Electrification Academy — 2026 Mid-Year Update

We are excited to be leading Battery Ready, a NextCycle Michigan initiative providing free, open-access battery safety education for the people who actually handle batteries on the ground — recyclers, dismantlers, haulers, and first responders.

The project is delivered in partnership with Empower to Comply and VMX, with support from Michigan EGLE. We are currently in the discovery phase — interviewing operators across the state to understand what real-world safety gaps look like before any training material is built.

How to get involved:

→ Follow the project for early access to materials as they go live

→ Take the stakeholder survey if you work in battery handling, recycling, transport, or emergency response

Six new partners have joined the platform — each bringing specialized technology into the workflows where engineers are actively searching for them.

• Avery Dennison Performance Tapes — pressure-sensitive adhesive solutions for EV battery assembly, including thermal runaway protection, dielectric insulation, and structural bonding.
• dSPACE — test and simulation systems for battery and powertrain development, covering hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) and software-in-the-loop (SIL) validation for BMS engineering teams.
• GLR / Great Lakes Recycling — end-of-life battery recycling and dismantling, bringing operational expertise to the post-vehicle stage of the lithium-ion lifecycle.
• Oscorp Energy — advancing AI-powered battery sorting and waste intelligence technologies for battery identification, chemistry classification, and safer recycling workflows across waste management and battery recovery operations.
• Eirich — industrial mixing technology for lithium-ion battery production, covering slurry preparation, dry electrode mixing, and lab-to-production scale-up. See the Events section below for their upcoming Basics of Mixing LiB@Lab seminar.
• EnerLink Systems — turnkey prismatic battery module and pack assembly lines, bringing high-maturity production equipment to North America with local engineering, integration, commissioning, and after-sales service.

Equipment Fire Protection: The $100M Lesson the Battery Industry Keeps Learning

By Jared Herring · EA Verified Author

Fire protection scoping errors on greenfield battery facilities routinely trigger tens of millions in late-stage change orders — and few line items have blindsided more projects.

With NFPA 800 expected to be finalized in Summer 2026, the regulatory picture is finally shifting from gaps and guesswork to a clearer lifecycle framework. Jared breaks down what sourcing, construction, and engineering teams need to scope in now — from mandatory Hazard Mitigation Analysis, to end-of-life protocols, to the long lead times on custom suppression and gas-management equipment.

“If that documentation isn’t scoped into your EPC or design-build contract early, you will be negotiating it under pressure later.”

→ Read the full article on Electrification Academy

A look back — Battery Show South. Charlotte was warm, curious, and clearly ready to host an industry still figuring out where it lives in the US. The themes that ran through the week: recycling that actually closes the loop, manufacturing that’s held back less by equipment than by digital architecture and training, and the quiet bottleneck of site permitting — with roughly 150 active moratoriums on battery storage projects across the country.

“Permitting is local. If you don’t get community trust, you simply won’t build.”

→ Read the full Battery Show South recap on LinkedIn

And from IBSE in Orlando — Alyssia Bostrom represented EA across the full battery value chain. The thread that ran through the week was clear: “execute, execute, execute” — speed, cost, and scalability are now the currencies of success. A few signals stood out: VC funding into the battery sector is down roughly 25% compared to a few years ago, pointing to a more selective and maturity-driven investment environment, while emerging chemistries from Sea Li-on, Sicona, LiNova, and NaBatt — including a sodium-ion target cost of around $37/kWh — show where the next wave of innovation is heading.

→ Read the full IBSE recap on LinkedIn

Upcoming. A full roadmap of the next round of global battery and electrification summits is live on the Industry Events Calendar, completed with expert recommendations.

Basics of Mixing LiB@Lab

Mixing is one of the most critical process steps in lithium-ion battery production — and the one that most often gets underestimated until it starts costing yield. Eirich is offering a free, practice-oriented seminar (up to 20 participants) covering the fundamentals of mixing slurries and dry electrode materials.

What you’ll cover:

• Fundamentals of mixing & different mixing principles
• Typical mixing tasks: dry mixing, kneading, dispersing
• Laboratory mixer technology
• Lithium-ion application requirements: dry mixing, slurry preparation, scale-up from lab to production

Best for: production, QC, and R&D teams — or anyone who wants a deeper grasp of what actually happens inside the mixer.

→ Register for Basics of Mixing LiB@Lab

Electrification Academy is still in its early days. While we are proud of the technical framework we’ve built so far, we know that the most valuable insights often come from the people doing the work in the field.

We don’t have all the answers yet, and that’s where you come in. Whether you’ve spotted a gap in our process steps or have a suggestion for a new expert track, we’d love to hear from you.

Improve the Academy: Take our 3-minute survey

Collaborations & Partner Opportunities: Reach out here

Sincerely,

The Electrification Academy Team