Funding largely canceled
Battery research in Germany is threatened with extinction
By Oliver Scheel
February 8, 2024, 11:00 a.m
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The federal government is massively cutting its funding for battery research. Experts warn of serious consequences for Germany as an industrial location. The researchers also suspect political calculations behind the decision.
Experts warn of the drastic consequences of the federal government cutting funding for battery research. They describe the decision as a “clear-cutting” that could undo more than a decade’s worth of work, exacerbate the skills shortage and halt the development of this increasingly important industry in Germany.
“Battery technology is one of the most important future technologies of the 21st century. Without batteries, the transformation of our economy is inconceivable,” explains Axel Thielmann from the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research in Karlsruhe. He emphasizes that Germany has played a major role in battery research in recent years and warns of the consequences of the cuts: “In the last 15 years we have been catching up in Germany. This could now end abruptly.”
The federal government has cut funding for battery research by 75 percent. This decision came after the ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe, which prohibited the government from reallocating Corona funds to the Climate Transformation Fund (KTF). The government was then forced to cut across the climate protection projects that needed funding. It hit particularly hard in battery research.
15 years of work destroyed
Martin Winter, who has been researching electrochemical energy storage for more than 20 years, describes the funding cuts as “clear-cutting”. At a panel discussion he expressed his concern: “It’s too much to die and too little to live.” Over the past 15 years, Germany has invested around one billion euros in battery research and built a structure that does not exist in any other country, said Winter. These institutions were in danger of becoming investment ruins.
The Lithium-Ion Batteries Competence Network (KLIB), which brings together research institutions and companies in the industry, warns in an open letter to politicians about the dramatic consequences of the decision for Germany as a high-tech location. “With one stroke, all the work of the past 15 years will be destroyed,” says the KLIB. It fears that the cut could worsen the shortage of skilled workers and limit German competitiveness.
The letter goes on to say that the clear-cutting of battery research is accelerating deindustrialization. “We must not lose our international connection, we must keep Germany attractive as a location for investment and secure the basis for sustainable technological sovereignty.”
“Huge” youth problem
Dirk Uwe Sauer, Professor of Electrochemical Energy Conversion and Storage System Technology at RWTH Aachen, sees the reduction in funding also putting the training of skilled workers at risk. “University graduates are also there to implement technology transfer in industry,” he says. Without the money, young students would see fewer opportunities in this area and turn to other areas. “We already have a huge problem getting enough young people to the universities,” complains Sauer.
Winter points out the importance of the industry, especially for the automotive industry. The fact that a country with one of the largest automotive industries, which is urgently dependent on modern batteries, is drastically reducing research in this area while the rest of the world is increasing its efforts is “crazy,” said Winter.
The experts also suspect political calculations behind the cut. No cuts were made to hydrogen, a favorite project of the FDP. “There is a group of politicians in Berlin who always think that the future does not lie in electromobility, but that it would be better to rely on hydrogen,” Sauer speculates. Winter can also imagine that there is “a plan behind it to stop the wheel of time a little and turn it back.”