‘…helping companies and universities prove out their battery chemistries and cell designs, ready for industrialisation ...’
The UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC), located in Coventry, UK, has been opened by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The £130 million facility has been established to support the UK’s development of battery technologies for future electrification. UKBIC’s facilities can be used by any organisation working on batteries for electric vehicles, rail, aerospace, industrial and domestic equipment, and static energy storage. It will allow companies to test whether their technologies can be scaled up successfully before committing to full scale investment required for mass production.
UKBIC has been developed through a partnership between WMG at the University of Warwick, local authorities, and Local Enterprise Partnership. Funding has also come from the Faraday Battery Challenge, through UK Research and Innovation. UKBIC was established during 2018, following a competition led by the Advanced Propulsion Centre, with support from Innovate UK.
Jeff Pratt UKBIC’s Managing Director said that the centre was completed at ‘deliberate speed during the pandemic.’ Pratt added: ‘The importance of the battery sector to the UK economy cannot be underestimated. The Faraday Institution believes that the equivalent of seven large gigafactories will be needed in the UK, and employment in the automotive industry and battery supply chain could grow from 170,000 to 220,000 by 2040.’
David Greenwood, Professor of Advanced Propulsion Systems, WMG at the University of Warwick added: ‘We continue to work closely with UKBIC, with the focus at WMG in helping companies and universities prove out their battery chemistries and cell designs, ready for industrialisation at UKBIC.’
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