UK investor in battery technologies Britishvolt has selected a site in Blyth, Northumberland to build Britain’s first battery gigaplant.
Construction is planned to begin in Summer 2021, with an aim of producing ‘world class’ lithium-ion batteries by the end of 2023. The gigaplant will be built on a 95-hectare site, formerly the site of the Blyth Power Station.
Britishvolt confirmed that a total of £2.6bn will be invested into the plant, which aims to employ up to 3,000 highly skilled people by its final phase in 2027, providing up to 5,000 jobs in the wider supply chain and producing over 300,000 lithium-ion batteries for the UK automotive industry.
The building of a gigaplant ties in with prime minister Boris Johnson’s ten-point plan for the UK’s green recovery, and has been described by Britishvolt as ‘strategically important’ for the UK automotive industry to maintain competitive advantage as we accelerate toward an increasingly electrified future.
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CEO of Britishvolt, Orral Nadjari, said that securing the site in Blyth was a ‘tremendous moment’ for UK industry, commenting: “Blyth meets all of our exacting requirements and could be tailor made. It is on the doorstep of major transport links, easily accessible renewable energy and the opportunity for a co-located supply chain. [It] meets our target to make our gigaplant the world’s cleanest and greenest battery facility.”
Renewable energy will be used to power the gigaplant, including the potential to use hydro-electric power generated in Norway and transmitted 447 miles via the world’s longest inter-connecter from the North Sea Link project.
Blyth Valley MP Ian Levy said that the announcement would have a massive impact on the constituency and surrounding area for decades to come, adding that the North East had not seen anything comparable since Nissan invested in Sunderland more than 35 years ago.
Following the announcement, Dr Amrit Chandan, CEO and co-founder of clean-tech company Aceleron, expressed concern over the ‘elephant in the room’ – battery waste. “EVs alone are estimated to produce 11 million tonnes of waste by 2030, enough to fill Wembley Stadium almost 20 times,” he said. “This gigafactory is an opportunity for the UK to showcase both its world leading innovation to deliver net zero energy, alongside net zero waste.
“By futureproofing battery design to enable easy servicing, repurposing and reuse we can design out battery waste while creating a booming service employment market that will further drive our green industrial revolution.”
So…if 3,000 highly skilled people will facilitate the production of 300,000 Li batteries ….is that 100 batteries per person, at roughly 2 each per week? Of course, I realise that the words ‘up-to’ and over appear in the second paragraph, but it does sound rather labour intensive, which seems surprising.
The Li batteries that I have seen illustrated are about the size of the AA batteries in my torch, so making two of those per week doesn’t really seem a very high rate of output…or are the figures quoted here ‘a bit suspect’? Perhaps some clarification is needed. Unless this is just reproducing a poorly worded press release…?
The terms ‘cell’ and ‘battery’ are often used interchangeably, but they’re not – especially in this application, where you need several thousand cells to make one battery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Model_S#Battery
Wherever the lithium is ‘mined’, it is water-intensive and leaves the areas concerned no longer fit for any form of farming. This has been highlighted in the printed media and on the box: a mountain decapitated and so little aquifers that farmers inevitably suffer.
Presumably they mean 300,000 battery packs for automotive, but as you have alluded to its a bit meaningless unless we know how big eah pack is e.g. 64 Kwh?
The problem is, there is no substantial market for EV batteries in the UK, and the Government is working to make exporting to the EU a lot more difficult.
So with no prospect of commercial return, the company is trying to create publicity to force the Government to contribute the funding, which the Government may have to do to protect its green credentials and prevent another Brexit related disaster.
Looks a bit limp alongside the 4 billion a year ‘defence’ increase announced in November. Serious policy , or greenwash ?
This is my email today to Kwasi Kwarteng, citing your December 2020 article. Best wishes, Jo
Dear Kwasi Kwarteng,
I write to you in your capacity as Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to first of all welcome the news of Nissan’s investment in the proposed new giga battery plant development in Sunderland and as a proud Northumbrian born and bred and with family in Northumberland and Newcastle, I write to draw your attention to the outstanding achievement of investment in the giga battery plant development in Blyth, Northumberland.
As you may know and as reported in ‘The Engineer’ of December 2020, the availability of renewable energy that was such a key element in the Britishvolt’s decision, is due to the ingenuity and foresight of those involved in Northumberland and Norway.
I trust you and Ian Levy will take every opportunity to seek to ensure a cohesive development strategy across the North-East and the North-West where commitment to further investment in electric car production is also under consideration, as you will know.
Perhaps some suitable awards could be made to recognise all of these achievements and to encourage others to do the same?
I have copied my MP, Diane Abbott for her information and Chi Onwurah in her capacity as Shadow Minister for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy – and also because of her undoubted engineering knowledge and expertise.