Sollevare | European resonance for Flash Battery

THE COMPANY HEADED BY MARCO RIGHI JOINS EUROPEAN IPCEI FOR ADVANCED RESEARCH IN THE AREA OF BATTERIES

Kaitek Flash Battery’s CEO Marco Righi is the current Chairman of the Reggio Emilia Unindustria’s Young Entrepreneurs Group and he is certainly doing honour to his role, bringing the technological research and innovation excellence of one of the most prolific industrial districts in Italy to the international scene.

Today, Kaitek Flash Battery is one of the 17 European organisations involved in research and innovation projects of common interest — and of first industrial production — in the area of new-generation lithium batteries.

Creating a sustainable and innovative battery ecosystem in Europe will be the challenge that the Reggio Emilia-based company is called to tackle. The pool includes key industry players as well as national institutions. The project aims to create a lithium battery value chain that is fully integrated in the EU and engaged in the production of raw materials — cells, modules and battery systems — on a large scale.

The European Commission has approved, in line with the EU rules on support to member countries, the launch of an Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI), jointly funded by Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Sweden, to support research and innovation in the common European priority sector of batteries. The companies and research institutions participating in this IPCEI to develop advanced and ground-breaking technologies will be working synergistically towards the achievement of performance, cost and safety objectives that are currently not met in the lithium-ion battery market.

“We are honoured and proud to participate in a research project that reflects our values of innovation and sustainability”, commented Marco Righi. “For us at Flash Battery, innovation involves the entire company. We know that we don’t have all of the answers, but we look for them every day by working together with companies and organisations to create value for people and for the communities where we operate”.

The EU has given the go-ahead to the integrated battery project to ease the transition from fossil fuels towards cleaner energy, delivering on its commitments to the Paris agreement.

“The topic of energy and renewable sources”, underlined Marco Righi, “is key to our mission of producing innovative batteries and one of the core values underlying our entrepreneurial activity”. “With our products, which are used mainly in electric vehicles for logistics and industry, we take care of the environment in the interest of a sustainable progress that cuts across all manufacturing sectors”.

Propulsive headquarters

Kaitek Flash Battery is gearing up to meet the demand for new-generation lithium batteries, validating the amazing opportunity for economic growth, job creation and technological development. The company, which reached €13.2 million turnover in 2018 with 51 members of staff averaging 33 years of age and trading partners in 54 countries, will be inaugurating its new Sant’Ilario d’Enza industrial facility, currently under construction, in Spring 2020 at an over 20,000 m² site. The new facility has 1,500 m² of office space and a production area of 3,200 m², which can be expanded by another 5,000 m² in consideration of the significant prospects for growth over the coming years.