Batteries Eco Design preparatory study outcome and legislative action
13 February 2020
In September 2018, the European Commission engaged an external contractor to carry out a study on a technical environmental and economic analysis of batteries in the context of the Eco-Design Directive. The primary goal of the study is to set sustainability requirements for industrial rechargeable electrotechnical batteries, which should increase energy efficiency, cut CO2 emissions and boost circularity of raw materials. Halfway through the study the commission added additional sustainability requirements for batteries, such as the carbon footprint in battery manufacturing and the responsible sourcing of raw materials.
The study is now complete and the Commission are considering routes to regulate these requirements for batteries, as an eco design implementing measure for sustainable batteries has now been discarded as an option. Follow the link HERE to access the Eco design preparatory study files and outputs.
Scope:
“rechargeable batteries of high capacity with internal storage for e-mobility (including potentially light mobility applications) and stationary energy storage”, thereby removing a previous specification of “batteries with lithium chemistries”
It will be up to the new Commission to device on a future legislative proposal, possible regulation, which would be coherent with the Batteries Directive revision which is now expected latter in 2020/2021.
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