Our work package leaders - Massimo De Pieri

• Which are the challenges of your WP?

In the SOLIDBAT project, WP7 is appointed to evaluate the battery from sustainability point of view.  It is either a delicate and fascinating duty, as we are assessing the progress of the battery technologies in terms of environmental, social and economic compatibility. For the Commission this is rather an important driver in understanding whether EU-funded research and innovations are going in the direction of strengthening European economy and industrial ecosystem.

• Which achievements do you foresee?

Our goal is to validate with science-based methodologies the expectations of the project concept. What begins as an idea and develops in the lab may change significantly in the path towards industrialization and go-to-market. We hope to demonstrate that SOLIDBAT concept can actually raise the competitiveness of European battery value chain, both in terms of manufacturing and in terms of recycling. 

• Which synergies do you expect to have with partners?

Cooperation with partners is more crucial than ever in our WP. We rely on primary data from the labs and from demonstrators, which we use to develop and train Life Cycle Assessment models. These models are then fed and run with data scaled up to the industrial level with the help of end-user partners; this way we can compare technologies at a fair level, providing a reliable evaluation of the benefits and loads. 

• A personal perspective: what do you like/enjoy/expect from the experience of being a WPL? 

When I started working in my 1^st EU project, more than 10 years ago, we were contributing to a single task in a single WP. Being now WPL in a project like this represents for the whole LCE team a great opportunity to increase our all-around knowledge with a fantastic consortium. It is definitely a great satisfaction which can only be achieved with solid work at highest scientific coherence.