semko AB, has been accredited toward becoming a Notified Body under the EU Battery Regulation (EU) 2023/1542, positioning the company among the first accredited organizations and strengthening its role in helping battery manufacturers access the EU market.

Click here for the full news release.

EGI Battery announced the successful close of a $10 million seed financing round led by TSV Capital and backed by several prominent U.S. family offices to accelerate manufacturing scale-up, commercial expansion, and development of high-performance batteries for aerospace, uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), robotics, and critical infrastructure.

Click here for the full news release.

Nano One® Materials announced it has been awarded $3 million in funding from Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) to support process optimization, supply-chain diversification, and expanded commercial offerings for its One-Pot^TM lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cathode active material production through March 31, 2028.

Click here for the full news release

NAATBatt members interested in publishing press releases about developments at their companies in this section of the newsletter should send their releases by e-mail to Vivian Yu at NAATBatt by Thursday of each week.

Li-Bridge Corner

Battery Markets Accelerate Amid Tariff Reset and Policy Uncertainty

The battery sector remains highly dynamic, with record grid-scale storage deployments in 2025 and strong momentum heading into 2026, despite ongoing federal policy shifts.

On February 20, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 6–3 ruling that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not authorize the President to impose tariffs. The decision invalidates broad “emergency” tariffs tied to drug trafficking and trade deficits, cutting average effective import rates from roughly 16.9% to 9.1%.

For the battery industry, the impact is immediate: lower duties on imported components reduce cost pressures for energy storage and EV manufacturing, supporting project economics and consumer affordability. Grid-scale storage is particularly well positioned, with analysts projecting 21% U.S. growth in 2026, driven in part by accelerating data center electricity demand.

Uncertainty remains. Section 232 and Section 301 tariffs on materials including steel, aluminum, lithium, and cobalt stay in effect. The administration has imposed a temporary 10–15% global surcharge under Section 122 (capped at 150 days) and is reportedly considering new Section 232 probes targeting large-scale batteries and related sectors. In the near term, refund processing through the U.S. Court of International Trade may also create supply chain volatility.

At the same time, federal funding continues to flow. The Department of Energy recently awarded $117 million for battery materials processing as part of more than $16 billion in critical minerals support since 2023 under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Additional bipartisan legislation aims to strengthen oversight of battery supply chains.

Federal policies now blend tariff relief with lingering restrictions and grants, accelerating grid-scale and data-center-driven growth while challenging full EV supply chains amid uncertainty and potential new duties. Innovation in domestic recycling, processing, and grid integration may help hedge against economic swings.

If you would like to stay in touch regarding these and other issues facing the industry and government, please feel free to reach out at david.roberts@libridge.org

Advanced Battery Industry News

Amazon announced plans to invest €33.7 billion ($39.8 billion) in Spain to expand data center infrastructure, delivering artificial intelligence and cloud computing capabilities to organizations across Europe. This announcement adds €18 billion ($21 billion) to the €15.7 billion ($18,2 billion) investment announced in 2024. (Source: Amazon News)

Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle and xAI have signed the "Ratepayer Protection Pledge", agreeing to build, bring, or buy new generation resources and cover the cost of all power delivery infrastructure upgrades required for their data centers. (Source: The White House)

Sungrow and Delta Capacity have signed a 1GWh (gigawatt-hour) battery energy storage system (BESS) agreement for Sungrow’s PowerTitan 2.0 energy storage solution, with projects planned for delivery and deployment within 2026. (Source: Delta Capacity) 

PPC Group and METLEN Energy & Metals have signed a joint venture (JV) agreement in which each party will hold a 50% stake. The JV will develop, construct and operate a portfolio of BESS projects of up to 1.5GW/3.0GWh in Romania, Bulgaria and Italy, of which 1,000 megawatt (MW) are expected to be implemented within the next 12 months. (Source: METLEN Energy & Metals) 

BYD has unveiled its 2nd-generation Blade battery and FLASH Charging technology, capable of charging from 10% to 70% in 5 minutes and reaching 97% in about 9 minutes, while even at −30 °C the time to charge from 20% to 97% is only about 3 minutes longer than at room temperature. The company also announced plans to build 20,000 FLASH charging stations across China and begin global rollout by the end of 2026. (Source: BYD)

Posco Future M is planning to invest about 357 billion won ($244 million) to build a synthetic graphite anode material plant in Thai Nguyen, Vietnam. Construction is set to begin in 2H26 with mass production targeted for 2028 with capacity to up to 55,000 tons. (Source: The Korea Herald)

NHOA Energy has been awarded two BESS projects located in Italy with a total MACSE-contracted capacity of about 600MWh (megawatt-hour) and a total power of 90MW. The MACSE (Meccanismo di Approvvigionamento di Capacità di Stoccaggio Elettrico) is Italy’s capacity mechanism dedicated to long-duration storage. (Source: NHOA Energy)

Alabama Power is installing Tesla Megapacks at its Gorgas BESS to increase reliability during peak times. With the final of the 92 units expected to arrive in the coming days, the megapacks will be connected to 46 medium voltage transformers and linked through a control house to a switchyard that will tie directly into the high voltage grid. (Source: Alabama Power)

Frontier Lithium announced a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Panasonic Energy and Mitsubishi for the potential procurement of lithium salts and a broader collaboration in support of developing a North American battery supply chain. Frontier and Mitsubishi had previously established a JV company advancing the integrated PAK Lithium Project in Canada. Under the MOU, Panasonic Energy has expressed interest in procuring lithium hydroxide from the PAK Lithium Project. (Source: Frontier Lithium)

Nuvve Holding announced it is partnering with OMNIA Global to jointly address a pipeline in excess of 1 GW over the next 24 months with the supporting financing. The first and earliest project is a 50MW/75MWh European CE-approved BESS located in Sweden. (Source: Nuvve)

TotalEnergies has signed an agreement with Allianz Global Investors for the sale of a 50% stake in a portfolio of 11 battery storage projects with a total capacity of 789MW/1628 MWh. The partners will deliver an investment of €500 million ($580 million) in energy infrastructure for Germany, of which 70% will be financed by the debt. (Source: TotalEnergies)

NextSource Materials announced it has entered into a binding agreement with Syrah Resources for the supply of natural graphite fines for its planned battery anode facility in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Under the terms of the agreement, the company will source a minimum of approximately 34,000 tonnes and up to 68,000 tonnes of natural graphite fines in total over a 7-year period, with annual committed and optioned volumes subject to specific conditions precedent being satisfied. (Source: NextSource)

Rock Tech Lithium and Siemens Canada announced they have signed a non-binding MOU for a multi-phase partnership to develop lithium conversion capacity. (Source: Rock Tech Lithium)

CATL has signed an MOU with the BMW Group to collaborate on pilot projects on trusted data exchange and decarbonization across the power battery supply chain. By exploring applications of the Battery Passport, the companies are conducting practices for China-EU regulatory compliance and driving the adoption of battery information and data standards. (Source: CATL)

Hyundai Motor and KIA have made a strategic investment in Qnovo that will help enable deployment of the company’s battery intelligence software across electric mobility platforms. The investment follows years of collaborative testing between the companies. (Source: Qnovo)

Bimergen Energy announced the acquisition of eight 9.9MW distributed generation (DG) BESS projects from Aggreko’s IPP Solutions business, in the ERCOT South region of Texas. The acquisition was financed through Bimergen’s JV with RelyEZ, which will provide lithium-based batteries. (Source: Bimergen Energy)

BYD is planning to rollout 1MW charging technology in Europe with plans to deploy over 3,000 charging stations by the end of 2026. The 1,000-volt architecture supports up to 1,000 amps of charging current, theoretically adding around 400 kilometers (249 miles) of range in 5 minutes. (Source: The Driven)

Amazon Data Services is acquiring George Washington University's Virginia Science and Technology campus for $427 million. The deed ⁠authorizes Amazon to build a data or information technology center on the 120-acre site in Ashburn, Virginia. (Source: Reuters & Washington Post)

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science announced a $352 million funding opportunity for DOE’s Energy Frontier Research Centers. The funding is aimed at bringing together scientists from universities, DOE National Laboratories and other institutions to research materials sciences, chemistry, geosciences, and biosciences. (Source: DOE) 

The BMW Group and PreZero (part of the Schwarz Group) have signed a cooperation agreement to advance the circular economy across the European automotive industry. The aim of the collaboration is to develop a business model for the recycling of end-of-life vehicles, creating a closed loop for both materials and recycling. (Source: BMW)

MARA Holdings announced it has entered into an agreement with Starwood Capital Group and their data center development platform Starwood Digital Ventures. The companies will jointly develop, finance, and operate digital infrastructure projects across MARA’s existing portfolio and expect to deliver approximately 1GW of IT capacity with a pathway to over 2.5GW. (Source: MARA Holdings)

NIO and Bosch have signed a cooperation agreement. The partnership will span the NIO, ONVO and firefly brands, and focus on collaboration across smart electric vehicle (EV) technologies. (Source: NIO)

First Phosphate has been conditionally approved for a non-repayable contribution agreement for up to C$16.7 million ($12.2 million) with the Government of Canada through Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) under the Global Partnerships Initiative to be used to validate the ability to produce a phosphate concentrate for the lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery market. The work will be conducted based on the parameters established under the contract between the company and its definitive offtaker. (Source: First Phosphate)

Nano One® Materials announced it has been awarded $3 million from NRCan. The funds will support ongoing process optimization, supply chain diversification and commercial offerings for the One-Pot^TM production of LFP cathode active materials through to March 31, 2028. (Source: Nano One Materials)

Intertek announced its Swedish laboratory (Intertek Semko AB) has achieved accreditation towards becoming a Notified Body under the EU Battery Regulation (EU) 2023/1542. (Source: Intertek) 

Rio Tinto and CATL have signed an MOU to establish a partnership aimed to advance mine electrification and circular supply chains. (Source: Gasgoo) 

Sichuan Yahua Industrial Group has started building a lithium sulfate plant in Zimbabwe. The company runs the Kamativi lithium mine in a JV with the Zimbabwean state. (Source: Mining.com)

Elektros announced the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued U.S. Patent No. 12,522,100 B1, titled "Multi-Port Charging Assembly for Electric Vehicles" that introduces a charging architecture engineered to combine multiple independent power inputs into a single charging interface. (Source: Elektros)

Source: CRU Group

Executive Director's Notes

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