About CES
Research built to improve battery market decisions.
CES is an independent research and advisory firm focused on the economic life of batteries. We combine proprietary data, forward models and market experience to understand where batteries go, what they will be worth and how value can be created across their lifetime.
Why CES Exist
CES grew out of a simple frustration: important decisions in battery reuse and recycling were being made with incomplete data, fragmented research and broad market assumptions.
After working in battery reuse and recycling in Europe and the US, founder Hans Eric Melin set out to build a more rigorous view of the market — tracking how many batteries enter different applications, how they are used, where they move and what ultimately happens to them.
That approach naturally expanded the scope of CES beyond individual end-of-life markets. To understand battery value properly, we needed to follow the full economic life of a battery and the decisions made along the way — from production and placement on the market, through use, trade and replacement, to reuse, repurposing and recycling.
Today, CES looks across that full system to understand how decisions at one stage affect value and opportunity at the next.
Granular by design
We work from detailed market and lifecycle data rather than topo-down assumptions.
Built from first principles
We model how markets actually work and challenge received wisdom when the evidence points elsewhere.
Whole-market perspective
Production, use, trade, reuse, repurposing and recylicling are analysed as one connected system.
Hans Eric Melin
Founder, CES Research & Consulting
Hans Eric Melin is a recognised specialist in battery lifecycle, reuse and recycling markets. His work spans Europe, North America and global battery value chains, combining market research, data development and advisory work.
CES research has informed work across industry, polity and investment
Research with impact
Our primary goal is to help the battery market make better decisions. CES works with leading organisations across automotive, batteries, energy, mining, finance and recycling — supporting decisions on markets, value, sourcing, investment and end-of-life strategy.
To do that well, we conduct original research, build proprietary datasets and develop models where existing evidence is incomplete or prevailing assumptions need to be challenged.
That research often reaches beyond our client work. Work published under the Circular Energy Storage name and by founder Hans Eric Melin has received more than 1,600 academic citations and has been published in Science, Nature Sustainability and other academic journals.
CES research and data have also been used and referenced by organisations including The White House, the International Energy Agency, the European Commission, the World Economic Forum and the OECD, contributing to work on battery markets, supply chains, circularity, trade, regulation and critical materials.
The same research base supports the work we do every day for companies operating and investing across the battery value chain.
