Recently, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF), a global leader in the circular economy, and CATL, a Chinese power battery giant, jointly released the vision of the “Global Energy Cycle Plan”, aiming to promote the full implementation of the battery circular economy, help new battery production completely get rid of dependence on primary mineral resources, and inject circular power into the global energy transition.
Trillion markets and tens of millions of jobs: the circular economy shows strong potential
Jonquil Hackenberg, CEO of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, pointed out that the global circular economy has moved from the concept stage to a new stage of systematic practice. Jiang Li, deputy general manager and secretary of the board of directors of CATL, said that in the next 20 years, 50% of the world’s new battery production will not need to rely on mineral mining, and the battery industry chain can drive the energy system to achieve system transformation in an efficient, low-carbon and sustainable direction.
According to relevant forecasts, by 2040, the global battery recycling market will exceed 1.2 trillion yuan, and the battery value chain will create more than 10 million jobs. As the first circular economy public welfare project promoted by Chinese enterprises, the plan has built coverageNew energyThe whole industry chain, government, academic institutions and other parties collaborate with each other.
Four major action programs: clarify the path of industrial transformation
At the press conference, the “Global Energy Cycle Plan” simultaneously announced four major action plans, providing new ideas for the comprehensive transformation of the battery industry to a circular economy.
Reshape the value chain systemCATL launched the “Times Carbon Chain” management system to integrate the concept of circular economy into all links of the industrial chain to promote low-carbon development of the entire value chain and efficient recycling of resources.
Product redesign: Integrate the concept of circularity from the source of battery design, adopt modular design and the principle of “easy disassembly first”, and develop long-life, easy-to-recycle, and cascade utilization battery products. At present, its energy storage battery cycle life has reached 18,000 times.
Reconstruct the business model: Explore the transformation from product sales to shared services, lay out a network of more than 10,000 battery swap stations, and reduce user costs and improve battery utilization through battery swapping, battery banking, shared fleet and other models.
Improve the closed loop of recycling: Build the world’s largest battery recycling network, recycling about 130,000 tons of waste batteries and producing 17,000 tons of lithium salt in 2024, with the goal of achieving “peer recycling” of battery materials and reducing dependence on mineral mining.
International cooperation and future prospects
Martin Freer, CEO of Faraday Research Institute in the UK, spoke highly of CATL’s directional circulation solution, believing that it represents the direction of the industry’s development. Jiang Li emphasized that promoting the battery circular economy requires technological breakthroughs, open cooperation among all parties in the industrial chain, and global policy coordination. In the next step, CATL will support the foundation to carry out systematic research to explore transformation paths in different regions and provide replicable circular solutions for the global energy transition.
This collaboration marks a key step towards a systemic transformation of the battery industry towards a circular economy, poised to reshape the global energy landscape and provide significant support for achieving carbon neutrality goals.