July 29, 2021: Bulgarian lead and lithium battery maker Monbat has joined the European Battery Alliance, it said on July 20.

Its accession to the alliance will enable it to open lines of cooperation for the development of lead-acid battery technology with the application of nanotechnologies ‘improving exploitation characteristics and prolonging battery life-cycle, as well as creating an optimal environment for competitive manufacturing of lithium-ion battery systems for various transportation and industry purposes’, it says.

Monbat joins another 600 industrial and academic stakeholders in an alliance that seeks to build a pan-European battery industry to help the continent capture a booming global market that is estimated to be worth €250 billion ($296 billion) a year by 2025.

The EBA was set up in 2017 and is managed by EIT InnoEnergy, an EU-funded agency that was set up to accelerate the energy transition, and which focuses on three areas: battery storage, green hydrogen and solar power.

Monbat is the fourth largest producer of lead-acid batteries in Europe. It also owns the Germany-based EAS Batteries, which makes lithium-ion battery systems.