On 26 and 27 September, BALIHT consortium met for the fifth General Assembly of the project. It was the first General Assembly to be held physically since the kick-off the project in December 2019, due COVID-crisis breakdown and following travel restrictions over the past years.
The General Assembly took place in Ibiza and was hosted by one of the partners, Ports de Balears. As most of the research on the battery elements and components have been done, this 2-day meeting mostly focused on the work undertaken for the manufacturing of the battery prototype, as well as all the steps achieved and remaining in order to install and integrate BALIHT’s battery in Ibiza harbour’s new facilities. On Day 2, BALIHT team visited the future site of the harbour’s new terminal, where the battery will be used to integrate renewable energy from solar panels into grid used for EV charging stations to be installed around the terminal.
The General Assembly also introduced an update on the key-hotspots of the Life-Cycle Assessment report of the battery. The study show promising results for BALIHT battery, both in terms of performance and social aspects. Work is still ongoing for the study on toxicology and saftey aspects of the battery, as well as for its life-cycle cost analysis.
Finally, as the project is entering in its last months, the General Assembly was a good opportunity for the partners to address the n key-aspects on the exploitation and dissemination of the project’s results and outcomes. A workshop was held to discuss the exploitation strategy within the enxt months and to ensure that the different processes and technologies developed within the project will be effectively exploited. Several opportunities havve been identified, such as the participation of BALIHT project in the next Enlit Europe Conference in Frankfurt, on 29 Nov – 1 Dec.
It was a real pleasure for most of the partners to meet physically and to exchange directly on the main developments of the projects obtained or yet to come. The visit of the future location of the battery also enabled the whole team to feel that the project is coming to an achievement.
We cannot wait to see the battery installed and running!
We warmly thank Ports de Balears for hosting the 2-day meeting under the Balearian sun!
