UK Battery Industrialisation Centre celebrates first anniversary

The UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC) has celebrated its first anniversary, marking 12 months since UKBIC was officially opened by prime minister Boris Johnson.

UKBIC is a £130m national battery manufacturing scale-up facility which provides skills for the growing battery sector.

During his visit, the Prime Minister described the facility as a “beacon of innovation and ingenuity – shining the way for a brighter, greener future for the battery sector in the UK.”

UKBIC is key in supporting the UK’s development of battery technology and developing skills for the transition to a greener future, supporting the wider national electrification agenda.

It plays a key role in the UK government’s Faraday Battery Challenge (FBC), a national UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) led programme to bring together research, development and scale-up, including supply chain and manufacturing development, in order to help organisations seize opportunities presented by the move to a low carbon economy.

Located in Coventry, the publicly-funded facility welcomes manufacturers, entrepreneurs, researchers, and educators, and can be accessed by any organisation scaling up existing or new battery technology towards commercialisation.

The facility has more than £60m worth of specialist industrial-rate manufacturing equipment installed for the benefit of UK industry, who can use it to develop their technologies and workforce towards volume production. It employs a team of more than 100 engineers, technicians and back-office staff, which in turn will help to develop and grow UK battery production skills and knowledge for the industry.

Since first opening its doors in 2021, the gigafactory-relevant facility has already played a crucial role in supporting some low carbon projects that are set to propel the UK’s path to Net Zero by 2050.

Through industrial collaboration, UKBIC has enabled acceleration of opportunities for the most promising mid-stage research and development activities to accelerate scale-up and commercial exploitation.

AMTE Power, a leading battery manufacturer, has a pipeline of lithium-ion and sodium-ion cells in the scale-up phase with UKBIC. This collaboration is supporting the business’ growth plans as it optimises its manufacturing process to deliver mass production volumes that will help electrify homes, industries and vehicles.

AMTE Power’s CEO, Kevin Brundish, said: “Our partnership with UKBIC is a crucial stepping stone as we scale up our cell production rates to large-scale manufacturing levels. Coupled with testing being done at our existing facility in Thurso, it means we can provide greater certainty on cost and reliability of supply. This means getting cells into our customers hands faster – accelerating the energy transition for our core markets in energy storage and automotive. It’s fantastic to be doing this work at a UK-based facility, championing homegrown battery IP and supporting the future of British manufacturing jobs.”

Battery technology pioneer Britishvolt, focused on development of next-generation battery cell technologies and associated research and development, has a two-year contract with UKBIC to further develop and manufacture its high nickel electric vehicle sample cells for mass production at its approved Giga-plant, which is currently being built in Northumberland. With the project already exceeding expectations, Phase One, Go-to-Market, production is set to start at the Cambois site from 2024, unlocking Britain’s potential to catch up with Europe, and Asia, in battery development.

Graham Hoare, president of global operations, Britishvolt, commented: “UKBIC is an essential ingredient in BV’s accelerated roadmap to market, providing a platform and environment that delivers high quality development cells in a time period that would be almost impossible in other territories.”

“Technology proving and scale-up for manufacture, which is being carried out at the UKBIC facility, is crucial to the success of the UK plan and will see the UK maintain the strength of its automotive industry.”

UKBIC
www.ukbic.co.uk