A significant step forward for the largest and most ambitious lithium-ion battery plant development in the whole country, Britishvolt, to be based in Cambois, Northumberland, could happen as soon as July if planning is approved, business leaders were told.
North East England Chamber of Commerce members heard Britishvolt Chairman, Peter Rolton, who originally hails from Northumberland, give an update on the plant as well as a detailed history of the project.
He said: “The reason we have chosen Cambois for our battery plant is the unrivalled location. It also has so much infrastructure already in place, subject to getting planning permission, we can move quickly from start up to operational in around four years. This is largely due to the close proximity of a deep-water port, rail tracks and the substantial electricity supply needed to power the plant. When we are up-and-running we will have the largest privately owned sub-station in the whole UK on our site.”
Some preparations have already been undertaken by Britishvolt, investing £1m on site investigations which have shown there are no major contamination problems.
The scale of the building needed for the plant is vast, with 3.4m sq ft of internal space to be constructed, meaning the perimeter will be a total of 1.3 miles.
The entire site will be bigger than 30 St James’ Park football stadiums put together, with the Gigaplant structure itself equivalent to around 50 football pitches.
To deliver the construction there will be a substantial number of jobs created, with up to 2,500 people on site at any one time.
This all lands perfectly into the company’s strict Environmental, Social and Governance framework and drive to create some of the world’s most sustainable lithium-ion batteries, to supply the global auto market on its transition to electrification.
Peter Rolton said the ambition of the business was to use the site to help regenerate the area’s economy as much as possible and ensure the local community has the best possible chance to find high-quality, long-term, employment on the site.
He said: “A battery plant needs a range of skills. We will have clean rooms and dry rooms, so it is not going to be traditional manufacturing as people might think. We have therefore established a training foundation hub to support people to get the skills we will need. It is also important to us that we develop strong connections to schools and there will also be apprenticeship opportunities through our supply chain.”
As part of his presentation he also stressed the importance of sustainability to Britishvolt. He said the company wanted to create a battery that would be as near to zero carbon as possible. As well as the benefit to the environment his belief was that there could be possible tax on the carbon used to create batteries when the Government can no longer generate revenue on petrol cars, due to falling numbers of them.
Running alongside the physical plant Peter Rolton said his team were also extremely involved in developing the chemistry behind the batteries themselves, to ensure they produce the most effective, tailored products for specific OEM requirements.
Development of Britishvolt’s battery cell technologies is being assisted through partnerships with regional universities and the existing wider UK battery infrastructure.
On the subject of demand, Rolton noted that there is potential that even if all battery plants being planned across Europe are actually built there could still be a 25% shortfall in supply. This underscores the importance of Gigaplants on the roadmap to net-zero ambitions.
