The company behind a 3,000-job battery gigafactory in Northumberland has signed a multimillion-pound deal to develop its next generation of battery cells.
Britishvolt has signed a two-year co-development framework with the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC) which will focus on increased energy density materials to produce and test batteries with greater performance and range.
The link up with Coventry-based UKBIC, a national battery manufacturing development facility providing battery manufacturing scale-up, comes after last week’s announcement that Britishvolt had secured the £1.7bn funding needed to make its plans for a gigafactory near Blyth a reality.
Dr Allan Paterson, chief technical officer at Britishvolt, said: “This is an incredibly exciting achievement, allowing us to successfully scale up our tailormade battery cells, designed specifically for customer requirements.
“The UK ecosystem for battery development has enabled us to get to this stage and we are immensely pleased to announce the relationship with UKBIC that will support our development activities going forward.”
Jeff Pratt, managing director at the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre, said: “We’re delighted to be entering into a two-year, multimillion pound agreement with Britishvolt to develop, assemble and manufacture their next generation sample cells for mass production and commercialisation.
“The manufacture of low carbon battery cells are vital for a successful energy transition to net zero. We are here to support UK companies scaling up their battery production and up skilling their workforce, and we welcome the opportunity to support Britishvolt on their journey.”
Construction of the factory on the former coal yards of the old Blyth power station is set to start in the first quarter of this year, with the aim of producing batteries by the end of 2023.
