Sustainability

August 19, 2025

Industry Signals - August 19, 2025: How Circularity is Redefining the Battery Industry

# Battery

# Digital Twin

# Industry News

# Innovation

# Renewable Energy

# Smart Manufacturing

# Sustainability

# Supply Chain

The battery sector stands at a turning point as circular economy principles move from theory to practice.

Industry Signals

Welcome to Industry Signals. This issue looks at how the battery industry is shifting toward a circular economy, an approach that reuses and recycles materials to reduce waste. As demand for batteries grows in transportation, energy storage, and industry, three priorities are key: reducing dependence on scarce raw materials, improving transparency across the supply chain, and making batteries last longer and deliver more value over their lifetime.

A circular battery economy is fast becoming a competitive necessity. Across the value chain, stakeholders are redesigning products, processes, and reuse to meet sustainability goals and market expectations.

At Siemens, circularity is a strategic lever for innovation and profitability. Treating waste as a design flaw creates value through reuse, refurbishment, and recycling. Digital product passports and digital twins enable traceability and smarter recovery pathways. For energy storage and battery manufacturing, the upside is immediate: lower cost, greater resilience, and durable advantage.

Inside this edition:

Global Battery Annual Impact Report: governance reforms, cross-sector alignment on critical minerals, policy integration to operationalize circularity, and progress on the Battery Passport.

WEF, “Powering the Future”: circularity as system-level design to decouple supply chains from geopolitical risk, cut lifecycle emissions, and unlock economic value.

Volta Foundation 2024 Battery Report (with Siemens contributions): how advances in chemistry, manufacturing, policy, and talent must converge to build a resilient, digitally enabled, circular supply chain.

Together, these signals are reshaping how value is defined in the battery industry. By treating circularity as a guiding design principle, companies can advance sustainability while also driving growth.

From Vision to Velocity: GBA’s Leap Toward Circular Battery Leadership

Source: Global Battery Alliance | Published: June 16, 2025

The Global Battery Alliance, of which Siemens is a proud member, published its 2023-2024 Annual Impact Report this June. It highlights a pivotal shift of the group from ambition to execution, most notably through its Battery Passport program, as well as inclusive governance reforms, and strategic action on circularity and critical minerals.

If you are unfamiliar with GBA or its Battery Passport program, you can find more information here and here.

Key Insights:

Battery Passports Enable Lifecycle Intelligence: GBA’s large-scale pilots demonstrated how Battery Passports can embed digital traceability across the entire battery lifecycle, supporting responsible sourcing, usage optimization, and end-of-life decision-making.

Circularity Gains a Data Backbone: By capturing ESG and performance metrics in real time, Battery Passports help operationalize circular economy principles, enabling reuse, recycling, and repurposing at scale.

Driving Market Incentives for Circular Performance: The pilots show how verified sustainability and ethical sourcing data can move from compliance checkboxes to competitive differentiators, rewarding circular design and operations in global markets.

Laying the Groundwork for Regulatory Readiness: The Passport architecture is being designed in alignment with frameworks like the EU Battery Regulation, setting the stage for a harmonized, regulation-ready infrastructure to support circular systems.

2027 Vision: From Prototype to Policy Instrument: With full-scale implementation targeted for 2027, Battery Passports are poised to become a keystone mechanism for integrating ESG and circularity into industrial battery value chains worldwide.

Circular by Design: How WEF, GBA, and RMI Envision a Resilient Battery Future

Source: Global Battery Alliance, Rocky Mountain Institute & World Economic Forum | Published: January 2025

This joint World Economic Forum–Global Battery Alliance–Rocky Mountain Institute white paper reframes circularity as a system-wide solution to battery supply chain fragility and urges smarter design, stronger policies, and better tracking from mine to reuse.

Key Insights:

Design Is the Gateway to Circularity: Circularity must be embedded from the outset of battery product and system design, not added later. This includes designing for disassembly, repair, modularity, and material recovery to extend lifecycle value and reduce waste.

Traceability Systems Are Essential Infrastructure: There is a need for reliable, harmonized traceability systems to support effective circular practices across borders and value chains. Without traceability, battery flows and material accountability remain fragmented.

Reverse Logistics and Recycling Infrastructure Are Undeveloped: Circular systems depend on the ability to efficiently recover and process batteries at end-of-life. Currently, infrastructure for collection, reverse logistics, and second-life deployment is lacking in many regions and must be addressed urgently.

Fragmented Policies Are a Barrier to Circularity: Lack of global policy alignment on topics like battery labeling, end-of-life responsibilities, and data-sharing protocols is limiting progress. Harmonizing these frameworks is critical to scaling circular battery systems effectively.

No Single Actor Can Close the Loop Alone: Achieving system-wide impact requires shared accountability and aligned incentives in a coordinated, cross-sector collaboration among miners, manufacturers, recyclers, and regulators.

Beyond the Hype: Volta’s Deep Dive into the Battery Industry’s Next Moves

Source: Volta Foundation | Published: January 25, 2025

The 500+ page Volta Foundation Battery Report, which Siemens contributed to, delivers a panoramic view of the battery ecosystem from solid-state breakthroughs to policy shifts, revealing how innovation and infrastructure must evolve to support circular ambitions.

Key Insights:

Solid-State Batteries Are Gaining Traction with Major Backers: Significant investments in solid-state technologies, including ceramic and polymer electrolyte chemistries, are being made.

Semi-Solid Electrolytes Are a Bridge to Circular Innovation: Semi-solid battery technologies are already being commercialized and offer improved safety and recyclability while easing manufacturing complexity. This “bridge” innovation supports more modular, second-life-friendly battery designs.

Digital Twin Technology Is Enabling More Circular Production: Digital twins can enhance quality, reduce waste, and support smarter design for reuse and recyclability.

Workforce and Talent Gaps Threaten Circular Progress: There is a shortage of battery engineers and system-level thinkers, which is a barrier to innovation, including circular product design. Addressing these gaps is essential for scaling sustainable battery systems.

Cross-Sector Collaboration Is Central to Circularity: Multiple case studies and expert commentaries emphasize that achieving circular battery value chains will require cooperation between OEMs, suppliers, recyclers, regulators, and tech companies. No single actor can close the loop alone.

If you have another moment, check out the Battery Forum: Leveraging New Technologies and Partnerships to Reduce Project Risk video, a collaboration of Siemens and the Volta Foundation.

To see more on Siemens’ role in advancing batteries, check out the announcements for its partnership with Hirano Tecseed to boost battery manufacturing performance and its investment in establishing a global AI manufacturing technologies R&D center for battery production.

Looking Ahead

The transition to a circular battery economy is becoming a defining factor in competitiveness, resilience, and sustainability. By embedding circularity into design, operations, and policy, the industry can reduce risk, unlock new value, and accelerate the energy transition. For those who act early, the rewards will extend well beyond compliance, shaping leadership in the next era of clean energy.

That’s a wrap for this edition of Industry Signals.

Have a report, use case, or event you'd like to see featured in an upcoming issue? Send a note via PM. We’re always looking to spotlight what’s shaping the future of industry and find recommendations from the Xcelerator Community especially valuable. Your insights and experiences continually shape Industry Signals.

— Industry Signals Community Editor

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Industry Signals - August 19, 2025: How Circularity is Redefining the Battery Industry

The battery sector stands at a turning point as circular economy principles move from theory to practice.

From Vision to Velocity: GBA’s Leap Toward Circular Battery Leadership

Circular by Design: How WEF, GBA, and RMI Envision a Resilient Battery Future

Beyond the Hype: Volta’s Deep Dive into the Battery Industry’s Next Moves

Looking Ahead

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