Energy storage plays an essential role in renewable energy integration. However, the extraction of raw materials (lithium, cobalt, nickel) and the battery manufacturing process have a significant carbon footprint.
If the embodied carbon of an energy storage system offsets the emission savings achieved during operation, projects face the serious risk of greenwashing.
Therefore, systematically managing the carbon footprint of energy storage products through a life cycle perspective has become a core issue for sustainable development in the industry.
This article will first review global regulatory trends and then use HyperStrong‘s practices as an example to demonstrate a viable path forward, from green factories to low-carbon products.
Global Regulatory Pressures
The energy storage market is growing fast. Major economies are turning carbon footprint management from a voluntary practice into a mandatory requirement. These policies not only set technical standards but also create new forms of green trade barriers.
1. Europe
The EU leads the world on carbon footprint regulation for energy storage. The EU Battery Regulation (2023/1542)[1] requires all industrial batteries, including those used in an energy storage system, to declare their carbon footprint before being sold in the EU.
Mandatory carbon footprint declarations start in August 2025. And the Battery Passport[2], which includes basic technical data, a detailed carbon footprint, supply chain information, and recycled content, will become mandatory for market access from February 2027.
Any energy storage product that cannot provide complete and verifiable carbon footprint data will be shut out of the EU market.
2. United States
The United States leverages a combination of subsidies and penalties through the Inflation Reduction Act. The Act offers large manufacturing tax credits for eligible clean energy projects. But these subsidies come with strict rules.
The Foreign Entity of Concern (FEOC)[3] provisions mean that any supply chain link involving an FEOC will disqualify the entire product from receiving credits.
At the same time, U.S. regulators are requiring more detailed supply chain traceability from battery manufacturers.
This forces battery energy storage systems providers to build full-chain carbon management capabilities. Without them, companies lose access to subsidies and face market barriers.
3. China
China, as the world’s largest storage manufacturing hub, is also accelerating the institutionalization of carbon footprint management. The Green Factory Evaluation Standard (GB/T 36132)[4] has been revised and upgraded.
Under the new version, digital energy and carbon management platforms, along with per-unit energy efficiency metrics, have become mandatory thresholds for national-level green factory certification.
Relying solely on sporadic process improvements or short-term energy-saving initiatives is no longer sufficient to obtain green certification.
Enterprises must now deploy systematic carbon management tools and achieve measurable, traceable, and verifiable efficiency gains.
Key Dimensions of Life Cycle Assessment
Life cycle assessment is divided into four stages: upstream, production, use, and end-of-life. Each stage has its own carbon management priorities.
1. Green Supply Chain (Upstream Stage)
Carbon emissions in the upstream stage come mainly from mining and raw material refining. Effective green supply chain management focuses on two key priorities:
- Achieving full traceability of raw materials to ensure no inputs from illegal mining or high-risk sources enter the supply chain.
- Driving decarbonization among upstream suppliers through rigorous supplier screening, long-term purchase agreements, and collaborative technology development.
2. Lean Manufacturing (Production Stage)
Carbon emissions during the production stage primarily arise from electrode preparation, cell assembly, formation, and aging processes. These steps require high-temperature processing, dry environments, and repeated charge-discharge testing, all of which consume a lot of power.
Specific measures include:
- Deploying energy management systems to track equipment efficiency in real time
- Using peak/off-peak electricity pricing to schedule heavy energy loads
- Recovering waste heat for factory heating or material pretreatment.
3. Efficient Operation and Design Optimization (Use Phase)
Energy storage products are typically large-scale and heavy, making long-distance transportation a significant source of emissions.
Lightweight design can improve loading efficiency, reducing transportation carbon intensity per product.
Moreover, extending cycle life spreads the manufacturing carbon cost across more kilowatt hours, lowering the carbon intensity per kWh.
Technologies such as active balancing, advanced thermal management, and intelligent maintenance strategies are proven to enhance system longevity and operational efficiency.
4. Closed-Loop Recycling and Second Life (End-of-Life)
End-of-life carbon management follows the 3R principle: reuse, remanufacture, and recycle.
- When an energy storage system degrades below 80% of its initial capacity, it can still be repurposed for less demanding applications, extending the battery’s service life, and further diluting manufacturing emissions.
- Once batteries eventually fail to meet any application requirements, design-for-disassembly features should enable high recovery rates of valuable metals such as cobalt, lithium, nickel, and copper.
HyperStrong Case Study
1. Manufacturing Level
Based on the outstanding green manufacturing capabilities and full-chain decarbonization efforts, HyperStrong’s Beijing manufacturing base earned the national-level green factory certification. It enables precise process optimization and dynamic energy adjustments through automated, digitalized process controls, resulting in a steady decrease in carbon emissions per unit of product.
Green design principles are embedded into the R&D and manufacturing of its energy storage products, driving continuous improvements toward lower carbon emissions and reduced weight.
HyperStrong’s Beijing manufacturing base has completed a smart retrofit of its lighting system and taken the lead in deploying a professional energy and carbon management platform.
2. Product Level
(1) Logistics Carbon Reduction
The 10-foot standardized design of HyperBlock M aligns closely with the dimensional modules of mainstream cargo vessels and trucks, boosting single-shipment loading efficiency by approximately 30% compared to non-standard products.
(2) Efficiency Gains
HyperBlock M adopts active balancing technology and intelligent thermal management optimization algorithms. These innovations contribute to a 3.5% more usable energy over the life cycle while cutting system energy consumption by 10%.
(3) Reliability Assurance
HyperBlock M has attained UL 9540A (thermal runaway fire propagation assessment) and IEC 62933 (electrical energy storage system standard) certifications. These credentials validate the system’s safety and reliability, helping to reduce the risk of premature decommissioning and the associated carbon waste.
Conclusion
The green credentials of energy storage products are not inherent; They need to be deliberately designed and systematically managed.
Against a backdrop of tightening global regulations and rising green trade barriers, life cycle carbon footprint management has evolved from a theoretical concept into a critical market requirement.
HyperStrong’s practices demonstrate that by coordinating manufacturing decarbonization, product-level design, and platform-level monitoring, it is feasible to significantly reduce the full life cycle carbon footprint of energy storage systems while maintaining strong performance and cost competitiveness.
Reference
- Available at:
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32023R1542
- Available at:
https://circulareconomy.europa.eu/platform/sites/default/files/2024-03/1qp5rxiZ-CEPS-InDepthAnalysis-2024-05_Implementing-the-EU-digital-battery-passport.pdf
- Available at:
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/05/06/2024-08913/interpretation-of-foreign-entity-of-concern
- Available at:
https://www.chinesestandard.net/PDF/English.aspx/GBT36132-2025
