£130m UK Battery Innovation Centre soon to be Operational

The £130 million UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC), a first of its kind battery production development facility in Coventry, will soon be operational.

The pioneering, 18,500 square metre government-funded facility can be accessed by any organisation with existing or new battery technology, if that technology will bring green jobs and prosperity to the UK.

UKBIC – which only had planning permission two years ago – contains £60 million of specialist battery manufacturing equipment.

Its capability allows organisations in the UK to prove whether their promising technologies (from electrode and cell materials through to battery modules and packs) can be manufactured at the required volume, speed, performance and cost to be commercially successful.

The facilities can run several projects at the same time in discrete areas, and also provides opportunities for hands-on training in battery production.

UKBIC currently employs 86 people, including battery technicians, engineers and consultants, with plans for that number to reach 100 to support future project partnerships with industry and research organisations.

The specialist battery manufacturing equipment has been sourced and supplied from leading global manufacturers to ensure it is as good as that currently being installed in gigafactories now under construction.

Jeff Pratt, UKBIC’s Managing Director, said: “Since moving into our new facility earlier this year, we have already begun to welcome manufacturers, entrepreneurs, researchers and educators, albeit in a controlled and socially distanced manner.

“Our battery production development facility can be used by companies working on electric vehicles, rail, aerospace, industrial and domestic equipment and static energy storage, who can benefit by finding out whether their innovations can be scaled up successfully before committing to the huge investment needed for mass production.”

“We and our partners have continued to work on the facility throughout the Covid-19 period. Although we have seen some delays, we have continued to make excellent progress, and are now seeing our first facilities beginning to come on stream.”

UKBIC is a key part of the Faraday Battery Challenge, the major government programme to fast track the development of cost-effective, high-performance, durable, safe, low-weight and recyclable batteries.

Tony Harper, the Industrial Strategy Challenge Director – Faraday Battery Challenge at UK Research and Innovation, said: “I’m delighted that three years after it was just a concept, UKBIC is already on its way to becoming a world-class battery manufacturing facility. It will enable us to deploy battery technology at scale, build new supply chains, and through the combination of Government and industry, help develop cost-effective, high-performance, durable, safe, low-weight and recyclable batteries which will be vital to meet the increasing demand of the global battery market. The facility will help unlock the economic value to the UK of battery development during the country’s transition to a Net Zero economy, and will be made possible through the collaboration of manufacturers, entrepreneurs, researchers, and educators who will use it.”

Professor David Greenwood, CEO WMG centre HVM Catapult and Director for Industrial Engagement added: “UKBIC fills a critical gap in the UK battery development landscape – it provides open access to manufacturing development facilities which would only normally only be found within the confidential operations of a large scale cell manufacturer. This means that universities and companies, large and small, have a way of proving their technology is mass-manufacturable before making the huge investments needed to scale-up for market. Having conceived and incubated UKBIC at WMG (University of Warwick) just a few years ago, we are delighted to see it becoming ready for operation and we look forward to working together to make today’s research into tomorrow’s products”

Nick Abell, chair of the Coventry & Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership (CWLEP) and member of the UKBIC board, said: “Coventry and Warwickshire fought very hard to win UKBIC as we are an international centre of excellence for transport engineering technology and it will play a major part in the UK’s development of battery technology across a range of sectors.