Storing Lithium Batteries: The Great Confusion

Every year, 1.6 billion batteries are placed on the market in France. On average, each household in mainland France owns 19 of them. Among 15- to 17-year-olds, that figure can even rise to 26, according to a survey published in June 2025 by Assurance Prévention. They are found in all kinds of devices we use constantly: cell phones and laptops, Bluetooth speakers, defibrillators, headlamps, insulin pumps, bicycles and cars: lithium batteries are everywhere in our daily lives... It is therefore no exaggeration to say that they are now part of everyday life. In 2023, the Ministry of Economy estimated that demand would increase fourteenfold by 2030, driven primarily by transport electrification. In 2022, the “Battery Valley” was created: an industrial cluster currently being developed in Hauts-de-France that will eventually comprise several lithium-battery plants. On March 24, Sébastien Martin, Minister Delegate for Industry, also announced the launch of France Batterie, an association intended to bring together players in the French sector and represent it at the European level.

While this wave of activity around batteries in France is good news for the energy transition of the French economy, it is also a source of concern for many. In the Assurance Prévention study, 10.7% of respondents said they had experienced an incident involving their battery; 21% of recorded incidents started a fire, and 12% resulted in bodily injury. In 2023, the Federation of Recycling Companies noted that these batteries, thrown in household trash instead of taken to a recycling center, had caused around 40 fires—twice as many as in 2022. In 2023, a fire also broke out in one of Bolloré Logistics’ warehouses in Grand-Couronne (76), which, according to the operator, housed several thousand batteries. In 2024, a Snam (Société nouvelle d’affinage des métaux) warehouse containing 900 metric tons of used batteries caught fire in Viviez, Aveyron.

The risk therefore appears real, and public authorities cannot ignore it. In 2025, the creation of a new category under legislation governing facilities classified for environmental protection (ICPE) was announced. And that is where the problem begins. If, as some fear, these regulations do not distinguish among the various types of lithium batteries, they could prevent certain industrial projects in France, because each technology has distinct risks and characteristics. For example, NMC (nickel manganese cobalt) batteries dominate the passenger electric vehicle market thanks to their balance of range and power. NCA (nickel-cobalt-aluminum) chemistry is used by certain manufacturers to maximize energy density in long-range vehicles. LFP (lithium iron phosphate) batteries are gaining market share because of their longer service life and low risk of thermal runaway. The latter are used in particular to power electric forklifts.

“It should be noted that we have used lead-acid batteries in our industrial equipment for decades, recalls Céline Gamard, QSE manager at Jungheinrich, a provider of intralogistics solutions. We are currently replacing that technology with LFP lithium batteries, which are much less dangerous.” If future regulations are based on current recommendations, battery storage requirements will depend on total weight: above 50 metric tons, the building would be subject in France to the authorization regime (see Plateformes Magazine’s article on the subject). “That would not be relevant in our case, Céline Gamard warns. Our batteries are protected from impacts by a steel casing, which greatly increases their weight. To remain under the registration regime, we could store only between 50 and 100 batteries. At the same time, these rules do not exist elsewhere in Europe...” The mistake would be to lump all batteries together, when they do not pose the same risks and are not used in the same way or by the same people.

“As a general contractor, we are being consulted increasingly often on the construction or upgrading of buildings where lithium batteries will be stored, both from a regulatory and a construction standpoint,” observes Estelle Hassen, Environment Director at Aconstruct. For this type of project, we must begin by notifying the authorities of our plan to build or upgrade, specifying the operating conditions, construction provisions and planned risk-control measures. Yet because there is still no regulatory framework for lithium batteries, the authorities are putting their review of these applications on hold. Our clients must then decide whether to proceed with the project despite uncertainty over what future regulations will require of them, or not to do so and thus miss out on a contract.” According to Estelle Hassen, industrial companies and logistics operators today face contradictory directives within France, as well as a competitive disadvantage relative to other European countries. Regulations that clarify the situation would therefore be desirable and welcomed, provided they are flexible enough to account for all types of lithium batteries currently on the market and incorporate future innovations, while ensuring safety and sustainability.

Taking part in standardization and regulatory committees, the National Institute for Industrial Environment and Risks (Ineris), a public body overseen by the Ministry of Environment, is consulted to assess risks throughout batteries’ life cycle, from design through recycling, including transport, storage and handling. “We have three testing areas where we trigger battery fires by subjecting them to extreme conditions—thermal, electrical, mechanical and environmental,” explains Benjamin Truchot, Deputy Director of the Fire, Dispersion and Explosion Department at Ineris. “Certainly, we now have 15 to 20 years of experience with this technology, but it remains new.” Although the accident rate for electric vehicles is lower than for internal-combustion vehicles, which also have tanks that can catch fire, an electric-battery fire is nonetheless not easy to extinguish. “A battery contains electrolyte, a fuel that includes flammable solvents. In addition, batteries subject to thermal runaway—a chain reaction with a major release of heat that cannot be stopped—can generate emissions of toxic and flammable gases, projections of material and particles, explosions and fires. The battery must then be flooded, because sprinklers will not be enough.” Benjamin Trichot also points out that their reactivity depends on their state of charge: “the more charged the battery, the greater the potential effects. A lower state of charge reduces the likelihood and consequences of a fire.” They should therefore be stored in well-ventilated rooms to limit the buildup of gases and where they will not be exposed to heat or humidity. “Understanding the risks is essential,” Céline Gamard readily acknowledges. “Risk prevention must be adapted to the chemistry selected, the size of the battery, its packaging and its use, so as not to impose disproportionate or even counterproductive constraints.”