The German Government is preparing to reduce the money allocated to battery research and development in 2024, following the wider cuts announced for Germany’s Climate and Transformation Fund.
According to the German outlet Wirtschaftswoche, the fund is short by around €60 billion - spending the German executive is now looking to scale back.
As a result, it is getting ready to cut a substantial share of the investment that had been earmarked for research and development of new batteries.
What is at stake?
The German Government is dealing with a serious budget crisis that it must resolve, and it is already affecting many of Germany’s energy-transition policies.
Again citing Wirtschaftswoche - a publication focused on economic affairs - the reductions planned for the German development ministry could reach €156 million in 2024, impacting up to 75% of the funding set aside for battery research and development.
KLiB warns of major consequences for German battery research
The KLiB alliance (Kompetenznetzwerk Lithium-Ionen-Batterien), which represents Germany’s battery industry, has already responded to the move with a warning: “The cuts they are planning will bring an end to German battery research, with dramatic consequences for Germany as a leading country in the technology,” reads the letter the alliance sent to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, which Wirtschaftswoche was able to access.
KLiB also warns that, without funding, Germany’s energy transition will become reliant on “non-European companies”, and that the foundations for a sovereign German battery ecosystem will be “destroyed”.
In the same letter - addressed not only to Olaf Scholz but also to the Economy Minister Robert Habeck, the Finance Minister Christian Lindner, and the Minister for Education and Development Bettina Stark-Watzinger - KLiB states that the German Government’s planned cuts affect “around 75% of the funding (…) for battery research planned for 2024 and for the following years”.
For KLiB, there is no doubt that “without batteries, the transformation of the economy and society towards carbon neutrality cannot be achieved”, since high-performance batteries are essential to “the competitiveness of electric vehicles, stationary storage systems, buses, lorries, drones, machinery and electric bicycles”.
Criticism over Intel and Northvolt support alongside cuts to universities and startups
What is also triggering a wave of criticism within the scientific community is the fact that the German Government remains committed to supporting a technology giant such as Intel or the Swedish battery company Northvolt with several billions of euros.
This comes at the same time as it announces a reduction in investment destined for German universities, research institutes and German startups that are directly linked to research in the field of battery development.
Source: Wirtschaftswoche
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