Sammendrag
The electrification of road transport is contributing to the rapid growth of lithium-ion batteries on the market. This leads to the issues related to the scarcity of critical materials embedded in the EV battery technology, meaning that growing demand on EVs may surpass the supply of raw materials. The battery used in low-carbon vehicles is a technology composed of a variety of materials including lithium, nickel, graphite, cobalt, aluminum, and others (Nitta, Wu, Lee, & Yushin, 2015). Even though the geological availability of these materials is considered to be stable and will barely constrain electrification of transport (Nordelöf, Messagie, Tillman, Ljunggren Söderman, & Van Mierlo, 2014), social and political issues are still a significant supply barrier. Moreover, the growth of the electric car market raises the issue of the generation of lithium-ion battery waste in the future. These concerns weaken the legitimacy of the overall strategy of the shift to low-carbon road transport. Considering these aspects, recycling and re-use of lithium-ion batteries are becoming a necessary component of transport electrification and have an important role in the energy transition. The Norwegian government targets that all new personal car purchases are low-emission vehicles by 2025 (Ministry of Transport, 2016). Given the intended targets, the government, however, does not have a conclusive strategy for the recycling or second use of retired lithium-ion batteries. Therefore, this thesis aims to gain an understanding of the emergence of battery recycling and re-use around end-of-life electric vehicle batteries in Norway. The on-going process of the recycling and re-use industries formation occurs in the turbulent environment where the innovation dynamics, policy schemes and technologic capabilities of other industries to one degree or another play a role in the complex value chain of the lithium-ion batteries. Hence, the technological system formation, enclosing intertwining industrial sectors, requires research with the implementation of appropriate theoretical frameworks. The study employs the Technology Innovation System (TIS) framework with an extension to the multi-technology interactions along the value chain. The results show that battery recycling and re-use TISs meet numerous barriers that require government intervention. Moreover, both TISs are largely depended on the innovation processes along the complex battery value chain and require coordination among different actors and across the upstream and downstream sectors.