Beers, Batts & Nuclear Bunkers
An event we’ve admired for a long time is the quarterly Beers&Batts, run by our friends at Cling Systems. They recently teamed up with the WCBF crew for a special nuclear edition hosting 300 battery people, and Filippa Hector kindly agreed to bring us the lowdown.
Reaktorhallen R1 sits beneath the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Once home to Sweden’s first nuclear reactor, it has been restored and turned into one of the city’s most unusual gathering spaces. Nuclear energy and batteries are often treated as competing ideas in debates about the future of energy. Here, they came together in a way that felt natural and distinctly Swedish.
On November 25, the hall hosted the first two-part edition of Beers and Batts. Beers and Batts, initiated by Cling Systems, began in 2022 with a simple idea: gather people over drinks and talk honestly about the future of batteries. It started with only a few participants and has since grown into a broad community that attracts founders, operators, executives, policymakers and students who want to stay close to the real work happening in the sector.
Part one took place in Reaktorhallen, where decision makers, researchers and industry leaders gathered for focused discussions about Sweden’s battery future. Part two moved to KTH’s main campus, where more than 300 people explored exhibitions, met pioneering companies and joined open conversations with students, founders, engineers and investors.
The backdrop to this year’s event is a tough one. Several major European battery projects have slowed or been scaled back, removing significant planned capacity. At the same time, most battery production remains concentrated in Asia, leaving Europe dependent on supply chains it does not fully control. The balance of partnership and technology transfer, versus attempting scaling ‘home grown’ projects is still a tough one to get right. Europe is still figuring out its positioning and how to satisfy conflicting interests that span politics, business, and different national centres of production.
Ultimately, trying to condense the creation of a complete value chain into a short time frame is an incredibly difficult thing to do. China’s own efforts began in earnest with “New Energy Vehicles” a key part of the country’s tenth five year plan in 2001-2005. Europe’s undoubted strength in cutting edge research and new chemistries is at its best when coupled with the manufacturing excellence and know-how on ramping production, know-how that Chinese companies have had over 20 years to develop and hone.
In Europe, choices made today will shape the region’s industrial and technological position for years. Whether pragmatism will take precedence over everything else is yet to be seen. Despite that, the atmosphere at Beers&Batts was hopeful and forward-looking. Batteries now sit at the heart of everything from transport and energy storage to automation and digital infrastructure. Europe already has strong research, solid technology and a large internal market.
The key challenge raised throughout the evening was how to turn that foundation into faster scaling and stronger, more resilient supply networks. Participants and panelists highlighted the need for each company to stand on their own and find their own niche business model. Europe has in fact a massive internal market with a growing defence and robotic industry which increasingly rely on high cyber-security batteries, where “Made in Europe” is indeed valuable.
This edition also marked the first collaboration between two of Europe’s largest grass-root battery communities. West Coast Battery Forum, from Gothenburg, is a group that has a thriving membership amongst the research and development scene across Western Sweden. It draws on the cluster in and around Gothenburg with the likes of Volvo, Polestar, Chalmers, Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE), and the numerous startups and academics based there.
Beers and Batts is centered in Stockholm, and gathers and fosters connections amongst industry, policy, academia, and startups in Sweden’s capital. Beers and Batts and the West Coast Battery Forum came together with KTH’s PhD chapter (the Swedish equivalent of a University Society), bringing students, operators, researchers and industry leaders into the same room. The mix produced a blend of open conversations, practical questions and a clear view of the challenges and opportunities shaping the Nordic battery sector.
Sweden has made ambitious moves in electrification and battery production. Some efforts have succeeded, others have stumbled, but the drive to push forward remains strong. This year’s two-part format created space for both reflection and action, showing how Sweden and the wider battery industry can keep building momentum.
For more details about Beers and Batts and for updates on future events, please see here: https://www.clingsystems.com/event
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