The battery comes back to us
Most storage suppliers sell a battery and lose sight of it. Under our contracts we stay the owner for ten years and take the system away at the end — so recycling, producer responsibility and the paperwork that goes with them are not a policy page for us. They are a line item.
End of life is a contract term, not a promise
A supplier who sold you the battery has no obligation to see it again. We do: the system belongs to Storion Energy d.o.o. (trading as CROSTORION) or its financier for the whole term, and at the end we agree an extension, a buy-out or removal — and if it is removal, we are the ones removing it.
That single fact decides most of what follows. The producer's duties under the EU battery rules land on us, the return logistics are ours to organise, and the cost of treatment is already inside a model we built. There is nothing for you to arrange when the ten years are up.
- We stay the owner — the system belongs to Storion Energy d.o.o. or its financier for the full ten-year term.
- We remove it — at the end of the term we agree an extension, a buy-out or removal — and if it is removal, we do it and leave the site safe and usable.
- The producer duties are ours — registration, collection, treatment and their cost sit with whoever placed the battery on the market.
- The return is already priced — end-of-life handling is inside the model that set your terms, not an invoice that arrives in year ten.
- We know where every unit is — each system is monitored from the day it is commissioned, so nothing has to be traced back out of paperwork.
What the rules require, and when
The EU Batteries Regulation replaced the old Batteries Directive and phases in over several years. These are the dates that matter for a stationary storage system above 2 kWh. They fall on whoever places the battery on the EU market — which, under our models, is us.
Extended producer responsibility applies
Producers register in each member state where they first make batteries available, organise separate collection, deliver waste batteries to authorised treatment facilities and bear the cost — alone or through an approved producer responsibility organisation.
Carbon footprint declaration becomes mandatory
Rechargeable industrial batteries above 2 kWh must carry a declared carbon footprint for the whole production process, calculated with a life-cycle method.
Extended labelling and the QR code
Capacity, chemistry, expected lifetime, hazardous substances and the separate-collection symbol on the battery, plus the QR code that leads to the rest. The date shifts if the implementing act defining the label format lands later.
Digital battery passport
Every industrial battery above 2 kWh gets an individual digital record reachable by QR code, carrying composition, origin, footprint, performance, recycled content and end-of-life instructions.
Supply-chain due diligence
Operators above €40 million turnover must run a documented due-diligence policy on cobalt, natural graphite, lithium and nickel, independently verified. Originally 2025; postponed by Regulation (EU) 2025/1561.
Recycling efficiency and recovery targets rise
Minimum recycling efficiency per chemistry and minimum recovery rates for lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper and lead step up through the end of the decade, followed by minimum recycled content in new batteries. The percentages and dates differ per material — we state them per project rather than in a headline.
Dates as they stand in September 2026. The due-diligence date was moved by Regulation (EU) 2025/1561; the labelling date depends on an implementing act that was still in consultation. Ask us for the current position before you rely on it in a tender.
From February 2027, every industrial battery carries its own record
A QR code on the system leads to a data record that follows the battery for its whole life — readable by you, by an installer, by a second-life buyer, and by the recycler who eventually takes it apart. This is what it has to contain.
Identity
A unique identifier for the individual battery, the manufacturer, the model, and the date and place of manufacture.
Composition and origin
Chemistry, the materials in the cell, and where the critical raw materials came from.
Declared footprint
The carbon footprint declaration for the model, and the recycled content it contains.
Performance and health
Rated and remaining capacity, expected lifetime, and the state-of-health data that decides whether a pack has a second life.
Handling and dismantling
How to transport it safely, how to take it apart, and who is allowed to treat it.
Traceability
A record that stays reachable across owners — which only works if someone is still there to keep it.
What to ask a supplier now
A supplier who cannot tell you today how their passport data will be produced is telling you something. The record has to be generated from real production and operating data — not written once at the point of sale — and it has to stay reachable for the life of the battery, which is longer than most suppliers' project files.
The footprint is declared, not estimated
Since 18 February 2026, rechargeable industrial batteries above 2 kWh placed on the EU market must carry a declared carbon footprint, calculated over the whole production process with a life-cycle method. Performance classes, and later maximum thresholds, are built on top of that number.
Per kWh delivered, not per pack
The declaration is normalised over the energy the battery delivers across its service life, so a longer-lived cell earns a lower number. It is a durability metric as much as a manufacturing one.
Where the number is decided
Cells dominate the figure; assembly, transport and end-of-life treatment follow. Assembling in the EU shortens the transport leg and puts the treatment stage inside the same regulatory perimeter.
Ask for the document
The declaration is a document with a scope, a reference period and a method behind it. Ask any supplier for the one covering the exact model you are buying — including us.
No cobalt. No nickel.
Every cell we install is lithium-iron-phosphate. That was chosen for cycle life and thermal stability, but it has a second consequence: two of the minerals that carry the heaviest human-rights and price risk in the battery supply chain are simply not in the cell.
It also changes the end of life. An LFP pack has less recoverable value per kilo than a nickel-cobalt one, which is precisely why a producer who never sees the battery again has little reason to chase it. When the producer owns the asset and has already paid for its return, that argument disappears.
- LiFePO₄ cells — lithium-iron-phosphate throughout, chosen first for cycle life and thermal stability.
- Two risky minerals absent — cobalt and nickel are not in the cell, so the heaviest part of the due-diligence obligation has no subject matter here.
- Graphite and lithium remain — both are on the due-diligence list and both are in an LFP cell — the obligation is lighter, not gone.
- Lower recoverable value — an LFP pack is worth less at the scrapyard, which is exactly why the return has to be someone's contractual duty rather than a market incentive.
Whoever puts it on the market pays to take it off
Extended producer responsibility for batteries has applied since 18 August 2025. The producer registers in every member state where it first makes batteries available, organises collection, hands waste batteries to authorised treatment operators, and carries the cost — directly or through an approved producer responsibility organisation.
Take-back
Waste industrial batteries are taken back from the end user free of charge, regardless of chemistry, composition or origin. Under our models there is nothing to arrange: the system was never yours to dispose of.
Authorised treatment only
Waste batteries go to permitted treatment operators, and the transport of waste lithium batteries is itself regulated — one more reason it should not be the customer organising it.
Recovery, then recycled content
Treatment has to meet minimum recycling efficiency and per-metal recovery rates, and recovered material has to find its way back into new cells: minimum recycled content becomes mandatory later in the decade.
What we will not claim on a web page
Recycling numbers are easy to write and hard to verify. We give you our registration details, the treatment operator we work with and the carbon footprint declaration for the model you are considering when you ask for them, in your proposal — not as a badge on a marketing page.
Send us your ESG questionnaire
If your procurement process has a supplier questionnaire, send it. We answer it with documents — and we say where an answer is still pending rather than leaving the box blank.