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twice a day starting from the PV and Battery Production Forum in In all, the sessions shone a light on the important topics
hall C1. The tour took a closer look at the technologies presented affecting the industry from technical and economic perspectives,
in the PV and Battery Production Forum and supplemented them describing the current status of norms and standards and
with a look at other innovations from a range of companies presenting exemplary results from professional practice.
along the supply chain of a battery.
Another highlight was the manufacturer overview tour in Hall Practical forums
B1, which included visits to the stands of international brands The ees Forum was held in hall C2 under the motto “Innovating
including Eaton and Tesvolt, as well as wind and solar firms. energy storage”. It was here the ees AWARD finalists’ were
As the trend to deploy storage alongside renewables grows, introduced and current topics and developments discussed in
there was also the chance to join the PV Guided Tours that sessions ranging from monetizing solar & storage and alternatives
presented solutions for domestic storage systems applications as to lithium ion battery storage — including flow batteries (Enerox
well as storage systems and off-grid solutions for industry and won an ees AWARD for their lithium metal polymer solution),
commerce. nickel metal hydride, sodium and thermal solutions, all of which
were exhibited during the event.
Expert insight The PV and Battery Production Forum in hall C1 was held
As always, delegates were given two days of insights and in cooperation with PEM (Chair of Production Engineering of
specialist opinion during the comprehensive ees Europe E-Mobility Components) at RWTH Aachen University. Here, the
Conference program. spotlight was on battery production as a trend in technology,
The in-depth program included numerous sessions exploring automation and process innovation.
the technologies of the future. A notable example was the Christoph Schön, from PEM, said the discussions explored
‘Quality Assurance for Products and Projects – Safety, Reliability innovations which were extremely important for sustainable
and Performance’ session, which addressed the key concerns production in Europe. “These range from energy-efficient
in the field of quality assurance for stationary battery storage processing technologies — such as the use of lasers — to a
applications. strong machine and plant construction sector with solutions for
The session was led by Dr. Matthias Vetter, head of Department automated module and pack production to the next generation
for Electrical Energy Storage at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar of battery technologies,” he said.
Energy Systems ISE in Germany and chairman of the ees Europe A highlight of the forum programme was on Thursday in hall
Conference. He said: “When it comes to achieving a wide- C1, the space dedicated to the topic of production technologies.
reaching and sustainable market penetration of stationary battery The ‘Fab Manager Day Focus Battery Production: Automation of
storage systems in the widest possible range of applications the Module and Pack-Assembly - Scalable Production Processes’ was
topics of safety and reliability are paramount and create the two hours of discussion on building batteries beginning with a
basis required. But efficiency and effectiveness also have to be look at solid state lithium ion technology and closing with a look
addressed for worthwhile applications.” at inline optical inspection in battery production.