Financing plan for battery research building in Braunschweig secured Financing plan for battery research building in Braunschweig secured

The planned research building for the “Centre for Circular Production of Next Batteries and Fuel Cells” (CPC) at Technische Universität Braunschweig has cleared an important hurdle: the budget and finance committee of the Niedersachsen state parliament approved the financing plan for the new building today, 4 December 2024. More than 150 scientists will work at the CPC on research into the circular production of energy storage devices. Recycling and resynthesis processes are taken into account from the outset in circular production, thus enabling the controlled and sustainable use of valuable raw materials in the production of batteries and fuel cells.

“The battery is the heart of every electric car. Its design has a decisive influence on the overall sustainability of electric mobility. The CPC will develop sustainably designed and produced batteries and use innovative processes to give old batteries a new lease of life,” said Falko Mohrs, Niedersachsen’s Science Minister. “The ultra-modern new building at TU Braunschweig will create ideal conditions for this research, which is also groundbreaking for the region.”

The new centre building will provide around 4,000 square metres of space for offices, laboratories and a pilot plant, where around 150 experts will work together across disciplines.

Angela Ittel, President of TU Braunschweig: “The news from the state parliament’s budget committee makes us very optimistic. The construction of the new battery research building is now assured. At the same time, it shows that Braunschweig is an indispensable location for energy research. The global transformation of energy use is progressing with increasing momentum, regardless of the current and very controversial funding policy decisions in this area in Germany. The development and optimisation of electrochemical storage systems plays a key role here – both in electromobility and in the energy industry. At the CPC, research will focus less on today’s lithium-ion battery technology and more on tomorrow’s storage and energy conversion technologies. We trust that the federal and state governments will continue to support the empirically based development of new energy and storage technologies.”

The central importance of research into batteries as a key technology was also recognised by all participants in today’s meeting of the Bundestag Committee for Education, Research and Technology Assessment.

Approximately €73 million have been earmarked for the new building, with expected cost increases already taken into account. At €38.6 million, the state of Niedersachsen is providing more than half of the total budget, with €31.6 million coming from the zukunft.niedersachsen programme. The remaining funds will be provided by the Federal Government (€26.4 million) and TU Braunschweig (€8 million).

The research at the planned ‘Centre for Circular Production of Next Batteries and Fuel Cells’ will be based on the development, diagnosis and simulation of material cycles for batteries, fuel cells and similar membrane-based systems. In a broader sense, research will also be carried out into the ecologically sustainable and at the same time economical design of factories that operate in a circular manner and have a high degree of versatility for technological change. In the sense of closed material and value cycles, these factories also integrate the return of a product after use for recycling or disposal. This will make a massive contribution to supporting Germany as a business location in the fields of electromobility, process development and recycling management.

The planned research building will be constructed in Braunschweig in the immediate vicinity of the two centres of the Niedersachsen Automotive Research Centre (NFF) and the Niedersachsen Aviation Research Centre (NFL), the extension of the Battery LabFactory Braunschweig (BLB) with the CircularLab@BLB and the building currently under construction for the Fraunhofer Project Centre ZESS. The CPC will further strengthen the TU’s research focus on ‘mobility’ and the umbrella brand of the CPC, BLB and ZESS ‘Braunschweig Laboratories for Batteries and more’ BLB+.