Demonstrator projects facilitating the deployment of batteries in emerging economies

In 2025, the Faraday Institution awarded six collaborative projects that will deliver tangible demonstrators of battery systems in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and the Indo-Pacific region. The projects will seek to optimise and validate battery systems to maximise performance and improve efficiency and lifetime, specifically tailored to typical operating conditions in their intended deployment locations. In doing so they will advance the technologies a step closer to commercialisation.

This is the second phase of the R&D programme of the Ayrton Challenge on Energy Storage (ACES) that the Faraday Institution is leading. Three of the projects, awarded after a highly competitive open call, are continuations of ACES seed research projects that undertook proof of concept research in 2024 and early 2025. The new concept-to-demonstrator programme represents an investment of £2 million. The projects are led by five different UK universities, with input from their industry and international partners from five countries.

Image: MOPO’s solar charging station. Courtesy of MOPO.

Introducing the new projects:

NaSEMA: Na-ion Batteries for Sustainable Energy and Mobility in Africa – University of Sheffield with MOPO

NaSEMA – a continuation of the NaBEDA seed project led by Professor Dan Gladwin at the University of Sheffield – will assess the feasibility of using commercially available sodium-ion batteries as an alternative to lithium-ion batteries in pay-per-use rental batteries designed, produced and operated by industry partner MOPO.

MOPO has established an extensive energy distribution ecosystem that supplies affordable and clean power to off-grid households and enterprises across eight African nations. Their business model is built on a solar powered battery swap network where customers rent fully charged lithium-ion battery packs for a small fee.

NaBEDA assessed a number of commercially available sodium-ion batteries and demonstrated performance benefits when operating under high ambient temperatures, which could allow for use of faster charging rates without excessive degradation, and increase battery swap station revenue by enabling faster turnaround.

The new project will build on those findings and investigate and optimise the unique benefits of sodium-ion batteries to define charging strategies and validate real-world performance through field trials in Liberia. A batch of 1kWh MOPO Max battery packs will be deployed for e-mobility, generator replacement and stationary storage. These trials will evaluate performance metrics – cycle life and charging efficiency – to assess whether the technical advantages of sodium-ion could unlock them as a commercially viable alternative to lithium iron phosphate cells in MOPO’s high-utilisation battery rental networks.

Lab-based testing will further investigate thermal benefits, calendar ageing and degradation of the chosen sodium-ion cells under controlled conditions, including variations in temperature, state of charge, and zero-volt storage, providing key insights into their long-term stability and commercial viability. This will help quantify potential cost savings in logistics and operational resilience, particularly for deployment in remote, off-grid environments where traditional battery technologies face challenges in storage and transport.

Read more about the success of the preceding NaBEDA seed project.

UniBatt: Accelerating e-mobility uptake in Kenya and Rwanda through universal battery diagnostics, control and interoperability – University of Oxford with Bboxx

The widespread adoption of electric mobility in sub-Saharan Africa and South-Eastern Asia is hindered by the limited lifespan and variable performance of the low-cost lithium-ion batteries that power these vehicles, particularly lithium iron phosphate cells that are not manufactured to the same quality as Tier 1 automotive-grade cells.

Batteries are used under harsh operating conditions such as high environmental temperatures, leading to unacceptably short lifespans. Current battery management and monitoring systems are unable to diagnose battery health from data and to control cells to extend life, leading to premature degradation, inconsistent performance, and increased costs for operators. In addition, the swappable battery packs used in electric motorcycles are currently tied into a specific vehicle manufacturer and are not universally interoperable. This creates logistical challenges for battery swapping and management, affecting the reliability of battery-as-a-service (BaaS) models. Bboxx, a is pioneering sustainable solutions across Africa, addressing these challenges through its cutting-edge approach to e-mobility.

The UniBatt project, a collaboration between the University of Oxford (led by Professor David Howey) and Bboxx (led by David Idunnuoluwa), aims to deliver tangible benefits in unlocking the full potential of e-mobility by increasing battery reliability and interoperability, focusing on Rwanda and Kenya, by:

• Demonstrating non-destructive state-of-health and lifetime diagnostics at scale, integrating the health estimation algorithms previously developed by Oxford into the BBOXX Pulse software platform that monitors more than half a million battery products. This will provide a core offering for life prediction and (eventually) pricing and maintenance decisions. A dashboard will be created to accurately provide the status of batteries across the fleet.
• Demonstrating a route to extend the lifespan of LFP cells, building on the findings of the ACES seed project MaxBatt to develop and deploy battery management strategies tailored to the environmental conditions of sub-Saharan Africa.
• Demonstrating a flexible and modular battery pack prototype that can be used universally across different manufacturers’ e-motorcycles and fully managed on Bboxx’s Pulse software platform.

These aims will directly enable more reliable, cost-effective, and sustainable battery operations for Bboxx and similar providers, accelerating the uptake of clean energy and transport.

SL2FBat: Sustainable Low-cost Soluble Lead Flow Battery – University of Southampton with SOLead Energy, Gham Power and Swanbarton

In the previous ACES SUSLEAD project, researchers at Southampton University, led by Professor Richard Wills, demonstrated a low-cost soluble lead flow battery (SLFB) technology in a small (5kW, 4 kWh) containerised system for on site at the university, linking it to the university grid. The project helped the team to spin-out a company, SOLead Energy, file a patent application and start IP licensing negotiations.

SLFBs are a potentially cost-competitive, robust alternative to lithium ion for static storage applications. In Southampton’s SLFB concept, the active materials are sourced from recycling lead acid batteries, potentially providing a localised circular economy.

The SL2FBat project addresses remaining barriers to commercialisation by manufacturing and operating a containerised system with increased power and capacity (10 kW, 20 kWh) in Nepal for at least three months. Prototype performance will be characterised under real-world conditions to verify system operation against targets and demonstrate the reliability of the technology for use in backup power, grid stabilisation, and renewable energy integration applications.

Southampton and SOLead Energy will work with two industry partners. Swanbarton is a leading R&D consultancy in smart microgrid controls. They will integrate and validate the SLFB battery management system with the Swanbarton energy management system, allowing the rapid incorporation of SLFBs into future microgrids. Gham Power is a solar power company that has deployed over 4,000 projects including in remote areas in the Himalayas. The company will host the battery demonstrator at its premises in Kathmandu. It will provide technical support for installation, operation, and performance evaluation, and offer real-world insights on battery deployment in South Asian, including on energy financing.

The project will also strengthen the SOLead Energy business case for overseas SLFB deployment by seeking to develop a procedure for local manufacture of electrolyte from spent lead-acid batteries and optimise lifetime cost by assessing the potential for local sourcing and assembly of components.

StamiNa: Sustainable Transport and Affordable Mobility through Innovation in Na-ion technology – Swansea University with Coventry University, Batri, Strathmore University (Kenya), AceOn Group and Federal University of Technology Owerri (Nigeria)

A project team led by Professor Serena Margadonna of Swansea University, with partners Coventry University, Batri Ltd, Strathmore University (Kenya), AceOn Group and Federal University of Technology Owerri (Nigeria) aim to demonstrate and validate a new sodium ion-battery (SIB) technology through a prototype swappable battery pack designed for e-mobility applications in East Africa.

SIBs could offer an alternative to lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries for the transition to electric mobility in Sub-Saharan Africa – they are easier to transport and do not have the same supply chain vulnerabilities. In collaboration, Batri and Swansea University have developed a SIB technology employing Prussian White cathodes and coal-derived hard carbon anodes with a predicted energy density that exceeds commercially available SIBs, making it competitive with LFP. Unlike alternatives, Prussian White is synthesised in water under mild conditions and is free of nickel and cobalt. This enables an energy-efficient production process that significantly reduces environmental impact and opens the potential to establish local supply chains.

The StamiNa project aims to:

• Optimise and scale up the production of the two active materials.
• Refine electrode fabrication and cell assembly processes and manufacture multilayer pouch cells and 18650 cylindrical cells at Coventry University.
• Demonstrate and validate cell performance in real-world applications. Cylindrical cells will be integrated into AceOn’s swappable battery pack and battery management system and field testing will be conducted on e-bikes at Strathmore University (Kenya).
• Evaluate pack performance at FUTO (Nigeria) and compare data with LFP and commercially available SIB alternatives.
• Evaluate cost, supply chain feasibility, recyclability, and sustainability of the SIB technology for the Sub-Saharan e-mobility market.

This project aims to accelerate the commercialisation of UK SIB technology and establish a sustainable, African-led energy storage ecosystem that supports clean mobility and broader electrification efforts.

AceOn is actively engaged in off-grid energy storage and e-mobility projects in Uganda and Nigeria, potentially providing an immediate pathway for deploying the swappable battery packs. In Nigeria, AceOn’s activities will be enhanced by FUTO’s extensive network with local industries and government stakeholders.

THAI-BATT: Thermal and Humidity Adaptive Battery Solutions for Transport and Energy Storage in Thailand – Imperial College London with NV Gotion and Chulalongkorn University, Thailand

Current battery modelling, manufacturing, and deployment strategies are not well-adapted to Thailand’s hot and humid climate, leading to inefficient thermal management, shorter battery lifetimes, and safety concerns. The lack of integrated material design, predictive modelling, and real-world validation limits the development of longer-lasting and safer battery systems in Thailand and similar tropical regions.

The THAI-BATT project led by Professor Gregory Offer and Dr Jingwen Weng, Imperial College London, with industry partner NV Gotion and a leading Thai university (Chulalongkorn) aims to overcome some of these technical and economic barriers to progress.

The project aims to:

• Advance understanding of long-term aging mechanisms, heat generation, and safety issues of batteries under high-temperature and high-humidity conditions.
• Develop a physics-based battery aging model in PyBaMM to analyse battery degradation and temperature evolution in such environments.
• Propose energy-efficient thermal management strategies to enhance battery lifespan, safety, and stability in hot climates, reducing risks of overheating, degradation, and failure.
• Create and validate lab-scale battery prototypes. Materials research and prototype testing at Chulalongkorn University will optimise battery designs, bridging the gap between fundamental science and industrial applications.
• Collaborate with industry partners for real-world validation. Working with NV Gotion (a leading battery pack and system manufacturer in Thailand) optimised battery solutions will be tested in electric tuk-tuks or EV buses.

Through optimised thermal management, predictive modelling, and real-world validation, the project aims to deliver more durable, safer, and energy-efficient battery systems, addressing key challenges in energy storage and electrification in tropical environments.

Towards a South African-made Sodium-ion battery

A project team led by Prof. Magda Titirici of Imperial College London, in collaboration with Coventry University and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), will build and deploy a sodium-ion concept demonstrator to assess the feasibility of a sodium-ion cell, leveraging the country’s abundant vanadium and biomass resources.

Ensuring the security of supply for critical minerals used in batteries will play an increasingly pivotal role in the global energy transition. While lithium-ion batteries currently dominate the market, their supply chains, which depend on critical minerals, are becoming increasingly constrained by geopolitical, environmental and other factors. These vulnerabilities highlight the importance of exploring alternative battery chemistries and supply chains for a variety of applications, including stationary storage in emerging economies.

Sodium-ion batteries present one such alternative. They are potentially lower-cost, more sustainable and safer, with the ability to operate effectively across a wide range of temperatures. Notably, sodium-ion batteries offer the prospect of energy security, as they could potentially be manufactured using domestic supply chains in countries such as South Africa.

This project aims to:

• Establish scalable methodologies for producing high-performance cathode active material from South African vanadium resources and biomass-derived anode active materials from agricultural waste, sugarcane bagasse and pulp. Using Imperial’s DIGIBAT facility for automated battery assembly, materials co-developed at Imperial College and the CSIR will be tested at coin cell scale and benchmarked against commercial alternatives.
• Manufacture multilayer pouch (MLP) cells using Titirici hard carbon anodes (scaled to tens of kilogrammes) and commercial sodium vanadium phosphate cathodes, using Coventry University’s expertise in cell fabrication.
• Enable the CSIR’s Battery Research Group to assemble MLP cells into modules and battery packs and evaluate their performance under application-relevant conditions by powering an off-grid traffic light with a sodium-ion pack. This builds on the organisation’s existing project with the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation, which currently uses lithium-ion batteries.
• Engage CSIR’s existing battery value-chain partners (battery companies, mining companies, municipalities, biomass producers) around project outcomes, including hosting a Showcase Day for local stakeholders.

This concept-to-demonstrator study will lay the foundation for the adoption of sodium-ion batteries following further innovation, investment and industrialisation. Ultimately, it aims to enhance South Africa’s energy resilience by supporting the development of a domestic sodium-ion battery ecosystem, driving local economic growth across the value chain – from the use of mineral reserves to the valorisation of biomass waste to the recycling of vanadium-based sodium-ion batteries.

 

Updated in September 2025.