Engie North America – Alok Khandelwal – 2024

SummaryAlok Khandelwal worked with ENGIE North America to refresh the end-of-life strategy for battery storage solutions based on circularity principles.GoalsBattery storage solutions are a key component of ENGIE’s growth strategy, targeting an ambitious 10GW of capacity globally by 2030, with a significant focus on North America. Driven by a corporate principle of adopting circularity across all product lines, ENGIE enlisted Alok to refresh the end-of-life strategy for batteries based on a consideration of environmental, regulatory and commercial factors under-pinned by its market ambitions.SolutionsAlok followed a multi-step process to formulate a strategy enabling business leaders to make thoughtful choices:
Understood relevance of end-of-life strategy for ENGIE, and multiple dimensions (e.g., environmental, commercial, regulatory) to be considered in developing this,
-Researched Li-ion battery regulation across NA, Europe and China with focus on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) inclusion and implications for ENGIE,
-Assessed battery recyclers and manufacturers operating in NA; developed a point-of-view on the recycling market maturity based on deep research,
-Identified opportunities for ENGIE to champion recycling innovations and explore eco-design options, in collaboration with recyclers, manufacturers and academia,
-Identified actionable items for ENGIE to position itself as a market-maker, driving circularity of storage batteries.Potential ImpactFully implementing the battery circularity strategy will improve ENGIE’s environmental performance, enhance market positioning and local community sentiment as a company focused on circularity, and also encourage the overall industry to move towards more sustainable business practices. Through new insights on battery lifecycle maintenance, the strategy would also optimize battery procurement costs and lower site decommissioning costs leading to improved returns on ENGIE’s battery projects. Finally, proactive tracking of battery health using recommended IT systems would also lower unplanned costs and improve operational efficiencies.