INTERVIEW: Bulgaria's Monbat plans BESS production start in H2

Monbat's BESS products will be officially presented in June, after the company conducted an intensive development process in the past few months as part of its go-to-market strategy, Nekeziev told SeeNews in an interview.

Last month, Monbat announced the successful completion of the pre-serial test of BESS, which was carried out in partnership with the Center of Competence Hitmobil, part of the Institute of Electrochemistry and Energy Systems of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, at their dedicated laboratory for testing of renewable energy sources. The BESS systems are based on lithium-ion modules as well as on the proven technology of lead-acid high-cycling carbon industrial batteries, Nekeziev said at the time.

"Some of the systems have no analogue on the market at the moment," Nekeziev said. He added that Monbat's BESS will be adaptable to the needs of the relevant customer segment, taking a different approach from what is available on the market at present.

"We will offer our clients systems with different battery technologies, and Monbat's well-established high-cycling carbon batteries will contribute to achieving competitive prices for BESS, in addition to the buy-back and recycling possibility at the end-of-batteries life," Nekeziev explained.

In answer to a SeeNews query about the progress of plans for the production of bipolar lead-acid batteries for large-scale industrial use, Nekeziev said that this year Monbat will distribute to established clients test samples that will be installed to operate under various exploitation conditions. This will allow the company to receive client feedback on the product's performance under different modes of operation.

Monbat, which has traditionally produced car batteries, is looking to shift investment focus on BESS and on breakthrough technologies for improving the performance of lead-acid industrial batteries as well as reducing their carbon footprint.

Since 2021, the company has been part of EBA250, the industrial development programme of the European Battery Alliance (EBA). Bulgaria joined the EBA last month.

Monbat's first-quarter standalone net profit jumped by 60% on the year to 6.8 million levs ($3.8 million/3.5 million euro) while the consolidated net sales revenue of the 15 companies making up the group increased 14.3% year-on-year to some 104.5 million levs.

(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)