The UK’s first battery gigaplant looks set to be built on the site of a former RAF base at Bro Tathan in Wales.
Up to 3,500 jobs could be created following Britishvolt’s agreement with the Welsh government to work towards the development of a 30GWh battery manufacturing plant and 200MW solar plant at the site in the Vale of Glamorgan.
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According to Britishvolt, the site was chosen for its import/export accessibility, availability of labour and skilled staff, and geographical proximity to customers and local industrial companies.
In a statement, Orral Nadjari, CEO and Founder at Britishvolt said: “As the birthplace of lithium ion, the UK remains globally renowned for its academic excellence in research and development – with an abundance of home grown talent for Britishvolt to take advantage of.
“Wales has welcomed us with open arms and exceptional due diligence and we believe the country has a vast untapped potential.
“Hiring local people, including those currently out of work, and developing strong relationships with nearby educational facilities will be a priority for us to ensure a stream of skilled staff.”
Britishvolt and the Welsh administration will now work toward building Britain’s first full cycle battery cell gigaplant – subject to UK government funding through the Automotive Transformation Fund – to produce lithium ion cylindrical and pouch cells primarily for the automotive market.
“In the absence of any onshore battery production, 114,000 direct British automotive jobs are predicted to be lost by 2040, and we want to ensure that this doesn’t happen,” said Nadjari.
Britishvolt said that its initial £1.2bn of investment could eventually lead towards up to 3,500 jobs. Construction is scheduled to begin in early 2021.
Hurrah! Great news for Wales and the UK. Despite being from Cardiff I hadn’t heard of Bro Tathan, but it seems this is simply the old RAF St Athan base (where I attended many an airshow).
Interesting, it seems that this project has moved from Essex to Wales: looks like a very rural spot too. It was strongly opposed when proposed previously by fire authorities and local residents, as if / when a fire occurs the water sprays cause massive emissions of toxic chemicals and the fires are apparently very difficult to suppress.
Call me a NIMBY, but I would not want one of these anywhere near me.
Okay, Jack – NIMBY. Naturally, a gas plant/oil refinery would be fine – no fires or pollution?!
Automotive engineers (especially F1) are all stuck in the last century.
https://www.theengineer.co.uk/bentley-bentaygo-semi-active-suspension/
When Toyota end hybrid production at Burnaston, will they switch to manufacturing BEVs there, or relocate within the EU? There’d be an even bigger question mark over the Deeside engine plant!
http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/features/building-40-new-cars-hour-inside-toyotas-burnaston-plant
“New Toyota Aygo to be designed, developed and built in Europe.”
http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/new-toyota-aygo-be-designed-developed-and-built-europe
Jack, you’re a nimby. The site is near Cardiff.
Perhaps David Smart does not know that Refineries etc. come under the COMAH legislation and their locations are carefully selected based on the known hazards. The battery plant is presented as “Environmentally wonderful”, while having known hazard issues, I’ll remain a NIMBY where this is concerned. Perhaps the batteries should be sited off-shore alongside the white-elephants that work there: plenty of water to quench any fire there!
This sounds like a good thing, but they’re missing two ingredients.
1. Funding – they have Round 1 but nothing like the billion or so to build a factory
2. A market – there’s only Nissan using batteries in UK factories, and they already have their own factory. Honda is going, Toyota is not interested in EVs, and the others are making their EVs in the EU.
I think the strategy is to build up enough publicity to the point the Government feels compelled to fund the factory, and then they can make domestic batteries.
The article says: subject to UK government funding through the Automotive Transformation Fund
They’re probably more likely to get Government funding in Wales than in Essex.
I have to admire the chutzpah of a newco with £1000 issued shares and three directors pitching this project to the Welsh Assembly. Do they have any financial backing – or experience with the technology?
I think they have a few million so are about 1% of the way there. But I think they’ve identified a market where the Government will have difficulty in saying no. And after the Swansea Tidal lagoon was turned down as being hopelessly uneconomic, can they afford to shun Wales again?
I suppose the batteries will be sold for the Electric Delorean?
@ Julian
The site is 13 miles from Cardiff, 2 miles from Aberthaw powerstation & 6 miles from Barry, nearest town = Llantwit Major pop~ 15,000.
As a lad (100s of years ago) I also attended airshows at RAF St Athan we used to get the train from Cardiff Queen St to Gileston,
I hope the electric Delorean can reach 88mph!
Grid storage is the most likely application.