The University of Edinburgh together with the Smart Villages Initiative held a workshop at the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation on 11 May 2016. The workshop brought together social and physical scientists, industry representatives and entrepreneurs, energy and international development policy makers, and practitioners. The workshop provided an overview of new insights and research in battery storage. It also highlighted the social, environmental, and other impacts of large-scale battery deployments in developing countries in terms of end-of-life management and recycling.
An overview of the various technical aspects of battery research was provided by leading battery science academics from across the United Kingdom (UK), focussing on new types of battery electrodes and electrolytes that will provide various improvements on the current industry state of the art lithium ion batteries. There were subsequently talks from entrepreneurs actively trying to promote battery products, and battery recycling processes, in the developing world. This was followed by a description of a company making new lithium sulphur based batteries in the UK.
