Projected global lithium-ion battery capacity be- 17 Kim HC, et al. 2016. Cradle-to-gate emissions from a commercial electric vehicle Li-ion battery: a comparative analysis. Environ Sci 18 Peters JF, Baumann M, Zimmermann B, Braun J, Weil M. 2017. key parameters — a review. Renew Sustain Energy Rev. 67: 19 Romare M, Dahllöf L. 2017.
As demand for electrical energy storage scales, production networks for lithium-ion battery manufacturing are being re-worked organisationally and geographically. The UK - like the US and EU - is seeking to onshore lithium-ion battery production and build a national battery supply chain.
For two MWh of Lithium-ion battery storage, a total of 33,155 regionally weighted cubic meters of water is needed across the entire supply chain, with highest contributions from Chilean lithium mining. The environmental degradation due to water loss imposes costs on the local populations in the Lithium Triangle.
Lithium-ion battery production is rapidly scaling up, as electromobility gathers pace in the context of decarbonising transportation. As battery output accelerates, the global production networks and supply chains associated with lithium-ion battery manufacturing are being re-worked organisationally and geographically (Bridge and Faigen 2022).
The UK battery industry is expected to require around 80,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate per year by 2030, around 7% of global demand (Gifford 2023). DLE processes have been assessed as consuming less water and less waste than conventional processing techniques for alternative lithium sources (LSE, 2022a).
The UK too is seeking to onshore global production networks for lithium-ion batteries (LiB) and build a domestic battery supply chain. The UK case is instructive as the geopolitical dynamics of onshoring centre on maintaining the UK's role as an automobile manufacturing platform in the post-Brexit period rather than a general ‘global race’.